There’s suffocating silence within the auditorium as four-time world champion John Higgins makes an attempt to compile a match-winning break.
It has gone 10.30pm on a financial institution vacation Monday, however nobody has left the packed area. The hushed drama is just too fascinating to contemplate an early departure.
A mistimed cough from anybody within the viewers may genuinely influence the match. Higgins requires 100 per cent focus to recover from the successful line and, this being snooker, whole quiet is preferable.
Most noises are frowned upon; coughing boisterously is unacceptable, a sneeze will get you just a few glances, shouting out on the mistaken second, or worse, standing up within the participant’s eye line, will get you thrown out.
If you’ll want to use the bathroom, effectively, maintain it in. A minimum of till the top of a body (which final 10 minutes in the event that they’re fast however might be 30-40 minutes in the event that they get slowed down in a tactical battle) … and also you’re not allowed again in till one other break between frames.
Earlier, a person was scolded for being too noisy together with his sweets. “Cautious with the wrappers there,” the referee stopped to admonish him.
There isn’t very like this in the entire of sport. In reality, there isn’t very like this in snooker, as a result of this specific venue is actually a sporting theatre.
Higgins is 49 years outdated and one of many best gamers to ever decide up a cue, however admitted he was nervous throughout the match and can later cry on tv, overcome by the emotion of successful at a spot he holds so expensive, whereas coping with private household points.
That is the facility of the Crucible Theatre, Sheffield, a sporting venue so intense and so distinctive it actually needs to be visited to be believed. So why on earth is there speak of the World Championship transferring?
It’s a debate that has been held for years. Snooker strikes on, sport strikes on, the world strikes on. Globalisation, low cost air journey, the web, for higher or worse it’s all occurred, however snooker’s World Championship stays rooted deep inside its historical past.
Snooker, which to the uninitiated is principally a grown-up, gentlemanly model of pool (with smaller balls, smaller pockets and a much bigger desk, performed by folks in trousers, shirts, waistcoats and sometimes a bow tie), has historically been nearly solely a British sport performed inside a British sentimentality.
China’s Zhao Xintong performs a shot in opposition to England’s Ronnie O’Sullivan throughout the semi-final on Could 1, 2025 in Sheffield, England. (George Wooden/Getty Photos)
Its important tournaments (additionally the Masters and the UK Championship, held in London and York within the north of England respectively) are proven on conventional public broadcaster the BBC yearly and its fanbase is usually on the older facet of the age spectrum.
Other than just a few forebearers like Canadian Cliff Thorburn (the primary participant to ever rating an ideal 147 break, i.e. potting each single accessible ball on the desk in a single go to — 15 reds, 15 blacks after which the ultimate colors in sequence), James Wattana (Thailand) or Marco Fu (China), snooker has been performed by Brits and watched by Brits, with a excessive level in 1985 when 18.5 million folks tuned into the BBC watch probably the most dramatic remaining within the sport’s historical past when Dennis Taylor beat Steve Davis 18-17 on the ultimate black to win the world title.
For context, that’s greater than a 3rd of all the inhabitants at a time when, coincidentally or not, soccer was at its lowest ebb, beset by hooliganism amid crumbling stadiums and falling attendances (solely 9 English golf equipment averaged greater than 20,000 followers for dwelling matches in 1985, in comparison with 34 final season).
That gave the game reference factors and well-known names for a whole era.
These days, it in all probability sits comfortably under soccer, cricket, rugby and Components One on the UK basic curiosity sport listing and certain tennis, golf and boxing too, however there’s a spike in curiosity round this time of yr for the World Championship, notably if fan favorite Ronnie O’Sullivan is enjoying. Virtually 5 million watched his final world title victory in 2022.
The game, boosted by an enormous improve in curiosity (and participation) from China has unfold its wings within the final couple of many years and now has huge tournaments in China, Hong Kong and, effectively, what sport could be price its salt if it hadn’t additionally expanded into Saudi Arabia?
Two huge competitions at the moment are held there – the Riyadh Season Snooker Championship and the Saudi Arabia Snooker Masters. Attendances are comparatively low however, as with many sports activities in Saudi Arabia, the cash on supply is excessive, with mixed prize funds for the winners of £750,000 ($995,000).
By comparability, the 980-seat Crucible Theatre, the place the World Championship has been held yearly since 1977, is outdated hat, and restrictive in ticket gross sales and due to this fact income and prize cash. The Saudi Masters gives £500,000 ($663,504) to the winner, the identical prize cash on supply on the World Championship.
A basic view as England’s Chris Wakelin enters the sector to play China’s Zhao Xintong throughout the quarter-finals on April 29, 2025 (George Wooden/Getty Photos)
Its corridors are tiny and tight, or charming and cosy, relying in your viewpoint.
“I don’t just like the Crucible,” O’Sullivan, who has a snooker academy in Riyadh, told English newspaper The Sun last year, giving a very forthright viewpoint.
“I feel positively it’s a sensible resolution to take it away from Sheffield. I feel Saudi Arabia could be nice.”
