The cost of keeping World Snooker in Sheffield is a secret - but it shouldn't be
We know the authority is paying World Snooker Ltd a ‘staging fee’ but the sums are confidential.
Most of the time it’s obvious which way the money is going.
You hire a venue, you pay the owner - whether you’re promoting Ed Sheeran at Wembley or Oasis at Sheffield Arena.
But with Sheffield City Council and World Snooker it’s different.
The new 15-year deal has shone a light on how far the authority had to go to hang on to the hugely important event, in the face of hard bargaining by Barry Hearn and co who repeatedly threatened to take the championships elsewhere.
We know the authority is covering the costs of hiring the Crucible it can be held there.
But the sums are confidential.
In contrast, the city council is happy to provide estimates of snooker’s value to Sheffield.
Officials say it will be worth £6.5m-a-year, with a total economic impact of £208m if the option to extend the agreement until 2050 is exercised.
It will also put Sheffield in front of 700m television viewers and bring visitors from across the globe, we are told.
But some other figures show the efforts made to keep World Snooker happy.
The Crucible is having a £45m expansion to meet demands for a bigger venue. That works out at £35m from taxpayers - £25m from the mayor of South Yorkshire and £10m from central government - and £10m donations from the private sector and unnamed ‘philanthropic partners’.
It will add 500 seats to create a total of 1,500.
It’s not the 3,000-seat Billiardrome some were calling for and clearly a compromise was reached.
Mr Hearn says the Crucible is World Snooker’s spiritual home and he never wanted to move it from the city.
We agree!
We aren’t arguing that the championships shouldn’t be in Sheffield - it is part of our city’s culture offering and now embedded in our identity.
But in the interests of transparency it would be good to know if the years of shenanigans - the council had a team devoted to negotiations - and millions of pounds of taxpayers’ cash were worth it.
A Sheffield City Council spokesperson said: “The cost of the staging fee for the World Snooker Championships isn’t secret, it’s commercially confidential in order to protect the council’s competitive advantage when it comes to negotiations on this and ensuring that the tournament stays in the city.
“The reason the FOI referenced it being exempt was because the papers were included in the portion of the Strategy and Resources Committee that was closed to the public.
“Staging fees are a standard feature of agreements to host major sporting and cultural events, with cities across the UK and internationally investing to secure events that bring visitors, economic activity and international exposure.
“The Council's contribution to this is about securing the wider economic and reputational benefits that hosting an event of this scale brings to Sheffield.
“The above is normal practice for a local authority hosting a major event.”