Darts exhbo in Australia: Trouble in audience.

[Tristan]

http://www.ad.nl/ad/nl/1530/Darts/artic ... zaal.dhtml

Check the pictures, looked like quite the "party".

[Paddy McGinty]

Look what they're doing to the game of darts!!! The PDC have ruined darts, extract as much cash as possible and don't worry about the consequences, you couldn't take your family to watch that.

[TheSandman]

did B&Q have a sale on garden chairs

[ChrisW]

did B&Q have a sale on garden chairs

Looks like they were flying off the shelves.

[Paddy McGinty]

"Van Gerwen was 5-1 against Whitlock when the brawl broke out. Chairs and tables were flying through the air. Emotions were running so high that the dart players left the stage. When they returned Van Gerwen proved best to cope with the turmoil. He won the match 9-8 and thus the tournament." A very sad day for darts.

[ChrisW]

http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/victor ... 2af4aa104e

[Paddy McGinty]

This is damaging the image of Darts around the globe, The comment below was made by Stuart, an Australian:

"That's all the Darts Championship are - Booze, Booze and More Booze, and when they get bored fights, as they are drunk!!!


For SC Spray to be held pointing at spectators by Police , that has to Make Darts more violent, than at any Soccer match.


Maybe now they will think twice about hosting any Dart Champsionships!!!"

[Stubby]

Here's an Aussie version. Blaming a bored drunken crowd and not enough security.

An international darts tournament at Etihad Stadium erupted into chaos on Saturday evening when crowd members began throwing plastic chairs and tables.

One eyewitness said he travelled to Melbourne fromSydney especially to attend the Darts Invitational Challenge and was shocked and disgusted at the aggressive behaviour.

"It was an absolute mess, drunken idiots that were getting bored and looking for a bit of excitement."

He said people were jumping on the tables until they broke in half and some were body slamming other crowd members.

Security guards tried and failed to defuse the situation, before dozens of riot police entered the stadium.

"It was like a proper riot mentality. The security guards couldn't get a handle on it, it was a real uphill battle for them."

The final of the tournament was temporarily delayed due to the situation.

The eyewitness said when it eventually concluded, the winner - the world number one Michael van Gerwen - seemed unimpressed.

"The look on his face after he won, it was a look not of victory, but one of pure disgust.

"I've never seen anything like it. It wasn't good for the sport, it wasn't good for the city's image. I thought it was terrible."

Etihad Stadium communications manager Bill Lane said about 40 fans were ejected from the stadium after the violence erupted and three people were treated by paramedics for minor injuries.

He said prior to any event an assessment is carried out to determine how many security guards will be needed, and 70 were on duty on Saturday night.

"The night started really well but unfortunately a small minority did behave poorly," he said.

"There'll be a major debrief and we are talking with police and our own security contractor. We won't shy away from what happened and invariably we learn something from every event."

Mr Lane said the venue had an alcohol management plan in place and was only serving mid strength beer, with the bar closed down at the first sign of trouble.

About 40 police were brought in to help restore order.

Crowd member Tim Berzins said there was definitely not enough security at the event. 

"Etihad management certainly need to learn from that. It didn't reflect well on the general public of Australia."

[Stubby]

Was this a pdc event or an exhibition with pdc players?

[ChrisW]

70 security required. That will be some bill. But sounds like they made it back in beer sales.

[Paddy McGinty]

Was this a pdc event or an exhibition with pdc players?

FFS pull your tongue out.

[Deleted User]

Was this a pdc event or an exhibition with pdc players?

FFS pull your tongue out.

[Stubby]

Was this a pdc event or an exhibition with pdc players?

FFS pull your tongue out.

Why?
You came on here trying to score points saying look what they've done to darts.

It looks to me it was an exhibition that has been disrupted by some mindless idiots.

There's a big difference paddy

[Paddy McGinty]

Was this a pdc event or an exhibition with pdc players?

FFS pull your tongue out.

Why?
You came on here trying to score points saying look what they've done to darts.

It looks to me it was an exhibition that has been disrupted by some mindless idiots.

There's a big difference paddy

This is not point scoring, it's fact, have you seen the state of the place? Would you take your partner to a exhibition such as this? It is damaging to darts and gives it a bad name similar to what football had before they cleaned most of it up. The main reason given for it kicking off was because the players got "BORED" doesn't that tell you something.

[Dannyboy]

Looks pretty barbaric looking at the pictures and it does the sport no favours - however, unfortunately you see this in other sports too. Football more than most. You could argue nothing this serious has ever happened at any European darts event or exbo - doesn't mean it wont, but this is probably an isolated incident.

[Stubby]

Was this a pdc event or an exhibition with pdc players?

FFS pull your tongue out.

Why?
You came on here trying to score points saying look what they've done to darts.

It looks to me it was an exhibition that has been disrupted by some mindless idiots.

There's a big difference paddy

This is not point scoring, it's fact, have you seen the state of the place? Would you take your partner to a exhibition such as this? It is damaging to darts and gives it a bad name similar to what football had before they cleaned most of it up. The main reason given for it kicking off was because the players got "BORED" doesn't that tell you something.

I think the audience got bored not the players lol

I wouldn't go to large exhibitions they ain't worth the money and are normally someone trying to make a quick profit on the back of the TV tournaments.
This does give darts a bad name and as it was MvG playing obviously it must be the pdc at fault.

If it was Hankey and Adams on stage would you say the BDO are a disgrace?

[Krispy]

I thought it was a PDC event - an invitational 'tournament'/exhibition.

[edit] although it's hard to see who the actual organisers are - not that clear on ticketmaster for the tickets.

[edit] Checked it out and it's an independent event - organised by the stadium, just using PDC players. Been going for a few years now.

[Paddy McGinty]

I thought it was a PDC event - an invitational 'tournament'/exhibition.

[edit] although it's hard to see who the actual organisers are - not that clear on ticketmaster for the tickets.

Yes I thought it was, didn't Barry go over to promote it?

[Paddy McGinty]

Was this a pdc event or an exhibition with pdc players?

FFS pull your tongue out.

Why?
You came on here trying to score points saying look what they've done to darts.

It looks to me it was an exhibition that has been disrupted by some mindless idiots.

There's a big difference paddy

This is not point scoring, it's fact, have you seen the state of the place? Would you take your partner to a exhibition such as this? It is damaging to darts and gives it a bad name similar to what football had before they cleaned most of it up. The main reason given for it kicking off was because the players got "BORED" doesn't that tell you something.

I think the audience got bored not the players lol

I wouldn't go to large exhibitions they ain't worth the money and are normally someone trying to make a quick profit on the back of the TV tournaments.
This does give darts a bad name and as it was MvG playing obviously it must be the pdc at fault.

If it was Hankey and Adams on stage would you say the BDO are a disgrace?

LOL, I meant the audience, I was seething so much I couldn't think straight.

This was to promote PDC darts in Australia.

[Paddy McGinty]

Looks pretty barbaric looking at the pictures and it does the sport no favours - however, unfortunately you see this in other sports too. Football more than most. You could argue nothing this serious has ever happened at any European darts event or exbo - doesn't mean it wont, but this is probably an isolated incident.

Danny you may see this sort of behaviour at football matches but it's not normal in darts, what worries me is that we will start seeing this type of behaviour in the UK and all darts will suffer, especially with sponsorship.