Iranian Hossein Vafaei went, effectively, a bit additional, saying: “Overlook the historical past, you wish to go someplace very nice as a participant. You stroll around the Crucible and it smells actually unhealthy. You go to different nations, and every thing is shiny. However right here it’s utterly totally different.”
Matchroom Sport, owned by Barry Hearn and which has a 51 per cent stake within the World Snooker Tour, desires to broaden, with Hearn last month calling the Crucible’s services “not match for function” and wanted to “transfer with the occasions”.
In November, he had explicitly mooted the Saudi risk for the world championship, saying on BBC Radio 5 live: “As a substitute of me promoting the Crucible out and making £3.5million ($4.64m), £3.7m ($4.90m) on gate, I get a £20m web site charge from Saudi. If I get £20m ($26.50m) from web site charge, I can double, treble the prize cash.”
Matchroom, based by Barry and run by his son Eddie (though Barry nonetheless oversees the snooker facet) are huge gamers in boxing and have utterly revolutionised darts within the UK with greater venues, extra money, walk-on music, dancing women, the lot.
Darts hasn’t gone to Saudi Arabia as a result of, in Barry Hearn’s phrases, they received’t serve alcohol.
However what about snooker? Can it resist the lure of Saudi cash? Or would taking the World Championship from the Crucible lose the essence of what makes it so particular?
“If you happen to’re enjoying badly, it’s the worst place on the earth. If you happen to’re enjoying effectively, it’s the perfect… it’s the epitome of the purity of sport.”
Stephen Hendry is aware of this place higher than anybody. An iconic determine in snooker and in British sport, the Scot lifted the trophy on seven events (the joint highest with O’Sullivan), appeared right here for 27 years in a row, from 1986 to 2012, and continues to be again yearly as one of many BBC’s lead commentators.
“The actual fact it’s a theatre, with a low ceiling, tight seating, it provides you one thing you’ll be able to’t replicate in a much bigger venue,” he tells The Athletic. “It’s intimate. Persons are on prime of you, the environment is on prime of you.
“It does appear inevitable that it’ll go away, which for me could be a catastrophe for the World Championship. Catastrophe is perhaps a bit robust however it could simply by no means be the identical.
“I perceive the monetary causes. I simply suppose there are one other 11 months within the yr and so many different tournaments they will make as huge as they presumably can and make as a lot cash as they presumably can, and go away the World Championship as a pure snooker problem.
“It’s a singular expertise. Individuals everywhere in the world ask me for tickets, though you’ll be able to’t get them as a result of it sells out immediately.”
Stephen Hendry has received the world title a record-equalling seven occasions (Mike Cooper/ALLSPORT by way of Getty)
Hendry considers {that a} compromise might be having the match on rotation, just like how The Open in golf rotates round UK venues after which will get the most important buzz when it returns to its religious dwelling of St Andrew’s in Scotland.
“That might be a means round it in the event that they wished to take it globally,” he provides.
“I’ve not been to Saudi Arabia however I’ve watched the matches on TV and it does look, no disrespect, a bit soulless by way of the environment.”
He additionally believes gamers wouldn’t carry out as effectively in Saudi over a protracted, gruelling, 17-day match as a result of the highest execs want that buzz and electrical energy to maintain performing when fatigued. First-round matches on the World Championship are best-of-19 frames, which is the longest you’ll get for any match in different tournaments, then for the ultimate it’s as much as best-of-35, over two days.
“I’m talking from a participant’s viewpoint,” he says. “I completely perceive Barry’s arguments and I’m not a businessman. Barry will say; ‘Stephen’s a dinosaur and we’ve to maneuver on, that is enterprise’. Effectively, honest sufficient. I’m simply giving my opinion.”
It’s an opinion shared by the overwhelming majority of elder statesmen inside the sport. Six-time champion Steve Davis concurred on the BBC that it could be a “unhappy day” ought to the match go away the Crucible, echoing Hendry’s ideas that the distinctive environment couldn’t be replicated elsewhere.
Ex-pro Alan McManus, speaking on TNT Sports, known as out Hearn instantly final week, saying: “You both have an obligation to your pocket and different folks’s pockets, or you’ve got an obligation to our recreation, our sport. And to me, that’s an important one.”
It’s an emotive subject. The Crucible is the house of snooker, acquainted to thousands and thousands. There isn’t any doubting its character; there’s heat and allure, traits that fashionable sporting venues, with their designs centred round sightlines, acoustics and, most significantly, money-making potential, are inclined to lack.
The Crucible, although, a profitable theatre for 49 weeks of the yr, is genuinely distinctive. It additionally, in The Athletic’s opinion, having been granted backstage entry, doesn’t scent.
It means so much to Sheffield, particularly £4.5m ($5.97m) in financial influence, in line with the city’s council. This conventional, working-class northern English metropolis has turn into snooker’s dwelling not only for the World Championship, but additionally to Chinese language gamers who base themselves there to make use of academies and services like world No. 10 participant Ding Junhui’s Snooker Academy.
“Snooker and Sheffield go collectively hand in glove – it was once metal, it’s now snooker,” ex-champion Shaun Murphy says.
