Expanded field for 2019 PDC world championship plus £700,000 prizefund incress

[Little Lonely Garry]

dont matter if there were bdo points, loyalty point, green sheild stamps, mc donalds vouchers on offer with the WDF

The WDF is not the BDO.
You like the others too dense to grasp it, is countries outside of
Britain are not in the BDO,

And before you give me bdo run the world the bdo do so on behalf of the WDF which the bdo is a member of. The WDF is not a member of the bdo.
So everyone that plays darts outside of Britain is not playing in the BDO

[Addicks Fan]

dont matter if there were bdo points, loyalty point, green sheild stamps, mc donalds vouchers on offer with the WDF

The WDF is not the BDO.
You like the others too dense to grasp it, is countries outside of
Britain are not in the BDO,

And before you give me bdo run the world the bdo do so on behalf of the WDF which the bdo is a member of. The WDF is not a member of the bdo.
So everyone that plays darts outside of Britain is not playing in the BDO

So what about the 67 countries listed as Associated Members of the BDO?

[Zeyes]

The phrase "a mile wide and an inch deep" comes to mind.

[Little Lonely Garry]

dont matter if there were bdo points, loyalty point, green sheild stamps, mc donalds vouchers on offer with the WDF

The WDF is not the BDO.
You like the others too dense to grasp it, is countries outside of
Britain are not in the BDO,

And before you give me bdo run the world the bdo do so on behalf of the WDF which the bdo is a member of. The WDF is not a member of the bdo.
So everyone that plays darts outside of Britain is not playing in the BDO

So what about the 67 countries listed as Associated Members of the BDO?

Mick McGowan won the Irish championship on the Citi West Stage in Dublin during the PDC Grand Prix, are you saying that was bdo ?
Are you telling me lads in Australia chucking darts are part of the BRITISH darts org ?
Or lads in other countries outside Britain ?

The claim was made that corey caby and dimitri were ex bdo players,
They were not, they may have been WDF members taking part in events the BDO awarded points in on BEHALF of the WDF since the BDO World Champs belongs to...wait for it...the WDF.

[el_ringo]

dont matter if there were bdo points, loyalty point, green sheild stamps, mc donalds vouchers on offer with the WDF

The WDF is not the BDO.
You like the others too dense to grasp it, is countries outside of
Britain are not in the BDO,

And before you give me bdo run the world the bdo do so on behalf of the WDF which the bdo is a member of. The WDF is not a member of the bdo.
So everyone that plays darts outside of Britain is not playing in the BDO

To be fair to them Mr Murphy when Olly was in at the helm of both for all sake and purposes the BDO was the WDF so its very hard now for people to accept that they may possibly have different agendas or operate independently of each other.

It's always interesting to note that the split in darts ( and relevant court case) is always referred to as the PDC (WDC) breaking away from the BDO and not the WDF , even though , at the time, the PDC (WDC) claimed to be a World Governing body for professional darts. A claim which was subsequently negated by the Tomlin Order between the BDO and PDC (WDC).

But really if the WDF ceased to be tomorrow would anyone in the UK notice , care or have any effect on their darts ?

[Little Lonely Garry]

dont matter if there were bdo points, loyalty point, green sheild stamps, mc donalds vouchers on offer with the WDF

The WDF is not the BDO.
You like the others too dense to grasp it, is countries outside of
Britain are not in the BDO,

And before you give me bdo run the world the bdo do so on behalf of the WDF which the bdo is a member of. The WDF is not a member of the bdo.
So everyone that plays darts outside of Britain is not playing in the BDO

To be fair to them Mr Murphy when Olly was in at the helm of both for all sake and purposes the BDO was the WDF so its very hard now for people to accept that they may possibly have different agendas or operate independently of each other.

It's always interesting to note that the split in darts ( and relevant court case) is always referred to as the PDC (WDC) breaking away from the BDO and not the WDF , even though , at the time, the PDC (WDC) claimed to be a World Governing body for professional darts. A claim which was subsequently negated by the Tomlin Order between the BDO and PDC (WDC).

But really if the WDF ceased to be tomorrow would anyone in the UK notice , care or have any effect on their darts ?

I can understand this.

The problem is the bdo itself should not even exist in that if you have scottish darts, the edo, welsh etc all part of a WDF then realistically the bdo serves no purpose other than to hold lakeside which is does on behalf of the WDF.

If the WDF , all be it unlikely decide to run the world champs themselves what purpose does the bdo have ?

Take football, you have the sfa, fa, welsh etc, you dont see a british football org running the world cup for FIFA, because they are not idiots to let that happen.

[Zeyes]

Or to be blunt: Nobody in the UK needs the WDF. Nobody outside the UK needs the BDO.

[Zeyes]

Or to be blunt: Nobody in the UK needs the WDF. Nobody outside the UK needs the BDO. That's pretty much the main reason both orgs are finding it difficult to maintain a position next to the ever-expanding PDC, although the BDO has the much bigger problem with it.

[cobra]

Impressive increase. The numbers are obscene, they will make you flip.

[markymark]

But really if the WDF ceased to be tomorrow would anyone in the UK notice , care or have any effect on their darts ?

Whoever wins that end of year prize, and no-one else? (Or that event at IoM that has WDF ranking points.)

[BOOM]

I'm not complaining - I like it. I'm just pointing out that these players never make an impact, so adding more of them doesn't make much sense. Unless "expanded field" means about 4 players, in which case it's no big deal. Plus I'm not sure that's true that these non-tour prelim players will become more capable of winning if the field's expanded. There certainly hasn't been much improvement since they first started havig these type of players in it. To reiterate though, I'm not slating them - I like seeing these players, I just don't see any point in adding a load more of them

This isnt true whatsoever, imo.

