World Snooker Championship 2024: Bosses issue statement after Ronnie O'Sullivan calls for move from Sheffield

Snooker bosses have responded after Ronnie O’Sullivan called for the World Snooker Championship to leave Sheffield.

The seven-time winner is not a fan of The Crucible, which has staged the sport’s premier tournament since 1977, despite his success there over the years.

He was quoted over the weekend as telling The Sun newspaper it would be a ‘wise decision’ to move the event away from Sheffield, and he controversially suggested staging it in Saudi Arabia instead. “It’s a massive circus and you need a massive space to accommodate it,” he said.

O’Sullivan is not the first star to suggest moving the World Snooker Championship from The Crucible, with former winners Neil Robertson, Shaun Murphy and Judd Trump previously having questioned whether the 980-capacity venue is still fit to host the sport’s showpiece event.

He’s unlikely to be the last to do so either during this year’s tournament which is set to run from Saturday, April 20 to Monday, May 6.

Other players, including Anthony McGill and Sheffield’s Yan Bingtao, have spoken out in support of The Crucible, described by many as snooker’s spiritual home.

The World Snooker Tour (WST) president Barry Hearn has always said he is keen to keep the event in the Steel City though he feels a bigger venue is needed.

As the clock runs down towards 2027, when the existing deal to keep the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield expires, the dissenting voices from certain players will grow more concerning.

Plans have been drawn up for a new purpose-built ‘Billiardrome’ arena in Sheffield, and Hearn said in 2022 that he would like to knock The Crucible down and build a new 3,000-seat state-of-the-art arena in its place to keep the World Snooker Championship in Sheffield for another 30 years.

But it’s not clear whether any progress has been made in talks between the WST and Sheffield City Council when it comes to providing a new, larger venue in Sheffield.

Following O’Sullivan’s latest comments, the WST issued a statement to The Star saying: “We love the Crucible and our contract with Sheffield City Council runs until 2027. We have a fantastic relationship with the council, and we are keen to hear their plans and ambitions in terms of the future of the World Championship in the city.

“The World Championship is already a huge global event, and we owe it to our fans and players to continue to maximise its potential by putting on the best event possible, as the pinnacle of the season and a global showcase of the sport.”

Despite the talk of a ‘fantastic relationship’ with the council, the statement is non-committal and very much suggests that something needs to change for the World Championship to remain in Sheffield.

The good news for Sheffield is that O’Sullivan’s comments don’t appear to have gone down well with many snooker fans and his suggestion of a move to Saudi Arabia, with its poor human rights record, sparked a big backlash.

One person responded: “If he doesn’t like it he shouldn’t bother turning up! Moving the World Championship from Sheffield would be wrong.”

Another wrote: “Leave it alone, Ronnie. You might be the best player ever to pick up a cue but Sheffield IS the home of Snooker. You couldn't recreate that atmosphere anywhere else apart from the Crucible.”

But a third person commented: “Definitely needs to go to a bigger venue in England but definitely not Saudi Arabia. Must be losing a lot of ticket revenue for the event over the course of 17 days at the Crucible.”

Sheffield City Council said: “We have an agreement with World Snooker to host the tournament until 2027.

“We are working with World Snooker on a new agreement for the event to remain in Sheffield.

“We are committed to securing the tournament's long-term future in the city. Sheffield is proud to be the home of the World Snooker Championship and looking forward to another fantastic tournament this year.”