Snooker Masters 2012 moves from Wembley Arena to Alexandra Palace in London
One of the highlights of the snooker season, the Snooker Masters, will move to a new home in the upcoming season. The World Snooker organisers have decided to shift the venue from Wembley Arena to
Alexandra Palace, London in 2012.
London’s Wembley Arena has been hosting the Masters for the last five years (2007-2011) and before that, the event was held at the Wembley Conference Centre from 1979 to 2006. But this season the
world snooker boss Barry Hearn, decided to organise the prestigious invitation event at its new home.
The 38th edition of the event will take place from January 15 to 22 next year with BBC Sport, Eurosport and CCTV China televising the tournament. Alexandra Palace has the capacity of 1,500
spectators, car parking spaces, the underground and overground stations access and facilities of group travel.
The World Snooker stated that the Alexandra Palace will give a new lease of life to the Snooker Masters as the venue has a much closer proximity to Central London than Wembley Arena.
“The Alexandra Palace is an absolutely fantastic venue, as we've found by staging the World Darts Championship there. We’re keeping the event in London but the players are going to experience something
new and wonderful. There's a great team in place at Alexandra Palace and we look forward to working with them again.” said World Snooker Chairman, Barry Hearn.
The managing director of Alexandra Palace Trading Limited, Rebecca Kane commented, “Alexandra Palace has a strong heritage in bringing live entertainment to the fans from a unique setting overlooking
the whole of London, making us the perfect venue for music and sport.”
Meanwhile, the Chairman Barry Hearn, has also shifted the second most prestigious event of snooker, the UK Championship, to its old venue. He decided that the Barbican Centre in York will host this
season’s UK Championship again after five years. The Championship was held here last time in 2006.
Hearn believes that the arena will have the same glory for hosting the Championship as the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield holds for the World Snooker Championship. He expressed they are very excited
to go back to the Barbican Centre for the UK Championship, that will run from December 3 to 11, 2011.
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