Mark Allen performs a shot in opposition to Chris Wakelin throughout their second-round match on the world championships on April 25, 2025 (George Wooden/Getty Photos)
And but, strolling from the prepare station to the venue, it doesn’t precisely really feel like the game’s greatest occasion — which will likely be watched by 500 million folks in additional than 100 nations, and given greater than 100 hours of protection within the UK on BBC and TNT Sports activities — is simply across the nook, save for just a few snooker footage on lampposts.
Admittedly, it’s gray, raining and 9C. A set of purple deckchairs specified by entrance of a giant display screen reverse the Crucible’s entrance are empty. It’s an unthinkable scene for the equal world championship in a sport like soccer or cricket.
But, like darts, which is equally empty exterior its World Championship home of Alexandra Palace in London, it’s contained in the venue the place the magic lies and, sure, you get what that environment speak is all about.
It’s snooker’s equal of Paul McCartney (or insert your favoured musician right here) performing an intimate acoustic set in your front room.
There’s a unfastened dividing line between an older era who think about it sacrilege to depart, after which the flip facet of Hearn saying issues should change, both from an expanded Crucible, or a brand new venue in Sheffield, or perhaps abroad like Saudi. After which the present gamers, who, inevitably, received’t say no to extra prize cash.
Former world No.1 Mark Allen, who received £250,000 ($331,752) in Riyadh final yr, sits someplace within the center.
“I feel it’s the historical past connected to it,” he tells The Athletic.
“Whenever you begin out enjoying snooker, with the best of respect to different tournaments, you don’t begin out to be Northern Eire Open champion, although which means a lot to me (Allen hails from Antrim). You wish to be world champion.
“It’s so particular coming again, it’s my nineteenth yr and I nonetheless get goosebumps once I stroll on the market.
“I don’t suppose you’ll be able to recreate that someplace else. It’s been talked about so much, will it keep, it could be unhappy if it left however, in the end, the world strikes on and likewise cash talks.
“What I’d say is, if it did transfer, in 10, 15, 20 years, there’s a brand new dwelling of snooker. So in a single day you’d get loads of sad traditionalist followers, however in the long run, folks may get connected to a brand new place.”
Allen, like the vast majority of present gamers, says the remedy in Saudi is great, and that crowds may enhance over time as they’ve in China, the place gamers are handled extra like footballers, with adoring followers and red-carpet remedy.
Whereas transferring the match from the Crucible may really feel as sacrilegious as ditching the FA Cup remaining from Wembley or the tennis from Wimbledon, it’s a curious notion that the world championship of a sport, which this yr featured in its 32 members 10 Chinese language gamers — together with first-time finalist Zhao Xintong — a Belgian, an Australian and an Iranian, is held within the UK’s tenth greatest metropolis each single yr.
You wouldn’t maintain the soccer World Cup in Bristol each 4 years.
Judd Trump performs a shot in opposition to Mark Williams throughout their semi-final on Could 1, 2025 (George Wooden/Getty Photos)
Neil Robertson, the Australian in query, who received the world title in 2010, tells The Athletic an improved venue in Sheffield could be his desire.
“There are hundreds and hundreds of followers who don’t get to observe it yearly as a result of tickets promote out immediately and the capability is round 900 folks,” he says.
“For the World Championship, they might promote that 3 times over, simply, which might improve the prize cash for the gamers, greater venue, higher fan interplay, higher every thing.
“In Saudi Arabia, the gamers had been handled so effectively, every thing was completely spot-on, the venue, the enjoying situations. The one factor is you’re enjoying matches for actually huge prize cash however there was no buzz from the followers, only a few folks watching and also you felt you had been enjoying cash matches relatively than competing in tournaments.
“It’s one thing hopefully subsequent yr they enhance on. However by way of the World Championship, I’m 100 per cent in favour of protecting it in Sheffield.”
It’s a sophisticated subject, one which is acquainted to many different sports activities. Increase, develop and lose a way of custom and historical past? Or stand nonetheless and eschew the cash on supply?
After assembly with Sheffield Council final week, Hearn’s public stance all of a sudden softened, having seen “positivity and enthusiasm”. A decision is anticipated earlier than the top of the yr, with the Crucible’s World Championship contract operating out in 2027.
“Our coronary heart is right here, our life is right here, the historical past is right here,” Hearn told the BBC. “I feel compromise is within the air on each side and we will do one thing that maintains the occasion right here and, on the identical time, produces much-needed finance to return to the gamers.
“We’ve simply bought to search out that extra little bit of help, which hopefully goes to be government-led, by way of protecting our occasions on this nation. Sheffield is the best dwelling for snooker.”
Maybe then, snooker will maintain its conventional roots whereas additionally with the ability to broaden abroad. The world championships might effectively stay in Sheffield. Nonetheless, this being the Crucible, simply whisper it quietly.
(Illustration: Kelsea Petersen/ The Athletic; George Wooden/ Getty Photos, Tai Chengzhe/ Getty Photos, Michael Reeves/ Getty Photos)
