Barry Hearn has once again indicated that the future of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre is in jeopardy.
The World Snooker Tour supremo, who is retired as chairman but still has an active role in the sport’s future behind the scenes, was questioned on the subject in an interview on Monday.
The World Snooker Championship is contracted to remain at the Crucible Theatre until 2027, which will mark the 50th anniversary of the tournament in Sheffield.
Opinion is divided as to what should happen beyond that, with several fans pining for things to remain the same, to uphold tradition, and for Crucible’s intimate setting to remain intact.
Others believe that the venue, which boasts less than 1,000 seats and is curtailed in its options to be renovated, isn’t suitable to stage a global sport’s pinnacle event any more, but that the tournament should remain in snooker’s spiritual home of Sheffield.
And then there are many who think that it’s time for the game to take advantage of lucrative opportunities that are available elsewhere around the world.
To that point, China and especially Saudi Arabia have been rumoured to have expressed an interest in hosting the World Championship beyond 2027.
Eye-watering money has started to funnel in from the latter this year with Judd Trump pocketing a record-equalling £500,000 top prize at the controversial Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters earlier this season.
China, of course, has invested heavily in the sport for the best part of two decades with several ranking and invitational events already on the annual calendar.
Barry Hearn has repeatedly put pressure on Sheffield City Council to come up with a solution to the World Championship problem, but so far nothing has been resolved.
When pressed on the topic, the 76 year-old admitted again that big changes could be afoot.
“It’s more than realistic,” Barry Hearn said on talkSPORT Breakfast with Jeff Stelling about the possibility of the World Snooker Championship leaving the Crucible Theatre.
“We deal in the money world, and I’ve got to push prize money up and up and up to keep the players happy.
“If I don’t do it, someone else will do it. I hate competition, I don’t like competition. I want to own things that make sense for everybody.
“So if the Crucible holds somewhere around 900 seats for sale. I could sell three or four-thousand seats a session.
“Work it out over the 17 days at the World Championship, it’s a lot of money to put back into the prize money. It works with darts as well.
“Both the snooker and the darts [World Championships] have got roughly £2.5 million prize money with £500,000 going to the winner. I have got to double that very, very quickly – especially on the darts, I’ve got to double it.
“So watch this space, but it’s going to be £1 million for the winner very, very soon because it has to be.
“Otherwise people will turn their attention away or someone else will come up and say, ‘I’ll put £1 million up’.
“Of course [it could go to Saudi Arabia]. It’s very straightforward. I mean we do events in Saudi now, and they’re getting bigger.
“There’s still not the crowd and not the atmosphere – I understand all that. But instead of me selling the Crucible out and making £3.5 or £3.7 million on gate, I can get a £20 million site fee from Saudi.
“If I get a £20 million site fee, I can double, I can treble the prize money. All the players say ‘oh, we love the Crucible, we don’t want to leave’.
“I’ll tell you what I’m going to do, I’m going to treble the prize money and we’re gone straight away. We’re led by money, let’s not kid ourselves.”
The 2025 World Snooker Championship will run from April 19th to May 5th at the Crucible Theatre, with Kyren Wilson as the defending champion.
Featured photo credit: WST
That would be wonderfull, a snooker world championship with 34 paying spectators. In a 3000 seater arena. In a awful country. I will not watch it. Thanks Barry!
What I don’t like about Hearn’s stance on this issue is he knows full well that the Crucible can’t be renovated and that Sheffield council wouldn’t have the funds or the time to build a new venue. It makes me wonder why he doesn’t just announce we’re leaving. Dave Hendon has said on the Snooker Scene podcast that’s there no offer currently on the table from the Saudis.
The demand for 17 days even at bigger venue in the UK would not reach 3,000 sellouts every day. Another reason why I’d be loathed to leave the Crucible is the likelihood of the tournament being reduced in length and not offering the proper examination that all champions of the Crucible era have passed.
2027 will mark the 50th anniversary of the World Championship at The Crucible and the centenary anniversary of the first World Championship. If the Crucible is going to lose the tournament (as seems almost certain.) it’s a fitting date for it, and a potent date for a change in the sport as a whole.
There have been World Championships hosted outside the UK in the pre-modern days of competitive snooker and it seems almost as certain to me that a non-UK venue would be signed to replace The Crucible, as it is that it will indeed leave there. That’s what Barry Hearn seems to be laying the groundwork for: he wants to talk about The Crucible and money because that’s the crux of taking the World Championship elsewhere; the size and state of the venue are indeed factors as well, but money is the main driver. Hence his current language as I see it. He doesn’t want to talk about the Crucible’s physical limitations because that could be a 50/50 discussion between the pros and cons of staying. He wants a clean and clear break for the future financial position of the sport, with growth in Asian markets the target.
Then he should announce it rather than pretend Sheffield has the capacity to do something about his demands.