I'm also not sure why one would expect massive improvement in the prelim round itself, because the whole point of it is to discover players who have the potential to play the full tour, at which point they won't be playing in the prelims anymore. The prelim participants will always mainly be guys who aren't there yet. (Dare I say "conveyor belt"?)

Mansell, Petersen, Gurney, Hopp, Lerchbacher, Reyes, Wattimena and Groen all appeared in the prelims before they went onto the full tour.

It feels like a bit of a moot point going on about this because no one knows what exactly this field expansion will entail but if it's to add more prelim players, I don't see the point. I've no issue with these guys by the way, I just don't see why we need more of them in the tournament. I've always considered the prelims about giving the tournament a bit of a global feel rather than "identifying players who can play on the tour". Example - Portela, he never played in the prelims but he was on the tour this year. All those others you listed could just have gone to Q School - the prelim round of the WC has nothing to do with it.

[Astonvilla]

Indeed if they expand the field enough it could mean less money in early rounds not more.

[Zeyes]

It feels like a bit of a moot point going on about this because no one knows what exactly this field expansion will entail but if it's to add more prelim players, I don't see the point. I've no issue with these guys by the way, I just don't see why we need more of them in the tournament. I've always considered the prelims about giving the tournament a bit of a global feel rather than "identifying players who can play on the tour". Example - Portela, he never played in the prelims but he was on the tour this year. All those others you listed could just have gone to Q School - the prelim round of the WC has nothing to do with it.

Portela only avoided the prelim round because of a recent rule change that put some players directly into the first round by necessity - which will cease again if they do go to 80 players. In terms of how he got to play in the World Championship he's totally a prelim-level guy.

What I meant by "identifying players" is that the goal clearly is to give the whole tour a global feel eventually, not only the Worlds. The World Championship invites are just the starting point to funnel international players into the PDC experience. (Just like the GSOD invites have always been about doing the same with BDO players.) Obviously this process has worked better with European players so far than with those from elsewhere, which may mean the PDC wants to step it up now with additional invites from the far corners.

[Dannyboy]

So where should the extra players come from, say it is an extra 8 players?

Currently it is:
16 x Pro Tour Order of Merit (automatic into Last 64)
3 x PDPA qualifiers
21 x International qualifiers

International qualifiers:
Southern Europe (Antonio Alcinas)
Scandinavia x 2 (Marko Kantele & Kim Viljanen)
Ireland (William O'Connor)
South Africa (Devon Petersen)
Central & South America (Diogo Portela)
Eastern Europe x 2 (Krzysztof Ratajski & Alan Ljubic)
Japan (Seigo Asada)
North America (Willard Bruguier)
New Zealand (Cody Harris)
Oceania (Bernie Smith)
Australia (Gordon Mathers)
Youth (Luke Humphries)
North & East Asia (Kai Fan Leung)
South Asia (Paul Lim)
Germany (Kevin Munch)
Central Europe (Kenny Neyens)
Russia (Alexsandr Oreshkin)
Canada (Jeff Smith)
China (Zong Xiao Chen)

I'd say all of the above, with the following changes:
2 x Youth players guaranteed
1 x South Africa to change to all Africa
3 x North American qualifiers, with at least 1 from USA and Canada
At least 2 x DPA Australia qualifiers through the OoM
1 x Poland (separate qualifier)
1 x Austria (separate qualifier)
2 x Germany (separate qualifier)
1 x Philippines (separate qualifier)
1 x India (separate qualifier)

[malcy93]

For the Oceania I think they will want at least 1 from NZ could link to WSOD event there and local qualifier.

Are there any decent players in Middle East as that’s a market they already broadcast in plus has a WSOD but no local players.

Surely couldn’t they find at least one so like at some of the snooker events to get local interest the bottom in the OOM of the 8 PDC players at the event has to do a playoff first against a local player and that guy gets to the Worlds as well.

[Zeyes]

I'd guess they will duplicate the Oceania setup in North America and invite 3 players now: one overall area champion and one each from the US and Canada.

[Bram_1900]

I think they will expand the PC Oom list to the best 20 players

[el_ringo]

Are there any decent players in Middle East as that’s a market they already broadcast in plus has a WSOD but no local players.

Surely couldn’t they find at least one so like at some of the snooker events to get local interest the bottom in the OOM of the 8 PDC players at the event has to do a playoff first against a local player and that guy gets to the Worlds as well.

I think their market in the middle east are the ex-pats the crowd at the Dubai WSOD was certainly virtually all westerners.
Not sure a local person would appeal to this market

[malcy93]

Are there any decent players in Middle East as that’s a market they already broadcast in plus has a WSOD but no local players.

Surely couldn’t they find at least one so like at some of the snooker events to get local interest the bottom in the OOM of the 8 PDC players at the event has to do a playoff first against a local player and that guy gets to the Worlds as well.

I think their market in the middle east are the ex-pats the crowd at the Dubai WSOD was certainly virtually all westerners.
Not sure a local person would appeal to this market

I suppose the locals aren’t the target market given they’re not supposed to drink alcohol

[Dannyboy]

I think they will expand the PC Oom list to the best 20 players

I don't think this is out of the question. If they did it this year, Darren Johnson, Krzysztof Ratajski, Chris Quantock and Brendan Dolan would've qualified through this method, so not necessarily fulfilling the criteria for more international players.