Sheffield<\/a> since 1977, and it will remain there until at least 2045 with an option to extend to 2050 after World Snooker Tour and Sheffield city council agreed a contract to ensure snooker\u2019s most prestigious event will stay at its spiritual home.<\/p>\nAs part of the agreement, the Crucible will undergo a renovation after the 2028 tournament, with the venue securing \u00a345m of government investment that Hearn admitted was decisive in keeping snooker in Sheffield. That will see an extra 500 seats installed at the theatre, taking its capacity to 1500.<\/p>\n
It is a striking and notable agreement for the sport, not least because Hearn himself had made loud noises in recent years about the need for a completely rebuilt Crucible with at least 3,000 seats if the world championship was to remain in Sheffield amid interest from places like Saudi Arabia and China.<\/p>\n
But the president of Matchroom Sport admitted in the end, he would not have been able to live with himself had he orchestrated a move away from a venue that holds personal memories for him. When asked if he had allowed sentiment to play a part in a business deal before, he said: \u201cNever. But my life changed in 1981 when Steve Davis won the title here.<\/p>\n
\u201cMatchroom was a \u00a3100 company formed off the back of a Crucible win. That is now the biggest sports promotion company in the world and that\u2019s where sentiment plays a part. There are certain things where you\u2019d hate yourself if you did them. Nothing I\u2019ve done will ever surpass the Crucible; I owe it more than it owes me.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hearn admitted that had the local council been unable to secure the government funding to trigger a renovation of the Crucible, it was eminently possible they would move at the end of the previous deal, which was due to expire next year.<\/p>\n
The world championship will leave the Crucible for one year while the venue is redeveloped. Photograph: Mike Egerton\/PA<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cI never say anything nice about politicians but they\u2019ve put their money where their mouth is and they\u2019ve made this place fit for purpose. The Crucible wasn\u2019t fit for purpose but now, we know we\u2019ll get a venue that will be.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was a stage when if Sheffield didn\u2019t get the money, they probably couldn\u2019t rebuild: and if they couldn\u2019t rebuild we would have had to leave. Fortunately we had a choice and I must give big credit to Sheffield city council: I don\u2019t know how they can get that type of money out of a government.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were so enthusiastic and they were desperate to keep it. In today\u2019s world there are issues with money and talent and making sure everyone is happy; that\u2019s an ongoing beast. But fortunately we didn\u2019t get to that stage because I would have been mortified to lose it – but I couldn\u2019t say that early doors because it has a negative effect on where you end up.<\/p>\n
Hearn accepts the deal will not be universally popular, not least close to home. Matchroom has a long-standing business partnership with Riyadh Season and the explosion of the sport in China following Zhao Xintong\u2019s world title win last year meant there were more financially lucrative venues on offer for the tournament long-term.<\/p>\n
And when asked if agreement over the deal was absolute, Hearn smiled: \u201cWell I wouldn\u2019t say it was unanimous. Eddie is not a snooker fan, he likes the business of sport so therefore he likes snooker. He doesn\u2019t have the same passion because he wasn\u2019t there … that\u2019s why he\u2019s so passionate about boxing, because his big memories came through that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether it\u2019s AJ [Anthony Joshua] against [Wladimir] Klitschko … that changed his life. Eddie likes snooker but with the time he\u2019s got available, he\u2019s from a generation that moves at more speed than snooker does. He doesn\u2019t appreciate the Agatha Christie side where you don\u2019t find out who\u2019s done it until the final chapter.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe would have felt like we\u2019d lost an arm had we not stayed here \u2026 without the Crucible, snooker just isn\u2019t the same.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Barry Hearn concedes he has let his heart rule his head for the first time in his career…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-362872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}