Barry Hearn and Ronnie O’Sullivan are among those who are calling for the World Snooker Championships to change location, after being held at Sheffield’s Crucible for 48 consecutive years.
Barry Hearn, the sports promoter who played a huge role in making snooker a mainstream sport, called on Sheffield City Council to build a bigger venue for the event, as a compromise to keep the event in Sheffield.
Shabnam Younus-Jewell, the BBC’s Snooker Correspondent, said: “As soon as you think you mention the World Championship you think of Sheffield, and you think of that iconic Crucible Theatre. It’s got a wonderful history and there are so many people who think it’s the whole home of snooker. People come from all around the world to come to the Crucible.
“From a business point of view. it doesn’t really make sense to have the world championship of a sport in a venue that has less than a thousand seats.
“The reason it has stayed there is because of that history.”
The first World Snooker Championships took place in Birmingham in 1927, and the Crucible first hosted the event in 1977.
Although the Crucible is contracted to host the event until 2027, Younus-Jewell said “it would not be a huge shock” if the event moved elsewhere after this.
“The Crucible has been a great home for it, but everything outgrows its home, and if you want the sport to move forward, then these difficult decisions have to be taken.”
Ronnie O’Sullivan, who has won seven World Championships in the sport and is competing this year, called for the event to be moved away from Sheffield entirely.
He said the facilities at the Crucible were not suitable for the number of people coming to watch, and suggested that the event should be moved to Saudi Arabia or China instead.
The qualifiers are underway at the English Institute of Sport, taking place between 7 April and 17 April.
The tournament will take place between 20 April and 6 May, and the winner will receive £500,000, out of a total prize fund of £2,395,000.
Last year’s tournament saw protests from Just Stop Oil, with one protestor climbing on the table during a match and covering it with orange powder while another attempted to glue themself to the table.
Luca Brecel won the Championships last year for the first time, and hopes to overcome the ‘Crucible curse’, where no-one has won a world championship the year after their first win.
According to Younus-Jewell, O’Sullivan and Judd Trump are going to be the favourites this year.
O’Sullivan has already achieved 8 UK Championships and 8 Masters. Winning this event would be his 8th World Championship, which would make him the first person to win that many World Championships.
Younus-Jewell said: “For him to leave that kind of legacy, everything is going to be riding on that.
“We could also have someone like Luca Brecel, who surprised everyone last year, and just comes to the Crucible and has the tournament of their life.”
