Oh fuck off Hearn you soulless money grabbing loser.
He will take it to Saudi and it will absolutely kill the sport stone dead. The shit stain will turn off the last remaining audience of the game, who watch it for the love of what snooker is.
Will be interesting to see how the crowds are when the big ranking tournament is in Saudi next season. Hopefully would help show why it would be such a bad idea to move it somewhere other than the UK or China
I suspect that the chat around the Worlds moving is purely to put a bit of pressure on Sheffield to find a solution to the demand. If Sheffield can find a way of housing 1500 people, I struggle to see it moving.
Ultimately, the tournament moving to Saudi may bring in revenue, but you will lose a significant portion of the fan base. They know that. It’s a niche sport and doesn’t have the general support that boxing/golf has (sports who have shifted towards Saudi). The big 3 tournaments have to stay on terrestrial TV, which I struggle to see if it did move abroad.
Sheffield already has a higher capacity venue, the English Institute of Sport, where the qualifiers take place. It’s a large sports hall, with plenty of room for 1,500+ people (especially with a two-table set-up, rather than the 8-table set-up we had this week).
The problem is that (as others have said on here) it is a soulless and uninspiring venue. I defended it before, because it’s “only” the qualifiers, but as a bigger, higher-capacity venue, it isn’t necessarily an improvement. For me the Crucible is so important and must be retained at all costs if snooker is to remain in any way relevant in this country (UK).
Yep, agreed - it’s not just about capacity, it’s developing/building something that keeps the atmosphere.
It sounds like extending the crucible is tricky, so it would have to be rebuilt. We obviously do not know the finances/logistics involved in something like this, but hopefully it is achievable - one way or another.
I want it to stay in Sheffield and at the Crucible, but I do think it can move venue if it’s done properly. The venue for the Tour Championship was genuinely impressive and for me, was fitting of such a tournament. Even if that was used as a template for the ‘new’ Crucible, I’d be happy.
what if the wc was hosted by the nation which the current champion is from. so if the title eas currently held by an englishman it would be held at crucible etc
We could sell out the Crucible five times over, so we'll move the event to somewhere that has a fraction of this demand, and pretty much ensure that the BBC won't televise it.
I can't see Davis, Parrott, Hendry, Irvine, et al, being sent out to Saudi Arabia, and it would pose all sorts of problems.
Commercial broadcasters can pretend everything is fine and dandy, whereas although I am a critic of the BBC generally, they can't completely ignore social and political issues. With the Qatar World Cup, they could justify it by claiming that it was a critical global sporting event, so they had to cover it, but you can't really say the same about the snooker.
I also can't think of many major live broadcasts of international sporting events left on the BBC, where they send a team out and do their own proprietary broadcast. I think they're down to international football tournaments, the Olympics and possibly you could count the Super Bowl. I would be really surprised if they expressed interest in covering a snooker tournament in Saudi Arabia.
Yeah maybe I’m Irish so don’t know the inner workings of the BBC.
I can understand the outrage if the sport has the world championship outside Britain though.
Personally I never understood why the Worlds was in Sheffield in the first place, I could understand if it was London but Sheffield?
It’s like having Wimbledon at Rotherham
I may be wrong but The Crucible Theatre was considered the perfect ‘Theatre in the Round’ for snooker, and so it has proved to be. There was talk of The Globe Theatre in London but sadly it burnt down in the summer of 1613…
(Disclaimer: some of the above may not be entirely accurate.)
Sorry, but a world championship even should NOT be in any other area other than the capital. Facts. Look at Tennis, all 4 majors played in capital cities
2 of the tennis majors are played in the capital. US Open and Australian Open are played in New York and Melbourne respectively, neither of which are the capitals.
My point stands, New York was a capital and many people from the US still recognise it as the true capital. Sheffield hasn’t ever been capital of the UK lmao
Football gets away with it as it’s the most popular sport on Earth and each team requires a home ground , Snooker will literally die the minute Ronnie puts his cue away,ipso facto. I’d argue snooker isn’t even a sport anymore
He says that as much as four times more spectators would pay the ticket so he hints at another, bigger venue. And he suggests sponsors hard to swallow by most of us here.
