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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
The near-silent sport which has become the latest focus of Saudi | |
Arabia’s imagination | |
By Ben Church, CNN | |
Updated: | |
10:34 AM EDT, Tue May 7, 2024 | |
Source: CNN | |
No one dares speak louder than a whisper as nearly 1,000 people | |
respectfully take their seats inside the dimly lit Crucible Theatre. | |
There is a sense of nervous excitement as those lucky enough to get | |
their hands on a ticket cram into this historic venue in the heart of | |
Sheffield, a city in the north of England. | |
But they’re not here to see a theatrical performance. They’ve come | |
to witness the nerve-shredding, silently electric atmosphere of the | |
World Snooker Championship. | |
If you’re unfamiliar with snooker it’s a sport that requires | |
formidable patience and outstanding precision in equal measure. Think | |
chess played on green baize rather than a checkered board. Players | |
score points by potting a sequence of balls, looking to ruthlessly | |
capitalize on an opponent’s mistake. | |
Matches can be long – the 1985 world final lasted over 14 hours – | |
and the crowd watches in almost total silence, breaking into polite | |
applause should a player pull off a remarkable shot. | |
The World Snooker Tour (WST) – organizers of the World Snooker | |
Championship – say the sport is . | |
For the past 47 years, the historic Crucible Theatre has been the home | |
of the annual tournament, a sporting nirvana which attracts people from | |
around the world to its doors. | |
“It’s akin to Augusta and golf. Augusta is one of golf’s | |
spiritual outposts around the world and the Crucible is that for us,” | |
former snooker world champion Shaun Murphy tells CNN Sport behind the | |
scenes of this year’s tournament, which was won by England’s Kyren | |
Wilson on Monday. | |
“Snooker and Sheffield go together like peas and carrots, it’s very | |
special.” | |
But the venue’s long affiliation with the tournament has seemingly | |
come under threat from a source quite literally, and figuratively, | |
thousands of miles away. | |
As you walk through the spectacularly unspectacular bowls of the | |
theatre, everyone is talking about the growing influence of Saudi | |
Arabia on snooker. | |
The Kingdom recently signed a lucrative deal with WST which some | |
predict is a precursor to the event moving to Saudi Arabia once the | |
current contract with the Crucible Theatre ends in 2027. | |
It’s a decision which might make business sense, but one that would | |
tear the sport away from one of its spiritual homes, given the | |
historical connection between snooker and the Crucible. | |
‘Theatre of dreams’ | |
Getting off the train at Sheffield, a city made famous by its historic | |
steel production, you might expect to be confronted by a wash of neon | |
promotional material, advertising this year’s championship. | |
But while such events in other sports might trigger a festival-like | |
atmosphere in its host city, the reality in Sheffield is somewhat | |
different. | |
In the place of jovial fans and buzzing excitement, there’s a slow | |
slog up the hill toward a somewhat nondescript building which blends | |
into the sea of grey around it. | |
While Sheffield locals go about their day as usual, a smattering of | |
fans take refuge from the cold breeze in a conservatory opposite the | |
venue where they queue up to test their ability with a number of | |
snooker challenges. | |
Many fans tell CNN how excited they are to be here, and that they’ve | |
been waiting all year to make the trip, but the noise levels never peak | |
higher than a quiet murmur. | |
For much of the year, the Crucible Theatre is home to an array of world | |
class productions and is considered one of the best places to watch | |
live theatre in England, if not the world. | |
It’s designed specifically with the audience in mind, with seats | |
cascading down onto the thrust stage which has been home to | |
Shakespearian tragedies and modern classics. | |
Snooker was brought to this pocket of northern England by promoter Mike | |
Watterson in 1977, after his wife had watched a play at the theatre and | |
suggested it could be a good option to hold the championship. | |
Even at that time, there were fears the venue would be too small to | |
hold the two snooker tables needed to host the tournament, but the | |
decision was made to give it a go. | |
Now the 980-capacity arena could be sold out multiple times over, with | |
the historic venue in desperate need of evolution. In a world where | |
money is king, the Crucible Theatre is seemingly holding the business | |
of the tournament back. | |
This year, Iranian player Hossein Vafaei even said the venue “smells | |
really bad,” a damning verdict for a space so loved by so many. | |
But while its drab hallways perhaps could do with a lick of paint, the | |
arena floor immediately grabs the eye. | |
The two 12x6ft tables stand strong under the bright lights, covered by | |
an immaculate green cloth. Every kink, every flick of chalk is enough | |
to derail the players, so the pristine playing surface is closely | |
monitored by a small team of experts – cared for like the green turf | |
at Wembley Stadium. | |
Snooker experienced its boom years here in the 1980s and these walls | |
have crowned dozens of world champions throughout the decades. You can | |
