Kyren Wilson explains what makes Sheffield ‘different’ as Snooker World Championship stays at the Crucible
2024 World Championship winner Kyren Wilson shas spoken out about what makes the Crucible such a special venue to him.
The iconic Sheffield landmark has been the home of the World Championship since 1977 and is regarded as the place where legends of the sport are made.
After much uncertainty, it’s been confirmed as the long-term home of the sport until at least ‘2045’, putting an end to rumours that the World Championship could be hosted elsewhere like the Middle East or another venue elsewhere.
When reflecting on his immediate reaction to last month’s big announcement, Kyren Wilson told Midnite: “Oh, I was buzzing. To be honest, the first thing that came to my mind was the fact that both of my children are quite keen on snooker.
“They're sort of quite keen practitioners and they've been many times backstage and have been through the whole World Championship process with me.”
Wilson’s emotions were largely shared by many at Olympic Legacy Park when the news was announced last month, with former professional Stephen Harrison expressing his delight at the World Championship staying at the Theatre of Dreams, but Barry Hawkins shared a different viewpoint, voicing concerns about the size of the venue, despite efforts to try and expand the theatre to include an extra 500 seats in the near future.
However, Wilson feels that the compact nature of the venue is part of the reason that the Crucible is so special. He said: You're not going to find a venue anywhere in the world where every single player is going to be perfectly at ease and happy.
“I actually feel like it it adds to the atmosphere, how compact it is, you feel like the person in the front row can literally pull the cue out of your hand on some shots, but also I think, it's not just the fact that it's going to stay there, I think it's also the fact that they've announced they're going to improve it.
“They're going to hopefully add a capacity of up to 1,500 people. We're all well aware that we could pack out bigger stadiums, bigger venues, but sometimes it's about sort of the history, the heritage, and you know, The Crucible has that in abundance.”
The Crucible has been the home of snooker for almost half a century bringing in tourism from all over the world to watch the sport and relish in the atmosphere of the Steel City.
Wilson describes Sheffield as different to any other city when it comes to the sport of snooker and says it stands different to anywhere else in the UK.
He said: “It stands separate I think to any other venue. It's definitely one of my favourites, but for many different reasons, as I said, I actually quite like the compact feeling.
“I like the whole city, you feel like it becomes a snooker city in Sheffield. You certainly know the snooker's in town and you know you're walking around the backstage and the corridors and you can feel the nostalgia oozing around the corridors and to be adding to that history and making even more memories for many years to come for me is a real treat.”
Last year, Wilson became the latest victim of what is known as the Crucible curse, which refers to the fact that no first-time champion has retained the title since the tournament moved to Sheffield's Crucible Theatre.
The 2024 winner, who sits 10th in the list of the sport’s richest active players, was beaten in the first round last year but has bounced back by winning the Masters. Now he has aspirations of becoming a two-time world champion.
He said: “I recently won the Masters and when you start winning more and more of those tournaments, you start going up in the history ranks if you like and while I'm well off where I want to be in terms of achievements, I've done OK so far. So yeah, to try and be a two-time world champion would be awesome.”
Work has already begun on the venue as it gets prepared for this year’s Championships to get underway.