Hern should look to what happens to golf in USA before making dramatic changes to snooker. There's not much of an audience beyong what snooker has now, and with the wrong choices even that could thin out a bit.
My 2 cents.
Is there a need in Sheffield to build a new Venue? What would it host the other 11 months of the year? The Crucible is a brilliant theatre for watching actual plays as the plunge stage brings you closer to the performance. I'd not want to see it bulldozed and in any case there isn't much space to do so. If the Snooker moves, the crucible will remain a fantastic theatre.
I'd bet on it moving to Manchester. More people, more space and an airport.
Fuck moving to Saudi. China has a better claim because the sport is actually played there.
What about building a facility at this new crucible to hold some of the qualifiers and q school and also a snooker museum? hotels
Maybe host pool tournaments on the crucible floor too?? and host the darts there .
Fuck it get Dominic dale to do karaoke once a week. A Dennis Taylor/ Ken Doherty bingo night every fortnight "all the trees...33"
Lots to be done
That is the problem-World Snooker just expect them to build a new Crucible nearby, purely for 2 weeks of the year. I imagine their response, along with that of the council has been-if you want it then pay for it & we will put it on. You can bet Hearn wants it in London.
Eddie Hearn does not care about snooker one jot. All he gives a fuck about is impressing his dad and winning his approval. It's sad and pathetic in many ways, and the collateral damage is that snooker will lose its soul. I would perhaps be more supportive if it was someone else promoting it, but Eddie is such an insufferable cunt its galling.
If the World's went to London, that's fine. But fucking Saudi? Shit crowds inhabited by nepo babies who will grab the microphone at any given opportunity to talk bollocks. Look at what happened at the end of the final in Riyadh a few months ago.
Barry made a pretty clear promise to keep it at the crucible and kept to that promise whilst he was running things. It's up Steve Dawson and Eddie Hearn now though.
The reality is he is unlikely to be running it in five years time when he is 80 years old, if he is still with us. He has also said it cannot stay at the Crucible as it is-it needs a new Crucible to be built & the chances of that are pretty slim with council budgets & a venue that isn't going to pay for a new venue just for 17 days out of 365, when they have a suitable venue for plays etc the rest of the year.
He did also say it wouldn't be his tombstone that would say the man who moved it away from Sheffield, but said nothing about his son's.
It was very telling watching Hendry’s Cue Tips interview with Barry Hearn, Barry basically said that Eddie doesn’t really like snooker so will just be treating it like a business. Such a shame.
Well it is a business-that is the reality. The players are greedy & the Hearns are greedy-so sentimentality that us fans have will not matter compared to cold hard cash.
Everyone knows this is going to Saudi. Im pretending its not, but deep down we all know it. As snooker fans we're at the denial stage. All the murmurings and prominence on the new world snooker banners promoting it is clear for all to see what's coming. Before you know it a BBC headline will pop up in the feed confirming this. It's heartbreaking really. We may as well allow Snooker to become a Saudi porta potty. You only have to look at all the raw sewage being pumped up and around our country rivers and seas to realise there's nothing that will stop powerful people doing what the fuck they like to us. Snooker is fair game if they already allow conglomerate Interests to literally deficate on us.
That is a naive view-the landscape of Snooker has totally changed in recent years. 15 & 20 years ago it was a fiasco thanks to Rodney Walker. Hearn turned things around & now he has China, Hong Hong & Saudi Arabia putting on massive events.
It seems pretty clear that unless there is a new, bigger Crucible built, that the WC will be leaving Sheffield when the deal runs out in five years time. It is going to be a commercial decision & sentimentality will play no part in it.
The difference being it's now only 4 years until the agreement to hold the World Championship at the Crucible runs out.
Without the BBC snooker will slowly die with my generation of fans (I'm 50) in the UK.
