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Why Saudi Arabia Masters record prize money is bad news for Crucible's future as World Snooker Championship host
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Published 15/08/2024 at 15:30 GMT+1
The record prize money at the inaugural Saudi Arabia Masters (August 31-September 7) is a landmark moment for snooker with the new event matching the World Championship for prize money, the first time this has happened in the modern history of the professional era. But it is hardly welcome news for the Crucible's bid to keep the sport's flagship event in Sheffield beyond 2027.
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The times they are a changing. When John Spencer defeated Cliff 'The Grinder' Thorburn 25-21 in 1977 – the first year of the modern televised World Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield – the Englishman picked up a winner's cheque of £6,000 from an overall prize fund of £17,000.
Some 47 years on, Kyren Wilson collected a whopping ÂŁ500,000 for his 18-14 win over Jak Jones in the 48th Crucible final in May. Yet despite offering a significant total prize pot of ÂŁ2,395,000, the sport's greatest tournament can no longer boast about having the largest financial inducements to match its stature.
When the inaugural Saudi Arabia Masters concludes on September 7 in Riyadh, the winner will also earn a cheque for ÂŁ500,000 with the runner-up handed ÂŁ200,000, the same amount Jones wallowed in for his unheralded run to the world final.
The new competition also matches the World Championship for the rest of the field with semi-finalists (ÂŁ100,000), quarter-finalists (ÂŁ50,000), last 16 (ÂŁ30,000) and last 32 (ÂŁ20,000) earning record sums for a ranking event outside the Crucible.
Unlike the 32 men who reached the final stage of the Crucible, every competitor in the 144-player field will all begin their campaign at the finals venue at Green Halls in Riyadh. The top 16 seeds starting in the round of 32 will replicate the qualifying format for the World Championship.
The lower-ranked players are also guaranteed at least ÂŁ2,000 for making the trip. And there is the added incentive of a tasty ÂŁ50,000 bonus for producing a 147 in Saudi.
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There seems to be money everywhere you look when Saudi Arabia commits to sport as boxing, football and golf will testify. Which is a wonderful news for those who make their living off potting balls as a profession, but is hardly reassuring vibes for the game's most celebrated venue.
With the World Championship's contract at the Crucible due to expire in 2027, half a century after the great Spencer was adorned its maiden winner, there will be an unease about what the investment from Saudi means for the prospects of the green baize's blue-chip event remaining in Sheffield.
Speculation has been rife in recent years about a possible move away from the Steel City to more lucrative climes, but with Saudi Arabia offering record prize money for any event on record beyond the World Championship, there is suddenly meat on the bone to go with the cue ball conjecture. And plenty to chew over.
The former World Snooker chairman Barry Hearn told Eurosport in April that he would act in the best interests of the players amid gloomy predictions from former world champions John Higgins, Mark Williams and Shaun Murphy that the Crucible's days are numbered as host venue.
"Common sense says I have a fiduciary duty to the players to provide the biggest prize money because they're professional athletes," said Hearn. "And there is no point in saying: 'Oh, think of the history'. You can't eat history.
"Sport, to be progressive, has got to provide bigger and bigger prize funds or it is not going to be competitive in today's world, and will no longer be aspirational to young people that we want to see come into the sport."
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The question you have to ask is obvious: If Saudi Arabia can offer this level of prize money for a ranking event, how much would they unearth if they had the opportunity to stage a bigger, more lucrative World Championship in 2028?
The chance for the world champion to play for a historic ÂŁ1m winner's cheque beyond the end of this decade sounds eminently possible, but this is unlikely to happen in the UK.
"They wanted to do the biggest event they could, but I didn't want to endanger the status of the worlds," said Hearn speaking to seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry. "So their prize money would be the same as the worlds, and they were quite happy with that."
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Snooker's boom period of the 1980s was very much an all-British affair with the era of Spencer, Thorburn, Ray Reardon, Alex 'Hurricane' Higgins and Steve Davis, perfect for a 980-seater venue that for so long seemed sacrosanct, but may no longer may able to contain snooker's growth beyond its traditional boundaries.
Even if a larger arena is found in Sheffield, will the prize money on offer be enough to satisfy the majority of the tour? Sentiment rarely wins out in such situations.
Amid such changing times, it feels like the landmark trip to Saudi Arabia for the country's first ranking event is also symbolic of the sport's future direction of travel.
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