World Championship would be ruined if it ever left Sheffield says Gary Wilson

The 17-day spring marathon, which starts on Saturday, is contracted to stay at the Crucible until 2027, but its future after that looks uncertain.

The famous theatre holds fewer than 1,000 fans and former World Snooker Tour chairman Barry Hearn has challenged Sheffield Council to build a bigger venue for the event.

Wilson thinks the ideal solution would be a "new Crucible" on the site of the existing building.

And the 38-year-old Tynesider, who begins his campaign next Monday, is adamant about how much would be lost if the tournament moved from the south Yorkshire city.

"It would ruin the reputation, it would ruin the whole history, it would ruin a lot of the things that you associate with the World Championship," Wilson told Sporting Life.

"It's like taking Wimbledon away and putting it somewhere else for the tennis.

"My dream scenario, if this is even feasible or possible, would be to knock the thing down, build it back again and just make the arena hold 2,000, 2,500.

WATCH: SHOULD THE WORLDS STAY OR LEAVE THE CRUCIBLE?

"I don't know the footprint of the building and all the logistics behind it, but if possible I would want to see it rebuilt, call it the Crucible, make it look pretty much the same, be the same venue essentially but just on a bigger scale in the arena.

"I love the heritage of it, I love where it is, I love the square, all of it is great. The only problem is the size. So if there's any way to just rebuild it and make it bigger, that would be the way I would want to go.

"I don't think you can change the insides of that building enough to make the arena bigger, you'd have to start again.

"Failing that, another option would be to build a different Crucible somewhere else in Sheffield, which wouldn't be great I don't think. It would be hard to find a spot as iconic as where it is at the moment.

"I would love to see a replica Crucible, just on a bigger scale. A Crucible on steroids so to speak."

There has been speculation for many years that the tournament would eventually move away from the UK. At one time, China appeared to be the most likely destination if it did.

But the Middle East has emerged as a potential region for hosting the tournament. Hearn revealed last year that there had been interest from Qatar. Saudi Arabia meanwhile will stage its first ranking event next season.

Wilson doesn't want the tournament to take place outside Sheffield in future, but says if it can't continue there it "might as well" move to another country for financial reasons.

"If you couldn't do anything in Sheffield, for me it would be like, you may as well not even bother trying to look for anywhere in the UK," he said.

"You might as well just take it to Saudi, you might as well take it to China and you might as well get all the money for whatever it is.

"For me it would be, you've ruined it now anyway, so you may as well go full steam ahead with a new plan entirely. I hope that never happens deep down. I hope there's some kind of middle ground there.

"If you're going to go as far as to ruin some aspects of what you've got as a brand and as a package, it has to be a significant reason to swing it the back the other way.

"That would have to be loads of money and it would have to be the promise of a big arena that is going to get filled. Maybe 5,000 seats or something, in some place like Saudi Arabia. You'd have to have a capacity crowd that is definitely going to be there all the time.

"It would have to be a serious upside for me to ruin all the reputation and all the history of the World Championship at the Crucible."

Wilson has enjoyed the best season of his career, claiming his second successive Scottish Open title in December and following that up with Welsh Open glory in February.

And he has clearly won the very firm approval of the greatest of them all, Ronnie O'Sullivan. The seven-time world champion was full of praise for Wilson after beating him in the semi-finals of the recent Tour Championship, saying: "I really rate Gary, it's great to see him winning tournaments, he's a great lad, I love him."

Wilson is very happy to now return the compliments, saying: "It was very nice to hear what Ronnie said about me. Likewise, I think he's a great guy. We've become more mates recently, yeah he's a nice bloke, I'm always happy to see him. I sort of feel like I'm on a similar wavelength to him.

"Obviously he's the greatest player that has ever lived as well. But I don't really see him that way if you know what I mean. I don't know if I'm right or wrong here, but maybe he likes me because I am just up front, real and honest.

"He probably gets the impression I don't care how good he is at snooker or anything like that. I'm just having a laugh with him and a chat with him as (I would) with any old human being.

"I just get on with him on a personal level. And obviously at the same time I respect everything he's done in the game, and feel like I can bounce off him in that way and have similar thought processes.

"It's a very amicable kind of relationship where we get on well and I think I understand where he's coming from a lot."

There's something else Wilson wants to get off his chest too. During that match against O'Sullivan there were two controversial moments involving decisions made by referee Paul Collier.