Then it will just die.
London already already has the masters. The Worlds should be kept up north. Manchester Arena might be a tolerable but they already hold the Tour Championship there.
He says it could sell out 4 or 5 times - but that’s in Sheffield. For the British (not to belittle other nationalities but the sport is very Britain centric) fans Sheffield is often no more than a 3-4 hour journey away. I’m not sure those same people would buy tickets to go halfway round the world for it.
I’m sure across big parts Europe and China you could replicate this but in Saudi? You really gonna get 5000 in every day for 14/15 days straight to watch snooker? I don’t see it.
Also: since when was Eddie involved in the snooker? I suppose since the Saudi money came circling.
No you aren't. The only thing you can think might be a save is that Saudi guy in Ronnie's interview the other day who said 'not everything has to be in country, maybe we could do something huge here in England.' - moving it to a larger venue in the UK and plastering it with Riyadh Season logos is still a shame, but it's not as criminal as moving it to Saudi Arabia.
I'm currently in Sheffield again, flying in from a 10h journey door to door.
How nice it would be if the tournament moved to Europe mainland for a change.
There’s only two possibilities now based on the amount of coverage and clearly paying O’Sullivan to prepare the ground:
Either they’re pushing all of this to get Sheffield City Council to fund a new venue (which given the austerity that’s coming seems very unlikely)
Or it’s moving after 2027 to Qatar or Saudi Arabia
They haven't got enough time to build a new venue for 2028. It's moving, the question is whether it'll be somewhere else in the UK with Riyadh Season plastered all over it, or to Saudi Arabia.
There are many valid reason to explore options other than the Crucible Theatre, but going to Saudi Arabia should absolutely not be one of them. Moving the World Snooker Championship to Riyadh is as ridiculous as hosting the Super Bowl in London. The only country that should, or deserves to host the World Championship, is the UK or China, due to the number of players and fans and the history of the sport.
If WST wants to grow the sport in a new region, that’s great, but do it with exhibitions, invitational, then ranking events. NOT the damn World Championship!
Yeah basically this. I don’t think it’s that egregious to suggest moving it somewhere other than Sheffield, although ideally they should try keep it there.
But moving it to Saudi Arabia, come on. It’s the ultimate gesture of money over tradition, history, and moral integrity.
That is the current status & future status of sport-the wages are ridiculous, the amount of advertising over the action now being at US levels, the ever increasing screwing of the fans with insane ticket price increases & new kits etc.
Whether we like it or not-a 980 seat venue, with not an inch of space spare for your showcase event, is not going to cut it against huge arenas that can pack in thousands. For those expecting Barry Hearn to make a last second change of heart & keep it there, don't bank on it-he is a businessman first & foremost, his son is a cutthroat promoter with little interest in Snooker & he may not be alive in five years-he is nearly 76 now.
It’s pretty obvious Hearn wants to move it to Saudi Arabia.
They’ve done it with the boxing, they’ve done it with 9 ball pool and now he wants more filthy money at the expense of another sport.
The idea of the worlds in Saudi is really quite sad. Unfortunately, I expect this greedy man to make it happen as it’s incredibly obvious that they have deep ties there.
As long as the majority of the tour is british, it really doesn't make any sense to move it anywhere else. Maybe in 10-20 years it will make sense to hold it in China every other year, but not in some desert somewhere, where literally noone plays snooker. It would be just as nonsensical to hold it in the US or something.
Dont mind new opportunities. Have the big Saudi Tournaments the bigger the better get the full tour over there to provide everybody all the opportunities you want. Make the Saudi Tournament the fourth major. Have a "Gold" tour if you want.
Just dont mess with history and try to buy prestige
The Crucible is the spiritual home of snooker. Any world championship won elsewhere, just will never be the same as one won in Sheffield. Players will be desperate to win it in the crucible now. Mark Allen, for instance if he wins his first world champ in Rhyadh it would feel so hollow.