feel the history, and that’s perhaps more important than anything | |
money can buy. | |
The arena’s seats are closely wedged together and tower over the | |
players as they take to the stage which lives up to its crucible name. | |
Fans are so close to the players, it’s as if they are part of the | |
action. So close that they can see every furrowed brow from the | |
players. | |
“Every seat is a great seat, you feel like the crowd is right on top | |
of you because that’s how it’s been designed,” Murphy adds. | |
“This place has been designed for performing and so when you get | |
here, that atmosphere is just incredible.” | |
“We are very, very lucky. It’s our theatre of dreams. Young | |
players, like myself, when we started playing, we dreamt of doing it | |
here. Like tennis players dream of doing it at Wimbledon.” | |
Money vs. Romanticism | |
Like many fans attending this year, the 2005 world champion Murphy does | |
not want the championship to move away from the Crucible Theatre, but | |
he knows that romance and nostalgia alone will not be enough to keep | |
the tournament at the venue. | |
While Sheffield holds the memories, Saudi Arabia offers the key to | |
larger prize money and bigger venues. The nation has disrupted the | |
landscape of top-flight soccer and caused a bitter divide in | |
professional golf. | |
Snooker, it seems, could be next in line. | |
“Unfortunately, there is no real battle between nostalgia and | |
business. There is no fight, really. Money wins everyday, that’s the | |
nature of the world,” Murphy concedes, calling on Sheffield to build | |
a bigger arena in the city. | |
“With my snooker-lover’s hat on, I don’t want the World | |
Championships to leave here at all but commercially we can’t keep | |
having our biggest event in our smallest venue.” | |
It’s a sentiment shared, perhaps more brutally, by the game’s | |
biggest star, Ronnie O’Sullivan. | |
The Englishman is arguably the greatest player to ever pick up a | |
snooker cue and has won seven world titles to date. His personality and | |
unadulterated talent has seen him grow bigger than the game and he’s | |
frequently threatened to walk away from the sport unless it starts | |
catching up. | |
Ronnie O’Sullivan’s influence | |
He has been critical of the the Crucible Theatre in the past, wanting a | |
touch more luxury from the venue. | |
Perhaps ominously, O’Sullivan recently signed a three-year deal with | |
Saudi Arabia which will see him act as an ambassador for the sport in | |
the nation. | |
Speaking to reporters after his first-round victory at this year’s | |
event, the 48-year-old reiterated his stance that the respect for | |
history should not stand in the way of progression. | |
“Each sport is a business, whether you like it or not. So you have to | |
do what’s right for you. We live in a competitive world so it’s | |
great because there is choice out there,” he told journalists | |
bluntly, showcasing a Saudi-owned sponsor on his sleeve. | |
“The Saudis are a powerful outfit, same as China, they are serious | |
players. Things get done very quickly. They’re hard to turn down. | |
“For me, I just want to play snooker, I want to be looked after, I | |
want to be pampered. Anyone wants to pamper me, I’m your man.” | |
Saudi Arabia has previously pushed back on allegations of | |
“sportswashing,” which involves countries using high-profile | |
sporting events to project a favorable image of their country around | |
the world, often to draw attention away from alleged wrongdoing. | |
O’Sullivan was quick to dismiss the notion that Saudi Arabia’s | |
human rights record would potentially put him off the venture, pointing | |
instead to the wrongdoings of countries in the Western world. | |
While the sport’s biggest star remains open to a move, the | |
tournament’s organizer told CNN it was in talks with Sheffield city | |
council about new plans for the venue but did say it was exploring all | |
opportunities. | |
“Firstly, we love the Crucible and we absolutely share the connection | |
which players and fans feel,” WST chairman Steve Dawson said in a | |
statement. | |
“It is one of the great arenas in any sport worldwide and as soon as | |
you walk through the door you feel the history and remember all the | |
great moments that have played out on that stage. There is a very | |
strong emotional attachment. | |
“We have a responsibility to the players, the fans and the sport | |
itself to consider all options regarding the future of the Championship | |
after 2027, whether that means staying in Sheffield or moving the event | |
elsewhere. | |
“We are a rapidly growing sport and this is already a huge global | |
event, the pinnacle of the season and a worldwide showcase of the | |
sport. We will maximize its potential.” | |
While organizers, players and fans alike wax lyrical about what the | |
Crucible Theatre means to snooker, there is a sense of inevitability | |
around the venue this year that an era is slowly coming to an end. | |
Saudi Arabia’s pursuit of snooker should not be surprising, but | |
moving the World Snooker Championship would be an emotional decision | |
for many of its fans. | |
In search of a more profitable future, though, snooker could be the | |
latest sport to turn to Saudi for help. Either way, it seems like the | |
Crucible Theatre might get left in the rear-view mirror if it doesn’t | |
keep up with the sport’s new demands. | |
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