‘I want more respect.. it comes down to hard cash' – Snooker chief Barry Hearn offers huge update on future of Crucible
BARRY HEARN expects the future of the Snooker World Championship to be decided by the end of this year – and it 'comes down to hard cash'.
Positive informal talks were held on Thursday morning with Hearn and Sheffield City Council officials and they will all meet again in three months' time.
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The Snooker World Championships have been held at the Crucible for the last 47 years
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But the Crucible's deal to host the event expires in 2027
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Snooker supremo Barry Hearn is ready to move the World Championship from the Crucible
The contract to stay at the Crucible expires in 2027 and Hearn, 76, wants more 'respect' shown as the parties try to negotiate a new deal.
Hearn, president of Matchroom Sport, has threatened to take the event away from its spiritual home of Sheffield and perhaps go abroad, especially given his close
business
ties to
Saudi Arabia
.
Plans to expand the 980-seater venue are one option but there are limitations to what can be done and within an appropriate time frame.
It is likely a site fee, boosted by government funding, might be written into the
next
contract should a compromise be reached.
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Hearn, who managed Steve Davis during his six world
championship
wins, said: 'I want a bit more respect. We love Sheffield. We love the Crucible.
'In any relationship if the other side doesn't love you back, it's destined for failure.
'So, at the moment we're engaged and I'm hoping in the next few months we're going to get married again. Let's keep our fingers crossed.
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'I was impressed with the passion and commitment that Sheffield Council have got for snooker. We view the Crucible as the home of snooker.
'But again, we have to live in the real world. We agreed to meet in another three months with a view to knowing exactly where we are by the end of this year. And the pressure is on.
BBC presenter and snooker legend Steve Davis slams cue down and turns his back on camera as trick shot goes wrong
'Both sides are really happy here with each other, but we can't turn away from the realities of sports life, which is centred around prize
money
.
'We have to do something big for the players because they deserve it. This event's going to be seen by 300-400 million people. Does it get the respect?
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'So the talks went well. There was a frank exchange of the problems that we face.
'I think both of us agree that this is something where Sheffield can only go so far, but with government assistance it can go further and it can be maintained.
'So the onus is still on Sheffield to come up with something in line with government, in line with our thinking of where the game stands in terms of prestige and respect.
'This is a major event in
England
. But there's a huge amount of money outside of the UK to stage the World Snooker Championship.
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'Give me the respect. Help me to do what I want to do and I won't be outrageous in my demands. I feel we're both on the same side. I'm a little more optimistic today than I was yesterday.'
The PDC have bumped up the prize money for the World Darts champion to £1million this
Christmas
and Hearn wants to do the same for a
future
snooker conqueror.
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Barry Hearn wants to bump up the prize money for the World Snooker Championship
Credit: PA
Yet he has no plans to change the format of the tournament – so it will be kept to 17 days of action involving 32 players and with 71 frames needed to be the best.
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Britain's leading sports promoter said: 'The game's in good shape. We have some problems, of course, Sheffield being one of them. And the other one is prize money.
'As much as it sounds pretty barbaric, it all comes down to pound notes.
'Darts players are going to be multimillionaires and snooker players need to catch them up.
'Hopefully, if all goes well, we can start thinking about a million-pound first prize instead of £500,000 for snooker. That's clearly on the agenda as quickly as we can.
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'We can sell this place out a dozen times if we wanted to. We need a halfway house.
Read more on the Irish Sun
'There's a value to Sheffield City Council for having it in Sheffield. It comes down to hard cash.
'So, show me the money, show me the way forward, and hopefully we can sign another 10-year deal at the Crucible.'