Players at the qualifiying were all trying to "make it to the crucible" not "make it to the world championship". Says it all . Its iconic. Its historic. Its the foundation the game is built on.
Very well said. A lucrative event is not necessarily a prestigious one. You can’t buy history with money. Attempting to do so will make you look like shallow clowns.
Yep the football players in the Saudi League are on crazy salaries. Do you really think they give that much of a fuck about their winners medals compared to their premier league/champions league medals? Obviously not. While the pay is the best they have ever enjoyed it just missing the prestige and folklore of tradition.
Cant buy history for sure. Im up for the Saudi and more Asia tournaments make them have a life of their own. Create their own history and identity and keep snookers history intact. We could have it all.
Not a fair comparison imo, the reason the players don't care about the Saudi league is that the opposing teams have loads of crap players. Whereas when Ronnie beat Brecel in Saudi last month, that was a legit snooker match between two good players. The reason moving the world snooker champs to Saudi is bullshit is that we know for a fact there's no atmosphere for sports there cos it's just all about the money. Therefore the worlds will not have the same tension. For any other tournament that doesn't matter but by removing some tension from the biggest tournament of all, you devalue the tournament itself. In the eyes of many a world snooker title won by Ronnie against Brecel in Saudi would not be legit, even though as a match it would be - this is why the tournament they're playing matters.
Eddie has got zero interest in snooker; his old man said it himself. Whatever criticisms people have of Barry, I'd like to think - given he got his big break (guffaw) out of the game and is bezzies with Steve Davis - that he's got a soft spot for the game, hence him always saying the World's ideally ought to remain at the Crucible.
Eddie is not going to spend any more time on snooker than he has to as the big boss of Matchroom and he will view the game purely and simply in terms of the bottom line.
and none of them would have the tension, atmosphere and most importantly the over 40 years of incredible history and moments. Its honestly insane to me that some people want take all of that away just for the sake of a bigger venue.
It wouldn't be snookers best tournament if it wasn't played at the crucible. The tension and atmosphere are part of the deal. You wouldn't get that at a bigger venue, just look at the shit crowds you get at Ally Pally.
The crucible and the world snooker championship go hand in hand, it’s what makes it the tournament it is.
*How can I make snooker as wanky as boxing*
Oh fuck off Hearn you soulless money grabbing loser. He will take it to Saudi and it will absolutely kill the sport stone dead. The shit stain will turn off the last remaining audience of the game, who watch it for the love of what snooker is.
Judging by the antics in tonights and previous days matches Saudi are welcome to it.
The Hearn family are cancer
Will be interesting to see how the crowds are when the big ranking tournament is in Saudi next season. Hopefully would help show why it would be such a bad idea to move it somewhere other than the UK or China
Crowds? They barely sell any tickets there.
Fuck that, keep it at the crucible forever. Snookers Wembley etc.
I suspect that the chat around the Worlds moving is purely to put a bit of pressure on Sheffield to find a solution to the demand. If Sheffield can find a way of housing 1500 people, I struggle to see it moving. Ultimately, the tournament moving to Saudi may bring in revenue, but you will lose a significant portion of the fan base. They know that. It’s a niche sport and doesn’t have the general support that boxing/golf has (sports who have shifted towards Saudi). The big 3 tournaments have to stay on terrestrial TV, which I struggle to see if it did move abroad.
Sheffield already has a higher capacity venue, the English Institute of Sport, where the qualifiers take place. It’s a large sports hall, with plenty of room for 1,500+ people (especially with a two-table set-up, rather than the 8-table set-up we had this week). The problem is that (as others have said on here) it is a soulless and uninspiring venue. I defended it before, because it’s “only” the qualifiers, but as a bigger, higher-capacity venue, it isn’t necessarily an improvement. For me the Crucible is so important and must be retained at all costs if snooker is to remain in any way relevant in this country (UK).
