World Snooker Championship: Sheffield to fight to keep tournament

While Hearn’s desire to stay in Sheffield is now clear, he anticipates that doing so would require a change of venue.

Matchroom took over the running of WST in 2010, with Hearn at the helm until he stepped down as chairman in April 2021 at the age of 72.

He remains an influential figure in the running of snooker and ideally wants a new facility to be built to house the World Championship.

“I think it’s a new-build within the city. It can’t be an expansion of the Crucible. There isn’t enough space. The building is too small,” Hearn said.

“But I think there are other buildings that could be converted… but I need a venue to stress the importance of the event, the quality of the event.

“You can’t stick it in a leisure centre, and say ‘this is our World Championships’, just for the sake of another 1,000 [or] 1,500 tickets a session.”

Moving away from the Crucible would also be popular with some of the players, who have criticised conditions at the theatre.

“If you walk around the Crucible it smells really bad,” said Iran’s Hossein Vafaei.

“The practice room? Do you see anything special about it? It feels like I’m practising in a garage and that’s not good.”

Saudi Arabia has worked closely with Matchroom Sport to bring a number of high-profile major boxing events to the country. It also staged a first WST tournament in March – the Riyadh Season World Masters of Snooker.

“Should the World Championships stay in little old England? It’s a global sport, should it go round the world?” Hearn added.

“Should it sell out and go to where the biggest money is, as have so many sports? Some that I’ve been involved in.

“That’s not wrong – that’s just the progression of how the world’s changed.

“It’s a balance – but you can’t ignore the money, that would be unrealistic and silly to say we’re ignoring the money.

“But at the same time we have a duty of care to the sport, to make sure the great traditions stay with us as well.”