World Snooker Championship staying at The Crucible for 10 more years
Barry Hearn announced the Crucible will keep the World Championship for the next 10 years
Barry Hearn announced the Crucible will keep the World Championship for the next 10 years in a move that crushes Chinese hopes of snatching the event.
The tournament was brought to the Sheffield theatre in 1977 by promoter Mike Watterson, whose wife Carole watched a play there and suggested it would make an ideal snooker venue.
And it will remain in Sheffield on a long-term basis after World Snooker chairman Hearn confirmed the deal on the second day of this year's final.
The Crucible's 980-seat capacity is a frustrating restriction, and it had been thought that other venues in the city could be under consideration.
But Hearn said:
"We're at the Crucible - Sheffield's synonymous with the Crucible.
"The Crucible is where we come from, there's the history, that's where the deal's for. The deal is with the Crucible Theatre as well as Sheffield City Council.''
Hearn is already facing a backlash from fans over soaring ticket prices, with a major price hike for the 2017 tournament angering many regulars on Monday. He cites the small capacity as the reason for the price inflation.
And there may also be disenchantment felt in China, where the desire to stage snooker's premier event has even seen a replica Crucible constructed in Beijing.
The sport has many leading stakeholders in the Far East, where its popularity has soared since the turn of the century, and for the first time this year China had a World Championship finalist in Ding Junhui.
"This doesn't mean we don't have plans for huge, monster tournaments in China. We will do that - they just won't be called the World Championship,'' Hearn said.
"We had to consider a lot of things. We have a huge problem with tickets and capacity, as we have found again today releasing next year's tickets. Demand is overwhelming.
"We are doing our best to keep it affordable, but it is a big event and people will be disappointed.
"I have been asked so many times about the future of the World Championship, and this finally puts it to bed. We are here for 10 years.''
Tickets for the evening session of next year's final sold out inside five minutes after going on sale on Monday morning, and other sessions soon went the same way.
Many snooker fans have questioned an existing deal World Snooker has with secondary ticket seller Viagogo, which has seen seats at tournaments made available at prices well above face value.
World Snooker is selling first-round tickets starting at £20, with the final coming in as high as £80.
And the scrapping of reduced-rate World Championship season tickets, which are expected to go by 2018, has been criticised by those who hold them, believed to be around 30 fans.
The ticket price rise sparked fresh criticism on social media.
Fan Frederick Cheung (@FGLC2) wrote on Twitter:
"In 2013, front row tickets to round 2 matches cost me £22 session, next year would be treble. Snooker is getting expensive.''
Sheffield-based academic Luigina Ciolfi (@luiciolfi) added:
"Managed to get snooker tickets for next year at @crucibletheatre, but -boy- it seems that demand has skyrocketed, and so have prices''
Columnist and PR consultant Jo Crosby (@JoCrosbyPR) said:
"Finally got #snooker tickets after 1 hour queue. But not the ones we wanted & massive price increase. Utter madness...''