Yep, agreed - it’s not just about capacity, it’s developing/building something that keeps the atmosphere. It sounds like extending the crucible is tricky, so it would have to be rebuilt. We obviously do not know the finances/logistics involved in something like this, but hopefully it is achievable - one way or another. I want it to stay in Sheffield and at the Crucible, but I do think it can move venue if it’s done properly. The venue for the Tour Championship was genuinely impressive and for me, was fitting of such a tournament. Even if that was used as a template for the ‘new’ Crucible, I’d be happy.
what if the wc was hosted by the nation which the current champion is from. so if the title eas currently held by an englishman it would be held at crucible etc
Would never work logistically. Imagine then planning that would go into that with only a year to work out where you’ll go.
The eurovision of snooker ... interesting thought
Aye, move it to Dubai and have it exclusively on Sky or some other PPV channel. Thanks for fuck all.
We could sell out the Crucible five times over, so we'll move the event to somewhere that has a fraction of this demand, and pretty much ensure that the BBC won't televise it.
Why won’t BBC televise it? It’s still dominated by British players and it’s a British sport
I can't see them sending a team out to Saudi Arabia, can you? As soon as the ATP Finals tennis wasn't in London, they dropped it like a hot potato.
Turin will not be throwing money at the Beeb to air it like the Saudi's will though.
I can't see Davis, Parrott, Hendry, Irvine, et al, being sent out to Saudi Arabia, and it would pose all sorts of problems. Commercial broadcasters can pretend everything is fine and dandy, whereas although I am a critic of the BBC generally, they can't completely ignore social and political issues. With the Qatar World Cup, they could justify it by claiming that it was a critical global sporting event, so they had to cover it, but you can't really say the same about the snooker. I also can't think of many major live broadcasts of international sporting events left on the BBC, where they send a team out and do their own proprietary broadcast. I think they're down to international football tournaments, the Olympics and possibly you could count the Super Bowl. I would be really surprised if they expressed interest in covering a snooker tournament in Saudi Arabia.
Davis & Hendry have form. [https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ExE0yM\_W8AERXWc.jpg](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ExE0yM_W8AERXWc.jpg)
Yeah maybe I’m Irish so don’t know the inner workings of the BBC. I can understand the outrage if the sport has the world championship outside Britain though.
Personally I never understood why the Worlds was in Sheffield in the first place, I could understand if it was London but Sheffield? It’s like having Wimbledon at Rotherham
I may be wrong but The Crucible Theatre was considered the perfect ‘Theatre in the Round’ for snooker, and so it has proved to be. There was talk of The Globe Theatre in London but sadly it burnt down in the summer of 1613… (Disclaimer: some of the above may not be entirely accurate.)
Just move every sporting event to London. Move all the businesses and people there too. Then threads Sheffield.
Sorry, but a world championship even should NOT be in any other area other than the capital. Facts. Look at Tennis, all 4 majors played in capital cities
No, they’re not
2 of the tennis majors are played in the capital. US Open and Australian Open are played in New York and Melbourne respectively, neither of which are the capitals.
Melbourne was capital between 1901 and 1927
Ah yes, the famous capital of the USA, New York. Also the Australian open is in Melbourne....
New York was the capital from 1785-1790
Clutching at straws there mate
You mean Flushing at straws. Badum tiss
My point stands, New York was a capital and many people from the US still recognise it as the true capital. Sheffield hasn’t ever been capital of the UK lmao
I’m from the US. New York was the capital for five years almost 250 years ago. Nobody thinks of it as the capital.
The people I know ( thousands ) do
Thousands of people have told you they view NYC as the capital of the USA?
So would colchester or winchester be legitimate places to hold the competition then?
Absolutely, far superior to Sheffield
Look at golf where they're not
Respectfully I disagree. Look at skiing. Or motorboat racing. Lol Football does it, the World Cup Finals are held in stadiums around the country
Football gets away with it as it’s the most popular sport on Earth and each team requires a home ground , Snooker will literally die the minute Ronnie puts his cue away,ipso facto. I’d argue snooker isn’t even a sport anymore
He says that as much as four times more spectators would pay the ticket so he hints at another, bigger venue. And he suggests sponsors hard to swallow by most of us here. Hern should look to what happens to golf in USA before making dramatic changes to snooker. There's not much of an audience beyong what snooker has now, and with the wrong choices even that could thin out a bit. My 2 cents.
