2019 Q-School

[only85]

they can keep the wdt & still carry on like you have said above, dont see why it cant be kept, if we can get to a time when the 3 big tourneys on eurosport + some big opens on other channels, 3 of the following welsh, british, scottish, dutch,iom england job done & happy faces personally think thats where the bus will end up, & if challanger tour players want to play theycan also get big stage experience with cameras, benefit to all sides

[Astonvilla]

As said above if plenty go and fail to get their cards it makes it 100% clear to everyone that the BDO is a 2nd tier tour.

That cant be good for future tv deals and sponsors or prize money. I only think 4 players matter anyway. Durrant,Waites, McGeeney and Unterbuchner.
I think the first three will get their cards and the 4th will next year.
Who then is the BDO's star player?

[DavidB]

As said above if plenty go and fail to get their cards it makes it 100% clear to everyone that the BDO is a 2nd tier tour.

That cant be good for future tv deals and sponsors or prize money. I only think 4 players matter anyway. Durrant,Waites, McGeeney and Unterbuchner.
I think the first three will get their cards and the 4th will next year.
Who then is the BDO's star player?

Except they already have a 3 year tv deal and the casual viewer won't know if they've gone to Q School or not!

[Dannyboy]

Going back to what was discussed previously and in comparison to the golf model, I like this idea, but in darts it would be very difficult to implement as the financial gain isn't really there for the risk.

On a third tier, I have argued in the past that Challenge Tour should cater for players 129-256 with any not entering in this group topping up events. Those who are relegated from the main tour would be guaranteed in this tier, whilst 8 should gain promotion every year to the main tour. The Development Tour should straddle this with 2-4 tour cards offered each year, but because of age restriction, shouldn't be classed as a third tier.

In golf, there are multiple qualifying schools globally with players qualifying for a final qualifying school, which as per the above, could be 128 players made up of around 64 qualifiers, relegated players, top 32 challenge tour players from previous season, next 16 development tour players, Lakeside qualifiers and international nominations.

Last year there were around 800-900 players entering PDC UK floor events. That is a lot to cater for.

Having more than 500 players at UK Q School is too much, although asking newbies to do a preliminary event to get into the final Q School could be too much to ask.

[Astonvilla]

Be realistic. Its over and you know it.

[only85]

As said above if plenty go and fail to get their cards it makes it 100% clear to everyone that the BDO is a 2nd tier tour.

That cant be good for future tv deals and sponsors or prize money. I only think 4 players matter anyway. Durrant,Waites, McGeeney and Unterbuchner.
I think the first three will get their cards and the 4th will next year.
Who then is the BDO's star player?

Except they already have a 3 year tv deal and the casual viewer won't know if they've gone to Q School or not!

exactly & theres a lot of people who enjoy watchging folk they can relate to, or think i can aspire to that,

[Skewball]

As said above if plenty go and fail to get their cards it makes it 100% clear to everyone that the BDO is a 2nd tier tour.

That cant be good for future tv deals and sponsors or prize money. I only think 4 players matter anyway. Durrant,Waites, McGeeney and Unterbuchner.
I think the first three will get their cards and the 4th will next year.
Who then is the BDO's star player?

Except they already have a 3 year tv deal and the casual viewer won't know if they've gone to Q School or not!

No sponsors though.

Well, apart from the ones Des promised in his manifesto................

[Astonvilla]

Of course im not suggesting that there wont be a WC or even that it wont be on some TV channel.

The point is it wont have any top well known players and they will probably be playing for about 20% of the current prize fund.

[DavidB]

As said above if plenty go and fail to get their cards it makes it 100% clear to everyone that the BDO is a 2nd tier tour.

That cant be good for future tv deals and sponsors or prize money. I only think 4 players matter anyway. Durrant,Waites, McGeeney and Unterbuchner.
I think the first three will get their cards and the 4th will next year.
Who then is the BDO's star player?

Except they already have a 3 year tv deal and the casual viewer won't know if they've gone to Q School or not!

No sponsors though.

Well, apart from the ones Des promised in his manifesto................

Clearly there are sponsors...

[Zapp Brannigan]

For those who don't get a tour card and continue on the bdo tour: it's going to make the bdo look 2nd rate. Especially if lakeside next year has a good number of q school failures.

This

Swapping duzza and Waites for a pair of people who failed qschool or worse who dropped out of the top 64 of the pdc and couldn’t get back in is just making the bdo look terrible.


Best thing sportotal has done for the bdo is get this 3 year deal with Eurosport, because trying to get a tv deal when they are proud to be letting the last few top players leave would have been impossible

[The Master]

For those who don't get a tour card and continue on the bdo tour: it's going to make the bdo look 2nd rate. Especially if lakeside next year has a good number of q school failures.

well we all know it is anyway so nothing new there

[Skewball]

For those who don't get a tour card and continue on the bdo tour: it's going to make the bdo look 2nd rate. Especially if lakeside next year has a good number of q school failures.

