– I actually don’t like the Crucible.
– At Crucible you can get a good cup of tea and possibly lasagna. That’s it.
– Saudi Arabia would be good (place to host the World Cup). At least they would have the resources to make it (the World Cup tournament) great.
The main series of the 17-day World Snooker tournament begins on Saturday at the Crucible Theater in Sheffield, England. The World Cup tournament has been organized in the legendary Crucible continuously since 1977.
Most of the sport’s classic moments are associated with the Steel City landmark, known in snooker circles as the Theater of Dreams and Nightmares.
In the first week of the tournament, the main focus was on the World Cup qualifiers, which ended on Wednesday, but there were plenty of headlines in the English media from outside the gaming tables as well. A superstar was responsible for them Ronnie O’Sullivanto which the initial quotes belong.
O’Sullivan has been crowned world champion at the Crucible a record seven times. Only Scotch Stephen Hendry has reached the same number of World Cup titles in the modern era of snooker, which began in 1969.
The Crucible has been a goldmine for O’Sullivan anyway, as he has earned the most prize money in the history of the World Championships. Still, the legend has long been ready to take the tournament elsewhere.
Its songs you sing…
For the vast majority of snooker enthusiasts, O’Sullivan’s speeches are mere rhetoric. In his 32-year-long professional career, the champion has shocked sports circles countless times with his questionable speeches.
Recent comments about moving the World Cup from the Crucible to Saudi Arabia are more awkward than before because of their timing. Earlier this week, it was revealed that O’Sullivan has signed a three-year contract with the organizers of the tournament in Saudi Arabia. That makes him the country’s snooker ambassador.
The price tag of the contract is not public information, but when you consider that the Saudis bet a record-breaking amount of snooker on the mini-invitation tournament they organized in March, O’Sullivan’s contract tag is guaranteed to be seven figures.
The earning potential of snooker professionals has been talked about in recent years, and this season especially in connection with the invitational tournament in Saudi Arabia tailored for the ten best players.
After that tournament, O’Sullivan’s season earnings rose to 1.16 million British pounds. No one has ever earned so much in a season. Since then, O’Sullivan’s jackpot has increased to 1.2 million.
O’Sullivan is right
Although O’Sullivan’s actions are not the most elegant, the top player also has his points.
According to O’Sullivan, the World Cup organizers in Sheffield do not value the players enough compared to China and Saudi Arabia.
It is a fact that snooker’s top players live in a pay pit, if you take into account the sport’s TV appeal and compare it to the income level of the stars. The finger of blame is pointed at the umbrella organization World Snooker.
Even if O’Sullivan crowned his successful season with his historic eighth World Cup title, he would not even reach the top 20 men’s or the top 20 women’s players in tennis with his prize money – despite the fact that snooker has already overtaken tennis in the global Eurosport channel’s TV coverage only cycling ahead.
47,040
O’Sullivan is also right that the World Cup tournament should not be set in stone in Sheffield. Let’s make it clear at this point that the undersigned has visited the shrine twice. The Crucible theater is unparalleled as a venue for the audience.
However, the Theater of Dreams attracts only 980 spectators, and the arena is sold out in each of the 48 game sessions spread over 17 days. There are therefore a total of 47,040 tickets to be sold for the entire Games. That is little compared to the popularity of the WC event.
Every year, two hundred million pairs of eyes watch the games on television. The last day of the 2016 World Cup final alone attracted 45 million viewers in China, even though the majority of the final was played at night local time.
If the consumer wants to watch the WC tournament, the decision must be made a year in advance: tickets for the 2025 WC go on sale on the opening day of this year’s final. So the person redeeming the ticket has no idea at the time of purchase which players he is going to see.
I could say with a clear conscience that snooker’s umbrella organization has set the bar high when it comes to consumers considering the decision to buy World Cup tickets who are not already familiar with the sport. There are also more easily approachable species.
The wrong reasons
The current agreement will hold the World Cup tournament in the Crucbile Theater at least until 2027, when the event will celebrate its 50th anniversary in its spiritual home.
But what about after that? For almost a decade, O’Sullivan has hinted that the World Cup tournament should be played in China, where snooker professionals enjoy star status. It hardly needs to be mentioned where the biggest sponsorship income of O’Sullivan’s career has come from before the Saudi deal.
Unlike Saudi Arabia, China has built a snooker culture in the 21st century, which will give the country a dominant position in the coming decades.
There would be a lot of reasons for taking the World Cup tournament to China, the most important of which O’Sullivan has ignored when criticizing the Crucible theater. Why does a sport that enjoys significant international popularity and seeks expansion offer the English a continuous home advantage in its most important tournament?
The professional snooker tour is concentrated in a disturbing way on the foggy islands (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland), to which players who dream of becoming a professional are practically forced to move just for the sake of the games.
This season, out of 17 races that affect the world ranking, only five were played outside Great Britain. Three of them were in China and two in Germany.
The number is alarmingly small when you consider that in the last ten years the tour has been played several years in India, Australia, Belgium, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Gibraltar and once in Austria. However, in order to be able to play in these countries’ tournaments, players often had to clear the qualifiers held in England first.
From the islands to the world
Professional snooker has therefore lived through a paradoxical time in recent years. Snooker has increased its popularity on TV, but there are fewer tournament organizers these days.
Now, the umbrella organization aims to expand into the Middle East, which is rich in immeasurable oil resources. It will be played in Saudi Arabia for at least the next ten years.
It will be interesting to see what kind of impact the Saudis, who attract sporting events from around the world with millions in prize money, will have on the tour. At the end of the last decade, World Snooker’s boss level outlined that the World Cup tournament must be the most valuable tournament on the tour based on the money list.
At the time, a Chinese organizer had to withdraw the £1 million prize from his competition because there was a £500,000 check for the World Cup winner. The world champion will receive the same compensation this year as well, but if the development of snooker in the next few years is directed only to the Middle East and China, the amount can be multiplied.
The English market in the hands of the current management does not generate enough money for other than the absolute stars of the sport. It makes it difficult for new generations to break through, which in turn diminishes the tour’s credibility and prevents the sport from growing.
However, this fundamental problem will not be solved simply by moving the World Cup tournament elsewhere and increasing its rewards.
In order to develop and grow as a sport, snooker needs to expand outside of England. However, the expansion must be done in a controlled manner, respecting the history of the species and taking care of the vitality of the species from the grassroots level to the top. Ideally, World Cups would be held around the world, just like in other major sports.
At the moment, however, the most likely scenario is that the World Cup tournament will be played in Saudi Arabia for several years in the near future.
Matchroom, which manages most of the snooker television rights, has been leaning towards Saudi Arabia for a long time. Matchroom has exported many of its top products, i.e. top boxing matches, to the country.
At the announcement of his Saudi deal, O’Sullivan boasted that the stands were full at the Masters tournament in Riyadh. In reality, this was only the case in O’Sullivan’s matches, even though the top ten players in the world were there. The others got to play for a few dozen pairs of eyes. The behavior of the spectators also left a lot to be desired.
Taking the World Cup tournament to a place where the sport is only in the shoes of a child would be disastrous for snooker. If the scenario comes true, in 2027, in addition to the 50th anniversary celebration, the funeral of the World Cup in its current form will also be held in the Crucible Theater.
You can discuss the topic with Tunnus on 20.4. until 11 p.m.