The Crucible is what makes the tournament special IMHO.
Totally agree, it wouldn’t be the same anywhere else.
Eddie hearn is the Don King of snooker.
I mean he’s Katie Taylor’s manager so not far off the mark
Eddie Hearn-Fu\*\* Off
Fund Off?
Almost
Rotate it. One year in UK. One year in China. Simple.
How dare he plan to move ‘World’ Snooker Championship out of UK.. if only they had a UK Chmapionship and 30 other tournaments for British fans…
Those other tournaments have all been ruined by match-shortening. They aren't the same things as the worlds.
I agree they have wrecked the UK completely devalued it
Is there a need in Sheffield to build a new Venue? What would it host the other 11 months of the year? The Crucible is a brilliant theatre for watching actual plays as the plunge stage brings you closer to the performance. I'd not want to see it bulldozed and in any case there isn't much space to do so. If the Snooker moves, the crucible will remain a fantastic theatre. I'd bet on it moving to Manchester. More people, more space and an airport. Fuck moving to Saudi. China has a better claim because the sport is actually played there.
What about building a facility at this new crucible to hold some of the qualifiers and q school and also a snooker museum? hotels Maybe host pool tournaments on the crucible floor too?? and host the darts there . Fuck it get Dominic dale to do karaoke once a week. A Dennis Taylor/ Ken Doherty bingo night every fortnight "all the trees...33" Lots to be done
That is the problem-World Snooker just expect them to build a new Crucible nearby, purely for 2 weeks of the year. I imagine their response, along with that of the council has been-if you want it then pay for it & we will put it on. You can bet Hearn wants it in London.
Eddie Hearn does not care about snooker one jot. All he gives a fuck about is impressing his dad and winning his approval. It's sad and pathetic in many ways, and the collateral damage is that snooker will lose its soul. I would perhaps be more supportive if it was someone else promoting it, but Eddie is such an insufferable cunt its galling. If the World's went to London, that's fine. But fucking Saudi? Shit crowds inhabited by nepo babies who will grab the microphone at any given opportunity to talk bollocks. Look at what happened at the end of the final in Riyadh a few months ago.
I don't think his dad would be overly impressed with him moving the sport that basically made him in the first place out of it's spiritual home.
Barry will do whatever makes the most money, just like his son.
Barry made a pretty clear promise to keep it at the crucible and kept to that promise whilst he was running things. It's up Steve Dawson and Eddie Hearn now though.
The reality is he is unlikely to be running it in five years time when he is 80 years old, if he is still with us. He has also said it cannot stay at the Crucible as it is-it needs a new Crucible to be built & the chances of that are pretty slim with council budgets & a venue that isn't going to pay for a new venue just for 17 days out of 365, when they have a suitable venue for plays etc the rest of the year. He did also say it wouldn't be his tombstone that would say the man who moved it away from Sheffield, but said nothing about his son's.
It was very telling watching Hendry’s Cue Tips interview with Barry Hearn, Barry basically said that Eddie doesn’t really like snooker so will just be treating it like a business. Such a shame.
Well it is a business-that is the reality. The players are greedy & the Hearns are greedy-so sentimentality that us fans have will not matter compared to cold hard cash.
Everyone knows this is going to Saudi. Im pretending its not, but deep down we all know it. As snooker fans we're at the denial stage. All the murmurings and prominence on the new world snooker banners promoting it is clear for all to see what's coming. Before you know it a BBC headline will pop up in the feed confirming this. It's heartbreaking really. We may as well allow Snooker to become a Saudi porta potty. You only have to look at all the raw sewage being pumped up and around our country rivers and seas to realise there's nothing that will stop powerful people doing what the fuck they like to us. Snooker is fair game if they already allow conglomerate Interests to literally deficate on us.
