Trump: Snooker must quit Crucible to grow

JUDD TRUMP wants to be snooker’s champion for change — and he would start by moving the World Championship away from Sheffield.

The 2019 world champion says the sport is ‘miles behind’ where it needs to be, and he wants to raise snooker’s profile and see the Worlds enjoy the kind of raucous atmosphere created at the Masters, held at Alexandra Palace.

‘I just think snooker needs to change as a whole,’ the former world No 1 said. ‘A lot of the tournaments are living in the past, the venues are a bit dated.’

And Trump includes the Crucible in Sheffield, where the World Championship has been held every year since 1977.

‘Nowadays you have to have hospitality. You have it at Wimbledon, in golf or in Formula 1.

‘You just wouldn’t expect someone like David Beckham to come and sit in the crowd at any other event would you? There’s no hospitality at the Crucible and you’re narrowing it down.’

Stephen Maguire is one player who agrees with Trump, and believes that the sport’s biggest event deserves a much bigger venue.

The Crucible holds fewer than 1,000 fans and Scotsman Maguire said, ‘I think Ally Pally has made itself our best venue by some distance. The Masters feels like our biggest event.

‘You could get 3,000 in, the World Championship would sell the tickets. The Crucible only holds 900 to 1,000, so if you could get 3,000 somewhere why not make it happen?’