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The Irish Sun
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The Irish Sun
a day ago
- The Irish Sun
Tennis fans slam BBC live coverage of Queen's after Emma Raducanu snub ahead of Wimbledon
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A fifth fumed: "Absolutely ridiculous you're not showing Boulter/Raducanu in doubles." Katie Boulter destroys tennis star fiance Alex de Minaur in four words after newly-engaged couple lose in doubles And a final user typed: "Why isn't Court 1 on BBC iPlayer though? Can't watch Boultercanu?" Advertisement The match was Raducanu's second WTA doubles match of her career - and a first win. Quizzed if they would team up again at Wimbledon, the former US Open champion downplayed their ambitions. Advertisement "We thought about it in Madrid, Miami and Paris. 'Moving to the grass, which is a very different surface, it helps us get a feel of serving, returning and playing some points." Tennis stars' new careers PLENTY of tennis stars have stayed involved in the sport since retiring. But others pursued very different careers. Here are some of the best… I reached French Open and Wimbledon finals as a teenager but I I won Wimbledon mixed doubles with my sister but got fed up with English weather so I was tipped for stardom aged 12 but retrained to I earned £9m and won French Open before setting up I'm last Frenchman to win Roland Garros, now I'm singer with six albums hitting No1 in charts I'm former world No1 but quit aged 29 - instead I went on to play professional poker and golf I was destined for the top but swapped lobs for labs as award-winning Harvard physicist But partner Boulter interjected: 'Scrap what she said - we're going for the Wimbledon title! "No, just kidding… we haven't thought about that. Advertisement "We both return very well and have great volleys, so if one of us hits a good ball we can capitalise on that. "I'm very confident that Emma is going to put the ball away if I hit a good shot." World No37 Raducanu - who Boulter, three places higher than her partner in the WTA rankings, takes on Ajla Tomljanovic. Advertisement SunSport has contacted the BBC for comment on the snub, which comes after news that the 3 Raducanu had only played one WTA doubles match before Credit: Getty Wimbledon ditching line judges a double fault for British tennis By THE absence of line judges at Wimbledon will be a sad sight. For as long as I can remember, the men and women decked out in their Ralph Lauren outfits have been part of the furniture at the All England Club. Yes, they provided some mild entertainment on the court when one would call "fault" with plenty of extra, and unnecessary, gusto and volume that boomed around Centre Court, prompting a snigger from the fans. Then there was the ongoing game of dodgeball they had to play when a big serve nailed a mammoth ace down the line and they had to take rapid evasive action or take a whack to the top of the head. And challenges provided some audience participation, excitedly joining in the clapping countdown before the inevitable "oooh" when the graphic showed just how close the ball was to landing in or out. Purely objectively, Wimbledon's decision to replace line judges with Hawk-Eye Live makes total sense. The accuracy and consistency of calls in real-time will speed things up, save time and should mark the end of arguments over the tight incorrect calls - well, until the technology malfunctions. And Wimbledon's hand was somewhat forced to ditch tradition for their standing in tennis. The Australian Open and US Open already use electronic line calling and the ATP Tour is adopting Hawk-Eye Live across all of its tournaments from 2025. Wimbledon's refusal to comply would leave them lagging behind and exposed to the threat of needless controversy over human error. But the impact - as is so often the case in these decisions - has ramifications further down, below the surface with very little impact on Wimbledon's Championships or the players. It is on the line judges themselves. Approximately 300 officials - aged from 18 to 80 - covered more than 650 matches at Wimbledon. A fraction travel internationally with the circuit but the vast majority of those are part-time line judges based in the UK, earning up to £180 per day to work at the prestigious tournament and their chance to play their part at Wimbledon. For many, they will help out at British tournaments throughout the year, spurred on by the possibility of taking to the lawns of the All England Club. But it is understood many of those officials would be reluctant to work at the lower-level tournaments without the carrot of Wimbledon dangling in the summer. That in turn will put a major stumbling block in the pathway for British tennis umpires, who grind up through the ranks to reach the pinnacle of the sport. Like football with referees, tennis needs umpires and line judges. So the inability to call "out" at Wimbledon could prove to be a major "fault" for the future of the UK's tennis officials and therefore the state of the sport on these shores.
