The legendary “Black Ball Final” between Steve Davis and Dennis Taylor in 1985 drew 18 million viewers after midnight, a record that still stands.
Pressure is growing from the Middle and Far East to make the World Snooker Championship a truly global event – which would mean abandoning the theatre, host since 1977. Replacements in China and Saudi Arabia are already being mooted.
Sources involved in negotiations say the relationship between the sport and local authorities is “really healthy and really strong”, although the battle lines have been drawn in public.
“The Crucible’s been a big part of my life and a big part of snooker’s life. But it has to move with the times and someone, whether it’s government or Sheffield, have to come up with a way of showing us that they’re going to treat us with respect and give us the type of facilities we require.
Ronnie O’Sullivan has been one of Sheffield’s more vocal critics (Photo: Getty)
It is not the first time Hearn has criticised the Crucible, which has just 980 seats.
Iranian snooker player Hossein Vafaei complained that the venue “smells really bad” and was becoming dated.
“Forget the history, you want to go somewhere really nice as a player. You walk round the Crucible and it smells really bad.
Sacrilege and madness
They do not speak for the entire player body: Shaun Murphy called it “almost sacrilege for a professional snooker player to be so openly critical of our home”.
”I loved every part of it,” he said.
“There’s a charm about the Crucible that is all part of it. It’s the only tournament where every player, when they walk in there to play over the next few days, will be feeling really, really nervous.”
“As someone who was born and raised in Sheffield, snooker has been a part of my life, for all of my life,” Oliver Coppard, Mayor of South Yorkshire, told The i Paper.
“It’s a fundamental part of our identity, our heritage, and will be a fundamental part of our future.”
Local representatives are desperate to keep snooker in its ‘home’ (Photo: PA)Gill Furness, MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough, called Sheffield “the undisputed home of snooker” and insisted “moving the World Championship from the Crucible would be bad for snooker and bad for Sheffield”.
“The Championship not only puts our thriving sports community on the map, it showcases our wonderful theatres, our world-class universities, and the cultural and social diversity at the heart of Sheffield.”
Saudi events already popular with players
“Snooker historically hasn’t been a big sport in Saudi Arabia,” a well-placed source in snooker with knowledge of the deals done in Saudi Arabia tells The i Paper.
“The format also generally lends itself well to streaming in terms of filling hours on broadcast.”
But Rakan Al-Harthy, the founder and chief executive of Newcastle United shirt sponsor Sela, is a big snooker fan and is believed to have played an influential role in pushing Al-Sheikh to establish the events, the Saudi Arabia Masters and the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship.
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“And once it’s done verbally, it’s kind of done, even though the contract process can drag out and take time.
And that probably explains why O’Sullivan spent at least some of his time preparing for this World Championship by visiting Riyadh.
It is understood that Al-Sheikh relishes the more relaxed atmosphere of the non-ranking tournament where they introduced the “gold ball” to facilitate a 167 maximum break last year, but it seems unlikely that he would say no to the biggest tournament in snooker, if offered.
But they are yet to be convinced that hosting a World Snooker Championship is within their remit.
If not Saudi, then China?
“In China in theory, you could see it more because they’re such big snooker fans.”
“At some UK tournaments, players have criticised the facilities and the treatment of the players, compared to China,” the source adds.
McManus is just one of a number of traditionalists who see beyond that.
“If it moved to somewhere, let’s say Asia, or the Middle East or something, I don’t even think I would watch it, because it wouldn’t be the World Championship for me,” he says.
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