The World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association have a contract with the Sheffield City Council that will see the Snooker World Championships in Sheffield until 2010. Sheffield has been the home of the Snooker World Championships for the past thirty one years. Once the contract is up the Championships may be moved to China.

The Championships may make the move to China to take advantage of the country’s expanding market for snooker. The chairman of the World Professional Billiards and Snooker Association, Sir Rodney Walker has stated that he was approached for talks about a change of venue last week at the Shanghai Masters.

Walker told the Daily Mail: "During the Roewe Shanghai Masters I was approached about the prospect of moving the World Championship to China. The momentum of snooker in China is growing and this is not the first time the matter has been raised there, although discussions are at a very early stage. We have a contract with Sheffield City Council which has two years to run, but beyond that we have to evaluate all options available to us and decide what is best
for our members."

If the Championships were to move to China the sport would most likely see an increase in sponsorship revenue, more global coverage and larger attendance to events. Overall it would be a good move for the sport but not for Sheffield.




- 2008-10-08