Shaun Murphy – ‘my dream is to bulldoze the Crucible and rebuild a bigger version’.
Shaun Murphy doesn’t want the World Snooker Championship to leave Sheffield but concedes that the Crucible Theatre is too small as a host venue.
The famous venue has staged every World Snooker Championship since 1977 and its current contract runs until 2027.
Beyond that, however, it is unclear where future editions of snooker’s blue-riband tournament will be held.
It was a controversial topic that, in some ways, overshadowed the recently concluded 2024 World Championship that was
won by Kyren Wilson.
World Snooker Tour and Matchroom Sport supremo Barry Hearn has publicly stated his wish for Sheffield City Council to fund a new and/or improved venue of greater capacity.
Players and fans have been split on the issue, with many not wanting to sacrifice the history and prestige that is already attached with the intimate setting of the Crucible Theatre.
Others understand the monetary benefit that the sport could generate if the event were able to sell more tickets, including additional options for a corporate audience.
Several alternatives have been suggested, including a move to other venues in Sheffield or the UK, or even travelling abroad with Saudi Arabia and China constantly rumoured as potential destinations.
“Listen, if it were up to me,” Shaun Murphy said on the latest episode of his
OneFourSeven Podcast with Phil Seymour.
“If I had a blank cheque book and Bob the Builder on speed dial, I’d be asking him to flatten the Crucible and start again.”
“I don’t want it to move venues, I don’t want it to go to Sheffield Arena. I don’t want it go to somewhere, I want it to stay at the Crucible.
“I think if the Crucible had twice as many seats in it, I don’t think we’d be having this conversation.
“But these are my views, and it’s important I make this clear, because I do wear several hats.
“As a player director, I have to represent the thoughts and feelings of the players that voted myself and my fellow directors onto that board.
“It’s up to us to represent their best interests. Financially, that may not be staying at the Crucible.
“Like Barry Hearn said during the championship, he has a fiduciary duty to the tour to provide and make sure that there’s ample earning opportunities for the players.
“Having our biggest event in our smallest arena doesn’t do that necessarily, does it? It’s a problem that, thankfully, I don’t have to solve.
“My absolute dream scenario would be to bulldoze the Crucible and rebuild a much bigger version of it in its place.
“I made the point during the championship that, if you look at other major sporting venues – let’s take the ones in England that spring to mind, your Wimbledons and Wembleys and places like that – that’s what they’ve done.
“To retain their position in the public’s consciousness, they’ve had to get bigger, to develop, and they’ve had to change from what they were originally.
“Nobody goes to Wimbledon and says that we’re not playing at the same Wimbledon that we did all those years ago.
“It’s one of those things. I think it will have to change, it cannot carry on in its current format.
“I think what we have to remember is, the fact that we’re having this conversation means that the game’s expanding and growing beyond any of our wildest dreams in recent years.
“The fact that we’re considering having to go elsewhere because it’s no longer big enough.
“I’m sure I heard Barry Hearn say that he thinks he could sell the Crucible out five or ten times over for the World Championships.
“If that’s true we don’t know, but we have to start taking notice of things that get said. I’d love to see what offers have actually been tabled to WST.
“That’s not going to happen, I know that. But I’d love to see what they actually are, what are we talking about here.
“And again, that brings into play that we have a responsibility to put on and provide the best events that we can for the tour to compete in.
“That’s our duty. But it’s one of those old things, isn’t it? You just can’t keep everyone happy, we’re not going to please everybody.
“It’s a real difficult one, and it really did overshadow the World Championship this year for me. It became the talking point, I got really bored of it.
“I didn’t like the fact that it was being conducted so publicly during the championship with all the dignitaries from Sheffield City Council there.
“I just don’t like that element of people being hung out to dry. It makes me uncomfortable, and I wish things like this were done behind closed doors.
“Maybe we’re part of the problem, because two weeks later, we are still sat here talking about it.
“But I think unfortunately that, despite us wanting it to go away, even if you and I never spoke about it again, this will now only intensify as what was a three-year deal and is now a two-year deal plays out.”
Murphy also offered a tribute to Dene O’Kane, who sadly
passed away in New Zealand earlier this week.
O’Kane, who reportedly suffered a fall at his home, was a professional for the best part of 20 years on the main tour – reaching the Hong Kong Open final in 1989.
“He was no age, no age at all,” Shaun Murphy said of the former World Championship quarter-finalist, who was 61.
“Very, very sad to hear that news that Dene O’Kane had passed away. Obviously there is a huge generation gap.”
“When he was playing, I was just getting into the game really. Our paths may have crossed the odd time, I think I can only remember meeting him once.
“Even just in that one meeting, you knew enough of him. He was well-respected enough that you just knew that here was a very classy man.
“A lovely player, and I think he did some commentary as well back in the day. One of New Zealand’s finest exports, certainly in cue sports terms.
“A real gent of a man, and our thoughts have to be with his family and loved ones who he leaves behind.
“But as a snooker family, we come together and remember. We just wish his family well.”
