Snooker is at a crossroads.
For many, The Crucible is not seen as being fit for purpose for the World Championships anymore.
A venue that holds less than 1000 spectators hosting a World Championship event just doesn’t seem to add up these days, and there’s been a lot of chat about the biggest tournament in snooker moving away from Sheffield.
There have been suggestions about a breakaway snooker tour starting in Saudi Arabia, similarly to how LIV Golf broke away from the PGA Tour initially, and now, speaking to TalkSPORT, Barry Hearn has only added fuel to that fire.
Barry Hearn discusses potential Saudi Arabia move for snooker
Hearn discussed the idea of moving snooker to Saudi.
“Let’s say in Asia or Saudi they say ‘we want to bring the World Championships to us you get your £2m, and we’ll give you X Y and Z in terms of financial backing.’ You get everything you want, all the boxes, but the trophy disappears and there’s a new solid gold trophy in place?” Hearn was asked.
“That’s no problem with me, you can’t eat a trophy son,” Hearn said.
“So you’d do that?” Hearn was asked.
“Of course, and let me tell you something here. Because I’m fed up of people getting up on their holy grail horse and telling me the moral view.
“Ask the question to the top 16 snooker players in the world and ask if we made the prize money four or five times as much, bigger than the crucible, would you still want to play at The Crucible for the money you are today? I will tell you the answer, 16 out of 16 say ‘where’s my airline ticket?’” Hearn concluded.
Snooker doesn’t need Saudi Arabia
While we can understand the case that the World Championships need to move away from The Crucible, moving to Saudi Arabia seems like a drastic move.
A move to the Middle East would just alienate the sport’s core fanbase, while a new trophy and a new competition would be erasing so much history.
Move from The Crucible? Potentially. Move to Saudi Arabia? Surely that’s not what’s best for the sport as a whole, even if it does equate for a better payday for the players.