Snooker supremo Barry Hearn risks fan backlash with radical Crucible proposal backed by Ronnie O’Sullivan

BULLISH Barry Hearn has warned that the World Snooker Championship will leave Sheffield unless a bigger and better Crucible is built.

And he has told any players who have considered joining a rival LIV-style snooker breakaway tour: Leave us at your peril.

Sheffield is contracted to host the flagship event until 2027, which represents its 50th anniversary in South Yorkshire.

The venue only has 980 seats per session and Hearn, 75, would take the tournament round the globe if a Crucible II venue is not delivered by the city council.

Hearn, the founder and president of Matchroom Sport, said: “Their silence is deafening. I want to stay in Sheffield fundamentally, completely and utterly.

“I don’t want it to say on my tombstone: ‘This is the man that took snooker out of the Crucible.’ And I haven’t changed at all.

“My son Eddie, who is the chairman, isn’t such a snooker fan. He looks at it as a business.

“And says, if someone comes in with 10 times, a hundred times more money…

“What do you think the players would say if you had the ability to multiply the prize money by 10 or you decided to be loyal and rely on the history of the Crucible?

“I don’t think I’d be very popular.”

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The veteran sports promoter floated the prospect of the championship possibly being rotated around different countries like other sports do.

The Essex-born businessman said: “We’ve said for the last few years we need a new venue that seats 2,500-3000 people.

“I’m fed up with getting letters from people all over the world asking how I get a ticket.

“I’m looking for Sheffield to come to the party. If they do, we’re staying. If they don’t they’re really saying that we don’t want you. So it’s not really my call.

“Trust me, money has the edge every time. We live in the real world.

“If there are deals out there that’s going to change people’s lives and increase profitability, there’s not really a choice to make.”

Snooker's superstar Ronnie O'Sullivan has also backed the idea that the iconic tournament could move on past its days at the Crucible.

Speaking ahead of this year's tournament, he said: "Listen, Sheffield’s got the history and that history will never change.

“A lot of people say, what about the history there? Come on man, history is getting rewritten everyday.

“I think if Eddie and Barry [Hearn] and World Snooker decide it is right to take it to Saudi, then why not?

“It’s a massive circus and you need a massive space to accommodate it.

“Saudi Arabia would be great. They’ve got the resources and would do great.”

Kate Josephs, CEO of Sheffield City Council, said: “Sheffield is the home of snooker. The World Snooker Championship and Sheffield go hand in hand.

“We know what the tournament means to the people of Sheffield, the players that come to compete and all the fans that watch the tournament across the globe.

“We’re in regular contact with World Snooker Tour and meet with them before, during and after each tournament and we will continue doing so.”

Investors separate to the WST, including one in the Far East, have been working behind the scenes on a possible cluster of new tournaments.

Some top players have been contacted and it is understood they have been offered more than £300,000 to jump ship from the existing circuit.

Hearn has heard the rumours, too, but claims the WST is in a financially rude health with £20million prize money next season and a new event in Qatar in 2025.

He said: “Snooker, as a whole, this is the best it’s ever been in my lifetime. I go back to 1974, this is the strongest the sport’s ever been.

“It’s good there are other people that want to do other tours or other tournaments because it shows they’re chasing the money.

“And we’ve established a market that they’ve got a chance. And that’s good. A little bit of competition never killed anyone.

“The players under the new agreement have freedom to do what they want to do when there isn’t a World Snooker Tour event. We’ll open up 10-12 weeks of the year.

“Collectively we’re very strong, but every other little thing that happens outside of the strong body weakens the collective bargaining power that the main tour has to the detriment of the 128.

“It may well please a certain few players who are perhaps coming towards the end of their career and they’ve got to do what’s right for their family.

“Frankly, commercially, I know the market, those sort of breakaway thoughts don’t really have a great deal of commercial value.

“I’m quite comfortable letting people do what they want because I believe in the brand of World Snooker and what we’ve built up over the years. Time will tell, but it’s exciting.”