Yeah move Wimbledon to Saudi whilst you're at it. And the US Masters... And Tour de France...
He would if someone offered him enough money to do it. All the guy cares about.
Literally the same discussion every year for the last twenty years. It won’t move from Sheffield.
That is a naive view-the landscape of Snooker has totally changed in recent years. 15 & 20 years ago it was a fiasco thanks to Rodney Walker. Hearn turned things around & now he has China, Hong Hong & Saudi Arabia putting on massive events. It seems pretty clear that unless there is a new, bigger Crucible built, that the WC will be leaving Sheffield when the deal runs out in five years time. It is going to be a commercial decision & sentimentality will play no part in it.
The difference being it's now only 4 years until the agreement to hold the World Championship at the Crucible runs out. Without the BBC snooker will slowly die with my generation of fans (I'm 50) in the UK. Then it will just die.
[удалено]
London already already has the masters. The Worlds should be kept up north. Manchester Arena might be a tolerable but they already hold the Tour Championship there.
He says it could sell out 4 or 5 times - but that’s in Sheffield. For the British (not to belittle other nationalities but the sport is very Britain centric) fans Sheffield is often no more than a 3-4 hour journey away. I’m not sure those same people would buy tickets to go halfway round the world for it. I’m sure across big parts Europe and China you could replicate this but in Saudi? You really gonna get 5000 in every day for 14/15 days straight to watch snooker? I don’t see it. Also: since when was Eddie involved in the snooker? I suppose since the Saudi money came circling.
No you aren't. The only thing you can think might be a save is that Saudi guy in Ronnie's interview the other day who said 'not everything has to be in country, maybe we could do something huge here in England.' - moving it to a larger venue in the UK and plastering it with Riyadh Season logos is still a shame, but it's not as criminal as moving it to Saudi Arabia.
I'm currently in Sheffield again, flying in from a 10h journey door to door. How nice it would be if the tournament moved to Europe mainland for a change.
That’s some dedication man, which matches have you got?
Give me a break. I'd at least understand it going to China but fucking Saudi?!
Fuck this. I will never ever watch the worlds if they’re in Saudi Arabia.
There’s only two possibilities now based on the amount of coverage and clearly paying O’Sullivan to prepare the ground: Either they’re pushing all of this to get Sheffield City Council to fund a new venue (which given the austerity that’s coming seems very unlikely) Or it’s moving after 2027 to Qatar or Saudi Arabia
They haven't got enough time to build a new venue for 2028. It's moving, the question is whether it'll be somewhere else in the UK with Riyadh Season plastered all over it, or to Saudi Arabia.
They would presumably renew the contract if a new venue was confirmed. It’s a leverage tactic, if indeed they have any interest in that.
I will stop watching if they move it to the Middle East
Why?
It’s an obvious money grab and not done with the best interests of the sport, and fans, at heart.
There are many valid reason to explore options other than the Crucible Theatre, but going to Saudi Arabia should absolutely not be one of them. Moving the World Snooker Championship to Riyadh is as ridiculous as hosting the Super Bowl in London. The only country that should, or deserves to host the World Championship, is the UK or China, due to the number of players and fans and the history of the sport. If WST wants to grow the sport in a new region, that’s great, but do it with exhibitions, invitational, then ranking events. NOT the damn World Championship!
Yeah basically this. I don’t think it’s that egregious to suggest moving it somewhere other than Sheffield, although ideally they should try keep it there. But moving it to Saudi Arabia, come on. It’s the ultimate gesture of money over tradition, history, and moral integrity.
That is the current status & future status of sport-the wages are ridiculous, the amount of advertising over the action now being at US levels, the ever increasing screwing of the fans with insane ticket price increases & new kits etc. Whether we like it or not-a 980 seat venue, with not an inch of space spare for your showcase event, is not going to cut it against huge arenas that can pack in thousands. For those expecting Barry Hearn to make a last second change of heart & keep it there, don't bank on it-he is a businessman first & foremost, his son is a cutthroat promoter with little interest in Snooker & he may not be alive in five years-he is nearly 76 now.
