Mark Allen believes the Betfred World Championship has outgrown the Crucible in Sheffield.
Judd Trump, Neil Robertson and Stephen Maguire have led calls for the game’s blue riband event to leave its spiritual home where it has been based since way back in 1977.
The lack of available space for corporate hospitality and the ability to sell out a bigger venue are the reasons players believe the time has come to move away.
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And Allen feels World Snooker have made a rod for its own back due to the huge success of the Masters at Ally Pally.
Packed houses of 2,000 raucous fans, with hospitality boxes and sofas, have created the best atmosphere the sport has ever seen.
And Antrim ace Allen, who kicks off his bid for a maiden Crucible crown against Scott Donaldson on Monday, admitted: “I think we’ve outgrown the Crucible.
“I think the only thing you can do now is move away. I never thought I’d say that because I’m a traditionalist and I love everything about the Crucible.
“But it’s a sign of the times and the players now look at it now that the World Championship isn’t the biggest event now.
"For me personally the Masters has got so big now. What World Snooker have done with the set up and the razzmatazz is incredible.
“I don’t think we can do anything we do at the Masters here at Sheffield.
“The Masters is the biggest event now, if you take away the financial aspect of it. I think that’s the reason I would move the worlds away from the Crucible.”
World No 15 Allen heads to the game’s greatest spectacle under the radar compared to previous years due to a severe lack of form.
But the 36-year-old, who won the Northern Ireland Open back in November, hopes that can play into his hands after falling flat on his face in the past with expectations high.
The former semi-finalist, who has made just one Crucible quarter-final in a decade, admitted: “I’ll be honest my prep’s not been good and I’ve not been playing well.
“My results in tournaments haven’t been very good either. I’ve been putting in a lot of hours to try and correct what’s going wrong and I don’t think I’ve been able to correct anything.
“I think that could help though. I’ve come here many years in great form off the back of tournament wins and great runs and played awful here.
“As much as I know I’ve got the game to win the whole tournament if I’m playing well, I’m coming in with no expectations this year.
“My form’s been really, really poor. It’s been a weird season for me. I normally play really badly in Belfast and I won it, I have a pretty poor record here so hopefully it’s an omen.
“Some of the tournaments I normally do well in I’ve not down well so hopefully it’s role reversed.”
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