Buzz Fledderjohn wrote:Having 2 World Championships doesn't create confusion (or at least it shouldn't), but it does add another dimension into the problems the BDO face.
Looking back at the previous page, people are tying themselves in knots looking for some sort of equivalency to the situation the BDO are currently in regarding sponsors, TV deals, and getting the former to fund the latter.
I'll admit I've only skim-read it, but it looks like netball and British basketball were the best we could come up with, which is fair enough as long as you're happy ignoring the big, PDC shaped, elephant in the room.
Sponsors are (or were in the case of British basketball) prepared to take a punt and see if there's a market out there. They're prepared to do this, because they know if people want to watch these sports in this country, then theirs is the only game in town. You want to watch netball, here it is.
I know BT Sport have the NBA, which is fine if you live a nocturnal existence or are happy with highlight shows, but if you want live basketball at a civilised hour, the British league is what you have to watch.
Literally the only question is whether enough people actually want to watch these sports. It's that straightforward.
But that's not the position the BDO are in. Anyone wanting to watch darts has an alternative. And it's one that is light years ahead of the BDO in the way it goes about things.
Sponsors and broadcasters clearly aren't prepared to take a punt on the BDO, because recent history suggests if the general public want to watch darts they get Sky or stick ITV4 on.
The difference between the PDC and BDO is like night and day (I'm referring to the professionalism of the organisation, not the playing standard, before Oche and Paddy get on their hind legs).
This week my Facebook feed has been absolutely bombarded by the PDC with box office details for next years Premier League Exbo Tour, yet here we are having this conversation about Lakeside, because no-one in the BDO is prepared to tell us anything.
Why in the name of God would a sponsor want anything to do with an organisation like that?
Over the weekend I was channel surfing, and came across a rugby league game on Freesports. It was an amateur game from the 3rd or 4th tier of the sport. It was largely unwatchable. 26 fat blokes wheezing up and down a ploughed field, occasionally introducing a rugby ball into proceedings.
Christ knows who they'd got to pay for that, but they'd managed it.
The point is, they quite happily marketed it as "grass roots" and chucked it out there to see if any die hards would watch it.
Contrast that with the BDO continuing to claim their flagship event is a "World Professional Championship" to a general public who see a sufficient difference in class between the BDO and PDC, and come to their own, very different conclusion.
For as long as the BDO insist on fighting a war they cannot possibly win, sponsors (and by extension TV companies) are going to give them a wide berth.
I posted something about the TV battle being lost a couple of years ago because of the amateurism of the old board.
If anything things have got even worse than the Fishmarket debacle and the empty night at the WDT in Manchester featuring air guitars and Mrs Jacklin.
As was said then, the TV battle is lost and has been for years. Stick to the big opens and the BICC.
And yes, that is Mickey Dolenz in the crowd at the Monterey Pop gig.