First, Collier called Wilson for a foul, believing that he hit the pink first when potting a red. Later, he called a foul on O'Sullivan for a push shot. Wilson clearly disagreed with both decisions and doesn't think it's right that the incidents weren't checked again using video replays.

Referees are able to check footage if it's available, but there is a general principle in snooker that the game should be kept flowing where possible. Wilson obviously thinks there needs to be firmer practices put in place.

"I knew I hadn't hit the pink first when the referee called a foul. It proved on the replay that I was correct and I hit the red first," Wilson said.

"Later the referee made another mistake, he's had a bit of a bad day, and he called a push shot on Ronnie when it blatantly wasn't a push shot. I was adamant in my head that it wasn't a push shot. I think Ronnie knew it wasn't.

"When I hit the red first before the pink, that was clearly visible on the slow motion replay, which only would have taken a minute or two to bring up. The crowd saw it before anyone else, it came up on the screen in the arena. I was sitting in my chair and I heard an "ooohhh" as if they knew, because they'd seen it on the screen.

"I was thinking, if they've just seen it, why have we not brought it up yet and have me, Ronnie and the referee, and the marker as well, look at it and discuss it, and go yeah, we all agree, that's not a foul, done.

"I understand if it's a side table and we haven't got the camera footage there and whatever, I get that. But for the main table, to not bring those two incidents up, I don't think it's acceptable to be honest.

"It takes long enough for them to replace the balls in a foul and miss situation. If you're going to take that long to replace balls, surely you've got to take at least a minute or two to wait for the replay footage, get it up for a decision as tight like that and apply the same logic.

"One thing the referee Paul did say is we could get it up maybe, but at the same time you can't always tell. I thought fair enough, you can't always tell but in this instance (the foul called on Wilson) you could as it turned out. So it's not good enough to say you might not be able to tell, because you might.

"You'd rather have a look and find out for sure. If at the end of the day it was really tight and you couldn't tell, I'd be willing to say fair enough, I'm willing to accept your decision Paul, at least you've seen all the evidence you can possibly see now.

"It turned out that he apologised afterwards, he had seen the replay and said he'd made a mistake with that one. I said, this is what we need and all the players need, to be able to see this sort of stuff on the table, especially on a big table in a semi-final. There's no excuse really. It was just not right.

"It will be brought up by myself and maybe a few others in the coming weeks to try and get that rectified. It's little things maybe to some people but all the little things add up to a big thing and it makes the game just a lot more professional and a lot more fair.

"I've been done out of a shot there, as other players have been in the past. There's no excuse when it's table one, a semi-final, and the footage is there because the crowd have seen it. It needs to be changed, I'm afraid."

Despite his recent success, Wilson is often still downbeat in interviews, displaying a perfectionist attitude that is pretty common at the top level of the game.

He is aware that some people may take that badly, but honestly believes he still hasn't produced his top form despite three tournament successes in the last 16 months.

"I've realised that you don't have to be at your best to win tournaments," he said. "It gives you more belief, that you must be good if you're winning tournaments and you still feel like you're struggling through them.

"You don't want to give off the impression that it sounds a little bit ungrateful or a little bit silly. People might think, how can he say he's playing badly or struggling when when he's won a few tournaments, he's won nothing before.

"It may come across as a bit silly I guess, but it's the truth at the end of the day. I want to win a tournament where for the majority of the time I've felt like I've played near my best.

"If I do that, then it puts the argument to bed a little bit doesn't it. You start showing people, and they'll say, I know what you mean now. He struggled a bit for matches during the Scottish and Welsh, yet he's won this tournament and he's played brilliantly.

"That's the next step for me, to show more of my level more consistently and yeah, try and vie for the biggest tournaments now."

Now comes the biggest event of them all in Sheffield. Wilson reached the semi-finals at the Crucible five years ago, losing to eventual winner Judd Trump. He insists for now however that his focus is just on winning his first-round match.

"I guess the only real goal I have to start with is to get through that first round," he said.

"Once you do that, you feel like you're in the tournament and you hope to play some good snooker over three sessions. I'm thinking no further than that. I just want to get through that first game at the Crucible."

ALSO READ: Neal Foulds' best players who didn't conquer the Crucible

ALSO READ: Richard Mann's World Championship top 16 profiles