Importance of Keir Starmer's World Snooker intervention in Sheffield cannot be overstated
The significance of Sir Keir Starmer rocking up in Sheffield and at the Crucible - the historic home of the World Snooker Championships - cannot be overstated.
The pressure has been on our city and the venue for some time now with high-profile figures within the game acknowledging that the competition may have outgrown a place that has played host for almost 50 years.
Organisers have seen the monetary impact that taking sporting events overseas have achieved and knowing there is an audience elsewhere that could swell their coffers almost immeasurably, only tradition is keeping snooker in Sheffield.
They could take the competition to China or to Saudi or even around the globe at a different venue each year and the profits and prize money would rocket. Speaking of rockets, arguably the best to ever play the game, Ronnie O'Sullivan, is one that has advocated a move away from South Yorkshire, to just about anywhere they can bring in more cash. He loves Sheffield, but he also knows his value.
The players have every right to demand more money and World Snooker have every right to try and get the best possible deal they can, particularly with sponsorship ever more difficult to find and legislation likely to come in around gambling companies as sponsors.
The Championships bring people into the city, they spend money and with the council not exactly flush with cash, they can't afford to lose one of Sheffield's economic jewels.
That the Prime Minister has surprisingly weighed in should be cause for concern. With everything else going on at the minute, you can reasonably speculate that he's not going to come here if things weren't at crisis point.
Sheffield City Council can beg World Snooker to stay but unless they offer a cash incentive, it's just not going to be feasible. There's really only so much they can do. And so it appears as though they have gone cap in hand to the government for help, as they should.
Snooker's governing body needs a reason to stay, outside of tradition which means less and less as the years go by, in any sport. We can all glory in the past and think back to iconic moments that took place in the Crucible, but that unique atmosphere and the sense of history alone isn't enough in modern times, whether we like it or not.
The UK government can't sit idly by and watch our great institutions up sticks for other countries. They have to do something, whether that's just throw money at World Snooker to make them stay or help Sheffield build a new, modern venue to go alongside the traditional so cash can be brought in through greater ticket sales.
The Crucible needs help and, in turn, so does Sheffield. Starmer's arrival on the scene is worrying but welcome, in the sense that the threat of loss is being taken seriously. That he did so without a great deal of fanfare suggests this isn't merely a PR exercise. Ultimately though it will all come down to one thing and that means he's going to have to open his pockets.