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| Tell a Friend Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2007 11:32 am Post subject: Darts – New Sports Entertainment? |
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Darts – New Sports Entertainment?
By
Jay Morey
Darts. The game for the working classes, a pub recreation. In its early to mid-eighties heyday such players as Eric Bristow and Jockey Wilson made it one of the most watched events on national television. Upwards of fifteen million would tune in to see the BDO (British Darts Organisation) World Championships. Yet later on that decade and continuing into the nineties and naughties it took a nosedive. A new darts federation was built in 1992, called the PDC (Professional Darts Corporation). It found a home on Sky Sports and has to this day been fighting the dominance of the BDO. And for the last two years at least, it has been winning. BDO can be likened to WCW while the NWO was losing its popularity, and bad management and terrible storylines hampered it moving forward. It buried itself with the help of a shovel from Vince McMahon. And the same is happening in the sports entertainment that is darts.
In rugby there are two codes. League and Union. To switch between them is an awkward challenge as of the different styles of play, and less or more prestige depending on where the player chooses. But with Darts this problem does not exist. As simple as the sport is, it still holds its territory firmly. If you’re BDO, you stay that way. To jump is seen as disrespecting the prestige of the BDO. But as the PDC has initiated more tournaments and given better TV rights and prize money, it appears a player would be a fool to stay with the archaic structure of BBC 2’s BDO.
The 2006 runner-up for the BDO World title, Raymond Van Barneveld, a Dutchman and then 4-time world champion, decided to jump. In doing so he started at the bottom of the PDC rankings and was viewed as committing career suicide for wanting to take on the challenge of the PDC’s main man, Phil Taylor. Yet in just ten months he hit a live televised nine-dart finish and beat Taylor in the World Final to finally achieve his goal of being five–time champion. Seeing this, young players such as Jelle Klaasen and sensation Michael Van Gerwen have also made the jump. The BDO’s refusal to upgrade and give the sport a more entertainment feel is leading to its demise. More and more players are making the switch to the ever-growing PDC, ready to take on the dominance of Taylor, Barneveld and definite future world champion Van Gerwen. The floodgates have been opened and with ITV once again taking an interest in the darts revival, the Grand slam of Darts will be broadcast in November on both ITV1 and ITV4. This is a tournament where both players from the BDO and PDC finally battle for who is greatest.
My prediction is a complete dismissal of any challenge the BDO have to offer. They are depleted, losing more players in the shape of Mervin King and even their premier match referee George Noble. Hopefully now the once great BDO can be laid to rest and the PDC be darts main representative. |
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