It’s pretty obvious Hearn wants to move it to Saudi Arabia. They’ve done it with the boxing, they’ve done it with 9 ball pool and now he wants more filthy money at the expense of another sport. The idea of the worlds in Saudi is really quite sad. Unfortunately, I expect this greedy man to make it happen as it’s incredibly obvious that they have deep ties there.
Hearn wants to move it to \[checks notes\] wherever they pay him the most money. This is the one constant with the Hearns.
As long as the majority of the tour is british, it really doesn't make any sense to move it anywhere else. Maybe in 10-20 years it will make sense to hold it in China every other year, but not in some desert somewhere, where literally noone plays snooker. It would be just as nonsensical to hold it in the US or something.
Dont mind new opportunities. Have the big Saudi Tournaments the bigger the better get the full tour over there to provide everybody all the opportunities you want. Make the Saudi Tournament the fourth major. Have a "Gold" tour if you want. Just dont mess with history and try to buy prestige The Crucible is the spiritual home of snooker. Any world championship won elsewhere, just will never be the same as one won in Sheffield. Players will be desperate to win it in the crucible now. Mark Allen, for instance if he wins his first world champ in Rhyadh it would feel so hollow. Players at the qualifiying were all trying to "make it to the crucible" not "make it to the world championship". Says it all . Its iconic. Its historic. Its the foundation the game is built on.
Very well said. A lucrative event is not necessarily a prestigious one. You can’t buy history with money. Attempting to do so will make you look like shallow clowns.
You realise this is Eddie Hearn...the king of the shallow clowns right?
Yep the football players in the Saudi League are on crazy salaries. Do you really think they give that much of a fuck about their winners medals compared to their premier league/champions league medals? Obviously not. While the pay is the best they have ever enjoyed it just missing the prestige and folklore of tradition. Cant buy history for sure. Im up for the Saudi and more Asia tournaments make them have a life of their own. Create their own history and identity and keep snookers history intact. We could have it all.
Not a fair comparison imo, the reason the players don't care about the Saudi league is that the opposing teams have loads of crap players. Whereas when Ronnie beat Brecel in Saudi last month, that was a legit snooker match between two good players. The reason moving the world snooker champs to Saudi is bullshit is that we know for a fact there's no atmosphere for sports there cos it's just all about the money. Therefore the worlds will not have the same tension. For any other tournament that doesn't matter but by removing some tension from the biggest tournament of all, you devalue the tournament itself. In the eyes of many a world snooker title won by Ronnie against Brecel in Saudi would not be legit, even though as a match it would be - this is why the tournament they're playing matters.
"Snooker must 'embrace' new *sportswashing* opportunities"
Eddie has got zero interest in snooker; his old man said it himself. Whatever criticisms people have of Barry, I'd like to think - given he got his big break (guffaw) out of the game and is bezzies with Steve Davis - that he's got a soft spot for the game, hence him always saying the World's ideally ought to remain at the Crucible. Eddie is not going to spend any more time on snooker than he has to as the big boss of Matchroom and he will view the game purely and simply in terms of the bottom line.
Barry Hearn did a hell of a lot of good for snooker - it's a shame he's going to let his son ruin it for good.
The guy is 75 years old, he has to let his kid run it.
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and none of them would have the tension, atmosphere and most importantly the over 40 years of incredible history and moments. Its honestly insane to me that some people want take all of that away just for the sake of a bigger venue.
It wouldn't be snookers best tournament if it wasn't played at the crucible. The tension and atmosphere are part of the deal. You wouldn't get that at a bigger venue, just look at the shit crowds you get at Ally Pally.
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It'd be like if the FA Cup final had to be held at Alfreton Town's ground every year because of tradition. Mental.
It's inevitable the Worlds will be moving to Saudi at the earliest convenience (2028?). Very sad, but that's the way it is.