The world championship needs to change

GothamChess (Levy Rozman) has been among the first to raise the alarm about the upcoming chess world championship. It supposedly will take place in just under 3 months' time, and yet, at this point, there's no city, venue, sponsor or prize fund. 

I think the cause is a lack of interest. Yes there are political issues with a Russian playing a Chinese player, but no doubt the sponsors and venues would still be lining up if this had a significant audience.

A large part of the lack of interest is Magnus' decision not to participate. This is a very unusual situation for any game or sport; it's almost unheard of for the world's top player to neither retire nor agree to play in what should be the most important tournament.

I think, in turn, his decision is because the format just isn't interesting and needs to change. 

I'm someone that's crazy about chess, I play 5-10 blitz games every day. Yet I find the world championship pretty dull. The candidates is a great tournament, as is the world cup, but just watching two people play many games in classical time control is like purgatory IMO.

I also have issues with how the games are covered in media like chess.com, but that's something of a general problem that affects all tournaments, so I'll put that to one side.

@1

"there are political issues with a Russian playing a Chinese player" ++ Yes

"Magnus' decision not to participate"
++ Yes, though interest in a 2nd Magnus - Nepo should not be higher than Nepo - Ding.

"it's almost unheard of for the world's top player to neither retire nor agree to play" ++ Fischer

"the format just isn't interesting and needs to change." ++ Maybe speed up to 90|30

"I play 5-10 blitz" ++ There are 15|10 rapid & 3|2 blitz world championships.

Whether or not Fischer formally announced his retirement, he didn't play a competitive game for 20 years after his match with Spassky. 
So I'd agree that there are some parallels, but it's a bit different from Magnus still playing, still demonstrating daily that he's the world's best player, and yet having a world championship without him.