There are only four months left until the players return to the Crucible Theatre for the 2025 World Snooker Championship.
Kyren Wilson will be back as the defending champion having got his hands on the sport’s blue-riband trophy for the first time in May.
The Kettering cueist will be joined by his fellow top 16 members and an additional 16 qualifiers who manage to make it through the exhilarating preliminary competition in Sheffield.
But a new edition of the World Snooker Championship will inevitably reignite the debate surrounding the future of its venue, the Crucible Theatre.
Every World Championship since 1977 has been held at the iconic stage, but the current contract to remain there expires in 2027.
There has been ongoing speculation and rumours as to where snooker’s biggest tournament might end up beyond that.
Many insist that the World Snooker Championship should always stay within the intimate setting of the Crucible, which has created many of the game’s most historic moments.
There are others, however, who believe that the high-profile tournament has outgrown a venue that is limited in size and potential.
Other venues in the UK, across mainland Europe, and notably into Saudi Arabia and China have been touted as potential future destinations.
It is undoubtedly the hottest topic in snooker at the moment, and opinions from fans and players alike are constantly driving debate.
Elliot Slessor, a semi-finalist at the recent Northern Ireland Open, believes something has to change in order to improve the prize fund for players up and down the rankings.
“I might upset some people here, but I’ll tell you a spade’s a spade, and I like to tell you the truth,” world number 30 Elliot Slessor said on The Snooker Hall Podcast.
“I’ve played there twice. Obviously, it’s an iconic venue. But in the grand scheme of things, they are on about making it a global sport and growing the game.”
“Fair enough to keep it at the Crucible if you put the prize money up. But the prize money has stayed the same the last eight years for qualifying.
“That doesn’t seem like a growing game to me. That’s the pinnacle, that’s the Everest of your sport.
“You’ve got other countries that are rumoured to be giving millions to the winner.
“I’m not being funny, but I’m going to do some maths for you. The winner this year got ยฃ500,000.
“He’s got tax out of that, he’s got 2.5% to World Snooker out of that, he might also have to pay a coach or a manager or something out of that.
“So let’s say he takes ยฃ300-350,000 out of that. You can’t even buy a nice house in London for that.
“And that’s the Everest of the game. You’ve climbed the biggest stage, done every person’s childhood dream, and you’re not a millionaire out of it.
“That blows my brains. Considering if that’s the pinnacle of the sport in a game as big as snooker, you should be a millionaire, in my opinion.
“In the other countries that are offering to put this on, the figures I’m hearing through other players is that they are on about making it millions for the winner.
“So don’t get us wrong. I’ve no problem with it staying at the Crucible, but the prize money has to stack up. It can’t stay the same.
“But I also feel sorry for people missing out on it as well, because I think it only seats 985 or something – just less than 1,000.
“There are a lot of people who want to watch it, and there’s nowhere to build on top of it.
“I understand the history, but history doesn’t pay bills. It simply doesn’t pay bills.
“If the lads further down are qualifying and getting ยฃ20,000, and they take it Saudi or Shanghai or wherever it may be, and it’s ยฃ100,000 for qualifying, I think it’s going to sell itself.
“From what Barry [Hearn] says, he wants the game to grow. I think it’ll be a matter of time before it leaves the Crucible in my opinion.”
The 2025 World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre is scheduled for April 19th to May 5th next year.
Featured photo credit: WST
The question is if an Saudi World Championship wil have any, if any, of the atmosphere and numbers of spectators the Crucible has. And if not,what will that do for the long future of the sport. Dave Hendon already stated more than once that the Saudies didn’t ever put out an offer.
Maybe a new place in the UK will be a better idea.
Yes, a Saudi World Championship would be a terrible show, because of the lack of crowds. Perhaps in 10 years from now (when the current Saudi deal expires), things might have changed, but certainly not by 2028.
I’ve changed my opinion about the best way forward. I had thought that a top-class UK venue was preferable, at least until the finances are there for 144 players to travel abroad – I don’t like the idea for qualifier rounds to be played in February. Earlier this year I was in Yushan for the World Open, and was hearing about the expanding Heyball circuit, and approaches made to a number of Chinese snooker players to cross-over. The Heyball tournaments have crowd sizes in the thousands, higher prizemoney, and is home to the Chinese players but with the potential for international growth. Cao Yupeng has already ‘defected’ and recently got ยฃ70000 for winning a tournament in Leshan (more than he has ever won in snooker). I was beginning to think a China option would be a very shrewd move to give Chinese snooker new impetus, with Ding ageing and winless. If we lost China then we really would be reduced to second-rate tournaments in the UK, ageing top players, and Saudi Arabia. Chinese snooker tournaments are magnificent, at a much grander scale than anything in the UK except possibly the Masters.
However, the success this season of a number of newer Chinese players (including at this week’s Scottish open), makes me feel a bit more confident about the status of snooker in China. That reignites the UK option.
But I do think it’s important to have an active debate about snooker’s long-term future. If we sleepwalk, then one day in the next couple of years we’ll suddenly wake up to a Barry Hearn announcement: “World Championship has gone to the highest bidder…”.
The Crucible debate always misses an important element, the fans. How big an auditorium do some players think there should be? How far away from the table can you place a seat and ask people to pay for a distant view? I notice that when watching on TV, even in small venues a lot of the audience are craning their necks to watch shots on a TV monitor. I’ve watched snooker both live and on TV for some 50 years and the latter wins hands down.
It’s a hot topic but one that is also getting tiresome as we’re not hearing anything different on the topic. Hearn is constantly being disingenuous with his goading of Sheffield building him a bigger venue. He knows full well that Sheffield Council hasn’t got the money or the time to meet those needs by 2027.
Dave Hendon is a voice I trust in this sport. His comments about no offer on the table could do with being mentioned in some of these articles that feature in many sources about this debate.
There’s more to the World Championship’s prestige than just the money. The history is a factor but also the format. The long matches separate it from any other tournament on the calendar. This format could be erased if we see it move abroad.
Well at least we can agree on something! Yes, the World Championship format should be best-of-10’s, up to best-of-35’s for the final, as it is now. Fortunately, The qualifiers were reinstated back from a 2-year flirtation with best-of-11’s.
And I will travel to Sheffield for the next WC next year from the Netherlands. I will never ever travel to SA.
I won’t be the only one.
The Chinese events are impressive but crowds have only been huge since the pandemic break. There’s no question the players get treated incredibly well. I don’t agree the Barbican and the Crucible are not great venues though. It’s not all about size when assessing the quality of a venue. The Crucible being a theatre lends itself to a natural intimacy and tension that can get lost within a larger venue.
The Saudis shouldn’t be an option until we see genuine change in that country on their human rights record. My heart sank when it was officially confirmed the 2034 World Cup will be hosted there.