On the day that Barry Hearn warned that Sheffield’s days of staging the World Snooker Championship could be numbered, Ronnie O’Sullivan roared out of the blocks in his quest to make Crucible history by becoming the first eight-time world champion in the modern era.

Facing the Welsh qualifier Jackson Page, O’Sullivan built an 8-1 lead in the first session of their first round match. He fired four half-centuries plus a break of 122 in the fifth frame to leave the 22-year-old Page next to no chance of rescuing the situation when they resume tomorrow. Page was in danger of losing the session to whitewash until he crafted a superb break of 142 in the seventh frame.

Earlier, Hearn – the former World Snooker chairman and president of Matchroom – warned Sheffield City Council that the Crucible needs to be replaced with a larger venue if the city wants to keep the tournament.

Speculation over the future of the venue was sparked in the build-up to this year’s tournament by O’Sullivan, who suggested it should be moved to either Saudi Arabia or China in order to maximise profit potential. After a first-round defeat, Hossein Vafaei then blasted conditions at the historic venue, calling it “smelly” and comparing practice room facilities to “playing in a garage”.

In response to the criticism, Hearn said: “I am doing absolutely everything I can to stay in Sheffield and it takes two to tango. I’ll stay here while we’re wanted, and I think we’re wanted. But they’ve got to be realistic. We’ve said for the last few years we need a new venue that seats 2,500 to 3,000 people. I’m looking for Sheffield to come to the party and if they do, we’re staying.”

But Hearn stressed that he has no qualms about taking the event away from its home since 1977. “There’s a price for everything, whether we like it or not,” he said.

“I’d love to tell you we live in a fairy story, but it’s not that simple,” Hearn added. “In any professional sport, the first demand is prize money and they want to see it as big as possible, and we have a duty to those players.

“I believe next year we go through the £20m prize money, but you must never get complacent in your life and sit down and enjoy the luxury of saying ‘job done’. There’s never enough. It’s all about the money – get used to it.”

A number of top players have hit back at criticism of the Crucible, with former world champion Shaun Murphy calling Vafaei’s comments “sacrilege”, and six-time runner-up Jimmy White describing them as “absolute nonsense”.

Other leading players, including Trump and Mark Allen, have acknowledged the quandary facing the sport’s governors but stopped short of joining O’Sullivan and Vafaei in calling for it for to be moved away.

Kyren Wilson missed out on another Crucible maximum but completed a comprehensive first-round win over Dominic Dale. It marked a welcome return to form for Wilson, who has failed to reach a tour final this season and candidly admitted to off-field struggles involving illnesses to his wife and son.

“A big part of my game is heavy scoring and there are definitely players that are suited to this event and I would like to believe I’m one of those,” said Wilson, who will face Joe O’Connor in round two. “If I play like that it will take some performance in any round for any player to stop me.”

Jack Lisowski held his nerve to sink the seventh seed, Ding Junhui, in a decider and set up a last-16 meeting with former champion Stuart Bingham. Ding’s defeat made him the seventh seed to fall in the first round of this year’s World Championship.