Snooker

yeah.

I think advokat8ng to take the world championships away from the UK altogether should.get him a lot of boos but it won't.

 

It is all a bit silly though, the sports biggest and most prestigious event at the smallest venue. I don't agree with him about saudi but on this I do agree, it deserves a better venue.

 

What the World Championship needs is a venue that can properly meet the public demand to watch it in person. As much as I love the Crucible, and can't wait to make my annual visit, I'm not blind to its weaknesses either. It does seem from this article as though things are starting to move in terms of the prospect of a new venue in Sheffield and it would be fantastic if that can be done.

Could the World Snooker Championship leave Crucible as Ronnie O'Sullivan signs commercial deal with Saudi Arabia?.

 

And drawn against fellow Leicester man Mark Selby in the opening round. Judd Trump v Hossein Vafaei and Ding Junhui v Jack Lisowski probably the stand-out ties but Luca Brecel hasn't got it easy when he starts his title defence against David Gilbert. 10am on Saturday can't come soon enough.

 

I've been to the Crucible, and was glad I went at least once, but despite it being a pretty intimate venue to watch snooker in, for the people that can get in, I can tell you by far the best place to watch matches is on a screen either at home or in the pub. I'd hate to try watching it at a massive venue, that would be awful IMO. I wont be going to any venue in future, including the crucible. I must say the atmosphere in the crucible was good though. As for Saudi etc, fk them, they are already spoiling huge boxing events, with their zero atmosphere. Chucking money at things doesn't always make them better.

 

The fact he was well beaten in his match is, of course, purely coincidental.

 

I saw that but I think the much bigger issue is that the players who have come through qualifying are game sharp having had to win at least two best of 19 matches in order to be at the Crucible at all. Of the four matches completed since we started yesterday, three have seen the seeded player go out (the latest being Ali Carter tonight) and Mark Selby has it all to do to turn his match around tomorrow.

 

Has a point though so many arenas in england are grotty. I went to the crucible last year it was ok but no way should it be hosting the world championships, problem is whewre else is there thats any good? Its a shame that the best arenas seem to be outside of England.

 

With Mark Williams the latest to fall this afternoon, six seeds have already fallen from nine completed matches.

 

I think it's now pretty clear that the World Championship will leave the Crucible after 2027. The bigger question is whether it will leave Sheffield at the same time and I'm optimistic that it won't as long as the will is there to create the bigger venue which is clearly needed. For all the bluster and headlines, I don't sense any burning desire on the part of World Snooker to move away from Sheffield altogether and the heritage that the city has in the sport can't be replicated anywhere else. It is simply a practical matter of whether local political leaders, even if they can't fund such a project themselves, can facilitate the kind of private investment that would be needed to build it and ensure it can be used consistently throughout the year.

One thing that I don't think has helped several of the UK tournaments has been the chopping and changing of venues in recent years. Outside of the Triple Crown events, I'd struggle to think of another in England that feels like it has a long-term home, albeit that the Tour Championship looked much more the part in Manchester earlier this month than it did in Hull last year. I don't see enough of the tournaments held outside the UK to know much about most of the venues, other than the Tempodrom in Berlin which looks like exactly the kind of bigger Crucible-type set-up that we need in Sheffield and which is firmly on my bucket list to visit.

 

This world championship is there for the taking for Ronnie if he can keep his head together.

If he does go out though then it's wide open for a few of the others and a new winner. Sean Murphy looks to be going out as well.

 

Really hope Mark Allen holds it together and beats this baldy cnut.

Can't stand him.

 

Can't see anyone else. Wouldn't mind that final if it can happen because Trump quite often folds against Ronnie in big matches.