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Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby Andy Spark

My views on the Crucible are somewhat different!

The Crucible is indeed a great arena if you like the idea of cramped facilities and World Snooker throwing thousands of pounds down the toilet each year. They could move to a venue of double the seating capacity and still sell out most sessions. Mark Williams got it about right when he called it a "shithole", but he forgot to mention the enormous opportunity cost of keeping the World Championship there; it's the most expensive shithole in the country.

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby Pink Ball

Andy Spark wrote:My views on the Crucible are somewhat different!

The Crucible is indeed a great arena if you like the idea of cramped facilities and World Snooker throwing thousands of pounds down the toilet each year. They could move to a venue of double the seating capacity and still sell out most sessions. Mark Williams got it about right when he called it a "shithole", but he forgot to mention the enormous opportunity cost of keeping the World Championship there; it's the most expensive shithole in the country.


If you survived a plane crash you'd complain about the scar on your bottom.

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby SnookerFan

Andy Spark wrote:My views on the Crucible are somewhat different!

The Crucible is indeed a great arena if you like the idea of cramped facilities and World Snooker throwing thousands of pounds down the toilet each year. They could move to a venue of double the seating capacity and still sell out most sessions. Mark Williams got it about right when he called it a "shithole", but he forgot to mention the enormous opportunity cost of keeping the World Championship there; it's the most expensive shithole in the country.


:zzz:

People come from all over the world to visit The Crucible because it's The Crucible.

Best atmosphere or any sporting event I've ever been to. Genuine.

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby Andy Spark

SnookerFan wrote::zzz:

People come from all over the world to visit The Crucible because it's The Crucible.

Best atmosphere or any sporting event I've ever been to. Genuine.

They come not because it's the Crucible but because it's the World Championship.


What about the people that can't come to sessions because they are sold out? Also, you talk of people "from all over the world", but most overseas snooker fans can't afford to come to Sheffield just to watch live World Championship snooker. Why can't the Chinese hold it every other year? There are about a billion of them and only about 65 million British.

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby SnookerFan

I did.

I went for the first time because it was The Crucible, not because it was the World Championship. Of all the snooker I go to, it's one of the hardest for me to get to, but I wanted to go for the iconic nature of the venue. I've gone back every year purely for the atmosphere of the venue.

Out of interest, have you ever been? Not that I'm saying you don't have the right to a difference of opinion, I'm just curious.

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby Dan-cat

Andy - you ever been to the Crucible? For an ugly building made out of what looks like breeze blocks it's magical for Snooker. I've been... 4 times now.

Also - I was wondering - do you like anything about professional snooker? I'm keen to find out

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby SnookerFan

Dan-cat wrote:Andy - you ever been to the Crucible? For an ugly building made out of what looks like breeze blocks it's magical for Snooker. I've been... 4 times now.

Also - I was wondering - do you like anything about professional snooker? I'm keen to find out


He likes Ronnie. <laugh>

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby Dan-cat

SnookerFan wrote:
Dan-cat wrote:Andy - you ever been to the Crucible? For an ugly building made out of what looks like breeze blocks it's magical for Snooker. I've been... 4 times now.

Also - I was wondering - do you like anything about professional snooker? I'm keen to find out


He likes Ronnie. <laugh>



Who doesn't...? er....

:hide:

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby SnookerFan

Dan-cat wrote:
SnookerFan wrote:
Dan-cat wrote:Andy - you ever been to the Crucible? For an ugly building made out of what looks like breeze blocks it's magical for Snooker. I've been... 4 times now.

Also - I was wondering - do you like anything about professional snooker? I'm keen to find out


He likes Ronnie. <laugh>



Who doesn't...? er....

:hide:


:wild:

rofl rofl

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby Dan-cat

Contrary (social role)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A Contrary was a member of a Native North American tribal group who adopted behavior that was deliberately the opposite of other tribal members. The Contraries were found among the historical Amerindian tribes of the Great Plains. They were a small number of individuals loosely organized into a cult that was devoted to the practice of contrary behavior.

The Contraries are related, in part, to the clown organizations of the Plains Indians, as well as to Plains military societies that contained reverse warriors.[1] The Lakota word heyoka, which translates as clown or opposites, serves as a collective title for these institutionalized forms of contrary behavior of the Plains Indians. When Lakota Indians first saw European clowns, they identified them with their own term for clowns, heyoka.

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby Andy Spark

I have never been to the Crucible. Touche! I'm sure it has cliché after cliché abounding in the "pressure cooker" or "that unique Crucible atmosphere", (which fewer than a thousand people get to experience each session). However, on matters epistemological, I am a rationalist not an empiricist so I feel no need to go to confirm my belief on the matter. Empiricists will no doubt disagree.

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby Pink Ball

Andy Spark wrote:I have never been to the Crucible. Touche! I'm sure it has cliché after cliché abounding in the "pressure cooker" or "that unique Crucible atmosphere", (which fewer than a thousand people get to experience each session). However, on matters epistemological, I am a rationalist not an empiricist so I feel no need to go to confirm my belief on the matter. Empiricists will no doubt disagree.

I'm an empiricist then.

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby Master Blaster

It's a great venue for one table set-up but it's pants with the divider in place and the players have said so. So no, over a whole tournament, it's not the bees knees. It would be better if they took one of the tables somewhere else, or just moved the whole tournament to China so we could have a dedicated snooker theartre

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby SnookerFan

Master Blaster wrote:It's a great venue for one table set-up but it's pants with the divider in place and the players have said so. So no, over a whole tournament, it's not the bees knees. It would be better if they took one of the tables somewhere else, or just moved the whole tournament to China so we could have a dedicated snooker theartre


Nah, man. The cramped nature of the match is what makes it special. The players could sit on the lap of the people in the front row. :D

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby Andy Spark

I've been thinking and I wish to take back some of my comments. I've reflected and concluded that as I've never actually been there I shouldn't say that it's a rubbish place until I've visited. I'm a rationalist, but I'm also enthusiastic about science and science is empiricism, it's about seeing if something actually works. :emb:

Re: Is The Crucible the greatest sporting arena of all time?

Postby SnookerFan

Andy Spark wrote:I've been thinking and I wish to take back some of my comments. I've reflected and concluded that as I've never actually been there I shouldn't say that it's a rubbish place until I've visited. I'm a rationalist, but I'm also enthusiastic about science and science is empiricism, it's about seeing if something actually works. :emb:


I'm not going next year. I feel I have suffered from Crucible Fatique the past decade.

Give it a go, if you're able.


   

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