Is there too much darts on TV?

Post by **Incredible Justine** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 5:00 pm

Did Tony Green ever find out the Taylor v Anderson final result. Last i heard he was going to look for it.

Post by **Paddy McGinty** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 6:14 pm

Zeyes wrote:Some people must be really worried that the split might come to an end one day, and all the players will then be "the same old faces" all the time...

Yes indeed, under the present format that's exactly what will happen.......

Post by **PT13** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 7:54 pm

The best darts events, by some way, in my opinion, are:

1. The World Championship (the biggest event of all - using set play)
2. The World Matchplay (the biggest event for legs only play)
3. The Grand Slam of Darts (the biggest event for round robin before knockouts - plus having the best BDO players)
4. The World Grand Prix (the biggest event for the double in format)
5. Premier League (the event that goes all over, before the knockout format at the end)

Post by **PT13** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:07 pm

Paddy McGinty wrote:I would like to see more BDO events on TV and less PDC ones. It does get boring seeing the same old faces and this would help counteract the monotony.

Do you know why the split happened in the first place? Precisely because the BDO hierarchy wouldn't get more events on television and wouldn't allow the WDC to set up their own events without being banned. 1989-1991 had seen just the World Championship on television. The WDC was set up in the first place because 3 and a half years of internal pressure from the Darts Council had failed to produce any results. The BDO hierarchy acted like the players had no rights, no sponsors and no agents. The WDC got huge heat for holding the 1992 Lada UK Masters on Anglia Television, and warned not to repeat it. Suddenly, the 1992 World Masters was on Sky, but before the 1993 World Championship, Olly Croft couldn't guarantee more than one event per year on television. There was no need for a split if the BDO hadn't been so utterly intransigent in acting like they didn't own darts players a living.

John Lowe could see the warning signs as far back as 1975, believe it or not. However, while the prize money, TV tournaments and exhibition money was flowing in, it never reached a head. Once the TV coverage almost disappeared, and the new players like Taylor and Priestley got very little TV exposure, which meant less exhibition money too, matters soon started coming to a head fast.

PDC events usually have different formats, as I've mentioned in my previous post, and this does help to mix things up. As well as the top 5 events I mentioned in my previous post, there's the UK Open (the FA Cup of darts with a random draw each round), and the Masters (top 16 players). This variation in TV tournament formats can most likely be improved even further. I asked about the possibility of a TV tournament with a quadro dartboard, like the UK Matchplay from 1993-1996, in another thread, but it didn't receive the most positive of responses from some other posters.

Post by **Ginge** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:12 pm

Because its already been done and it blobbed. Why try it again?

Post by **DavidB** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:19 pm

PT13 wrote:

John Lowe could see the warning signs as far back as 1975, believe it or not.

How so and what did he say???

Post by **PT13** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 8:29 pm

DavidB wrote:
PT13 wrote:

John Lowe could see the warning signs as far back as 1975, believe it or not.

How so and what did he say???

Lowe mentioned it in his autobiography. Players would lose money whenever they played for their country, while they also had no say at all in the running of darts, often wouldn't be allowed to wear their personal sponsors on their shirts, and would have to wear BDO sponsors on their shirts, for free. Lowe and some of the top players would often have meetings with the BDO about these issues. Lowe recalls one occasion when Olly Croft told him "The BDO made you what you are", and Lowe responded "Has it occurred to you that we dart players have made the BDO what it is?". Bristow at that time (late 1970s or so) was all for greater power for the players, but he strongly defended Olly and Lorna Croft, with Lowe saying that Bristow considered the Crofts as if they were his own family. While there were plenty of TV tournaments, prize money and exhibition money, things never came to a head. After the big crash of 1989 and into the early 1990s, that fast started to change. It intensified all the contradictions and brought them to the surface.

Post by **oche balboa** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:42 pm

Bradders in a bombastic mood again

Post by **Ginge** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:44 pm

Post by **ChrisW** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:52 pm

Ginge wrote:Eh?

adjective
1.
(of speech, writing, etc.) high-sounding; high-flown; inflated; pretentious.

Post by **Ginge** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:54 pm

There was nothing wrong with what I said. The quad board event wasn't a success. So why repeat it? It would merely serve to confuse and players will merely carry on aiming for the larger treble area which is what generally happened anyway.

Post by **oche balboa** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:58 pm

still bombastic

Post by **Ginge** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 10:59 pm

oche balboa wrote:still an opinion

Aye!

Post by **topcat** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:00 pm

I watch all the darts comps on tv except the premier league I only watch the finals night of that one.
Is there to much darts on tv? no is my answer if your a fan you will watch it. I watch football and love the game and I enjoy all of it Pl Championship etc etc I am not a fan of meaningless internationals but that's another debate, I have loved watching the African Cup Of Nations like millions of others and there is humongous amounts of football shown each week and no one gets bored of it, Except my wife but I think that is just an excuse to moan at me again.

I suppose it boils down to individual taste but for me the amount of darts on tv is about right. More from the BDO side would be even better.
Some people worry darts on tv will go the way snooker did but at the end of the day snooker was at it's high when the number of channels we had was not a lot and was a choice of say 5 channels, now like everything else it is a choice of 1000+ channels. The true fans will support it the prawn sandwich brigade will fall by the wayside diverting their attentions to the next craze on tv.

Post by **ChrisW** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:33 pm

Ginge wrote:There was nothing wrong with what I said. The quad board event wasn't a success. So why repeat it? It would merely serve to confuse and players will merely carry on aiming for the larger treble area which is what generally happened anyway.

Ginge admitting the trebles are bigger there.

