Our iconic Crucible Theatre has been the home of the World Championship since 1977 and this year’s championship was one of the very best. 17 days of incredible matches ended with Zhao Xintong becoming the first ever Chinese World Champion.
For centuries, ‘Made in Sheffield’ has been associated with skill, talent and the highest quality. Zhao Xintong is a new World Champion made in Sheffield. He has made our city his home and he trains at Victoria’s Snooker Academy in the city centre. There are 300,000 snooker clubs in China but Zhao and many other Chinese players are based in Sheffield because they know that this is the home of snooker.
Throughout the last month, there has been a great festival atmosphere in Tudor Square and across the city centre with fans of all ages enjoying the big screen and soaking up the sunshine. And around the world, hundreds of millions of fans watched the World Championship. Top quality sport from Sheffield beamed into people’s homes and phones around the globe - and the sport is growing in popularity! The World Snooker Championship was streamed a record-breaking 29 million times across BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website and the BBC Sport app, a 25% increase from 2024. The Seniors Championship is also growing in popularity with fans of all ages, young and old.
Picture credit: Vox Multimedia
Sheffield is a global and growing city and snooker is a global and growing sport. The Council continues to have positive, constructive talks with our partners at World Snooker Tour and Sheffield Theatres about the future of the championship beyond 2027. We sat down with Barry Hearn, President of World Snooker for very productive talks during the Championship and he has praised the Council’s positivity and enthusiasm. We will meet again soon to continue our conversation. We are both ambitious for our city and for our sport and we will work tirelessly to keep snooker in Sheffield.
Like tennis in Wimbledon, the Grand National at Aintree, snooker belongs in Sheffield. We continue to have positive conversations with the Government about snooker in Sheffield. With new investment from government and the private sector we know that we can help to grow the sport and the city’s economy.
This city loves snooker and the last month has shown how the snooker community loves Sheffield. We are already making plans for 2026 to make the championship bigger and better. We can’t wait to roll out the green carpet again for thousands of fans, global media, and superstars like Ronnie O’Sullivan, Judd Trump and our returning champion, Zhao Xintong.