Post by **Ginge** » Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:37 pm

Bigger than the quad section, you wally

Post by **ifm** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:40 am

PT13 wrote:
Paddy McGinty wrote:I would like to see more BDO events on TV and less PDC ones. It does get boring seeing the same old faces and this would help counteract the monotony.
Do you know why the split happened in the first place? Precisely because the BDO hierarchy wouldn't get more events on television and wouldn't allow the WDC to set up their own events without being banned. 1989-1991 had seen just the World Championship on television. The WDC was set up in the first place because 3 and a half years of internal pressure from the Darts Council had failed to produce any results. The BDO hierarchy acted like the players had no rights, no sponsors and no agents. The WDC got huge heat for holding the 1992 Lada UK Masters on Anglia Television, and warned not to repeat it. Suddenly, the 1992 World Masters was on Sky, but before the 1993 World Championship, Olly Croft couldn't guarantee more than one event per year on television. There was no need for a split if the BDO hadn't been so utterly intransigent in acting like they didn't own darts players a living.

John Lowe could see the warning signs as far back as 1975, believe it or not. However, while the prize money, TV tournaments and exhibition money was flowing in, it never reached a head. Once the TV coverage almost disappeared, and the new players like Taylor and Priestley got very little TV exposure, which meant less exhibition money too, matters soon started coming to a head fast.

PDC events usually have different formats, as I've mentioned in my previous post, and this does help to mix things up. As well as the top 5 events I mentioned in my previous post, there's the UK Open (the FA Cup of darts with a random draw each round), and the Masters (top 16 players). This variation in TV tournament formats can most likely be improved even further. I asked about the possibility of a TV tournament with a quadro dartboard, like the UK Matchplay from 1993-1996, in another thread, but it didn't receive the most positive of responses from some other posters.

Yes, yes, yes there are several versions of this, you read Lowes.
The question i would like to have answered is this, why did the BDO lose all the TV coverage in the first place?

I had a conversation with a friend the other day about this subject and he got a little angry and said something along the lines of "every comp is getting bigger, more sponsors are coming forward, more fans are buying tickets, more TV companies are looking to get the product, it's going global".
I said "do you not think that in the mid 80's Olly Croft said the same thing?"
With his rolls royce parked outside, he may even have been sitting with Tommy Cox and Dick Allyx (sp?) at the time!
My point is simple, something happened, something made the tv companies turn their backs, something caused the whole house to come crashing down.

Post by **Ginge** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 8:42 am

My assumption is that Croft got complacent, I cant imagine the PDC will do the same. The bubble was meant to burst years ago according to some, yet they were queuing round the block in Blackpool yesterday to buy Matchplay tickets, go figure.

Post by **devosteve** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:10 am

"The question i would like to have answered is this, why did the BDO lose all the TV coverage in the first place?"

Great question from ifm. Was it just complacency on the part of Olly Croft as mentioned by Ginge? Or some other factors? Was someone to blame or was it out of the BDO's hands?

It's one thing asking why the BDO didn't get new comps on when the PDC did but losing comps is another matter.

Post by **Booji Boy** » Tue Feb 03, 2015 9:14 am

ifm wrote:
PT13 wrote:
Paddy McGinty wrote:I would like to see more BDO events on TV and less PDC ones. It does get boring seeing the same old faces and this would help counteract the monotony.
Do you know why the split happened in the first place? Precisely because the BDO hierarchy wouldn't get more events on television and wouldn't allow the WDC to set up their own events without being banned. 1989-1991 had seen just the World Championship on television. The WDC was set up in the first place because 3 and a half years of internal pressure from the Darts Council had failed to produce any results. The BDO hierarchy acted like the players had no rights, no sponsors and no agents. The WDC got huge heat for holding the 1992 Lada UK Masters on Anglia Television, and warned not to repeat it. Suddenly, the 1992 World Masters was on Sky, but before the 1993 World Championship, Olly Croft couldn't guarantee more than one event per year on television. There was no need for a split if the BDO hadn't been so utterly intransigent in acting like they didn't own darts players a living.

John Lowe could see the warning signs as far back as 1975, believe it or not. However, while the prize money, TV tournaments and exhibition money was flowing in, it never reached a head. Once the TV coverage almost disappeared, and the new players like Taylor and Priestley got very little TV exposure, which meant less exhibition money too, matters soon started coming to a head fast.

PDC events usually have different formats, as I've mentioned in my previous post, and this does help to mix things up. As well as the top 5 events I mentioned in my previous post, there's the UK Open (the FA Cup of darts with a random draw each round), and the Masters (top 16 players). This variation in TV tournament formats can most likely be improved even further. I asked about the possibility of a TV tournament with a quadro dartboard, like the UK Matchplay from 1993-1996, in another thread, but it didn't receive the most positive of responses from some other posters.
Yes, yes, yes there are several versions of this, you read Lowes.
The question i would like to have answered is this, why did the BDO lose all the TV coverage in the first place?

I had a conversation with a friend the other day about this subject and he got a little angry and said something along the lines of "every comp is getting bigger, more sponsors are coming forward, more fans are buying tickets, more TV companies are looking to get the product, it's going global".
I said "do you not think that in the mid 80's Olly Croft said the same thing?"
With his rolls royce parked outside, he may even have been sitting with Tommy Cox and Dick Allyx (sp?) at the time!
My point is simple, something happened, something made the tv companies turn their backs, something caused the whole house to come crashing down.

And the answer to that is simple. Olly Croft didnt have a clue what to do with the product he had. Lets remember that Croft wasnt really responsible for darts being shown on tv in the eighties, that was down to the broadcasters.