This

Swapping duzza and Waites for a pair of people who failed qschool or worse who dropped out of the top 64 of the pdc and couldn’t get back in is just making the bdo look terrible.


Best thing sportotal has done for the bdo is get this 3 year deal with Eurosport, because trying to get a tv deal when they are proud to be letting the last few top players leave would have been impossible

The worst case is that you could get all 4 of this years semi finalists winning a tour card. And ifthey are good enough to get the semi's then that is a very real possibility. I would be disappointed if any of them didn't qualify. What has Mitchel said? I assume he is the only one saying no now?

[trotter]

To be fair Lakeside becomes more second rate with every passing year..it's a shadow of the event I used to love ...but they cannot stop players going to QS..that will always happen and at least now if they fail they can still come back should they wish...before they were lost come what may..I don't think the BDO have got any option to be honest and there will be very few viewers who will know if a certain player went to QS and failed and very few who would even care to be fair....but there is surely a limited time eventually that Lakeside can continually dilute and still be credible as a televised world championship...we are not quite there yet though..

[TheSportsDean]

With the relaxation of the rules on where players can play, should we now see the PDC & BDO work together and acknowledge BDO rankings as auto tour card qualification (by PDC) and Challenge Tour as auto Lakeside qualification (by BDO), not counting current qualification for PDC Worlds? Again, this would work to reward long term consistency over 3-4 good days.

[Deleted User]

With the relaxation of the rules on where players can play, should we now see the PDC & BDO work together and acknowledge BDO rankings as auto tour card qualification (by PDC) and Challenge Tour as auto Lakeside qualification (by BDO), not counting current qualification for PDC Worlds? Again, this would work to reward long term consistency over 3-4 good days.

Where to start with this?

Why on earth would the PDC hand out free tour cards to people who potentially have never played a PDC event.

The barriers are down. Earn your card through the same channels and pay the same entries as anybody else.

"We removed the barriers, can we have some free stuff?"

Likewise, imagine travelling all over on the BDO circuit and missing out on Lakeside to a Challenge Tour player.

Qualify through the normal channels, PDC to PDC, BDO to BDO.

[Buzz Fledderjohn]

With the relaxation of the rules on where players can play, should we now see the PDC & BDO work together and acknowledge BDO rankings as auto tour card qualification (by PDC) and Challenge Tour as auto Lakeside qualification (by BDO), not counting current qualification for PDC Worlds? Again, this would work to reward long term consistency over 3-4 good days.

Where to start with this?

Why on earth would the PDC hand out free tour cards to people who potentially have never played a PDC event.

The barriers are down. Earn your card through the same channels and pay the same entries as anybody else.

"We removed the barriers, can we have some free stuff?"

Likewise, imagine travelling all over on the BDO circuit and missing out on Lakeside to a Challenge Tour player.

Qualify through the normal channels, PDC to PDC, BDO to BDO.

When you put it like that, it's almost worth doing just for the amusement value of Ross' inevitable meltdown

[Deleted User]

With the relaxation of the rules on where players can play, should we now see the PDC & BDO work together and acknowledge BDO rankings as auto tour card qualification (by PDC) and Challenge Tour as auto Lakeside qualification (by BDO), not counting current qualification for PDC Worlds? Again, this would work to reward long term consistency over 3-4 good days.

Where to start with this?

Why on earth would the PDC hand out free tour cards to people who potentially have never played a PDC event.

The barriers are down. Earn your card through the same channels and pay the same entries as anybody else.

"We removed the barriers, can we have some free stuff?"

Likewise, imagine travelling all over on the BDO circuit and missing out on Lakeside to a Challenge Tour player.

Qualify through the normal channels, PDC to PDC, BDO to BDO.

When you put it like that, it's almost worth doing just for the amusement value of Ross' inevitable meltdown

Just imagine the rant in the Daily Record. Loyalty, damn it!!!

[Ginge]

"They forced me to stay at Lakeside! Under duress!"

The nob.

[Zeyes]

WIth the new relaxed BDO rules you could end up with quite a few going down the BDO route if they don't get through, like Hamilton & Newton rather than the Challenge Tour route.

Why "rather"? Newton played 16 CT events last year, Hamilton almost certainly would have as well, if he hadn't missed Q School altogether due to his Australian exbo adventures. Combining the limited Challenge Tour schedule with the BDO circuit is hardly difficult.

[Skewball]

WIth the new relaxed BDO rules you could end up with quite a few going down the BDO route if they don't get through, like Hamilton & Newton rather than the Challenge Tour route.

Why "rather"? Newton played 16 CT events last year, Hamilton almost certainly would have as well, if he hadn't missed Q School altogether due to his Australian exbo adventures. Combining the limited Challenge Tour schedule with the BDO circuit is hardly difficult.

true, its a pretty busy 'Division 2' route now for players, with the relaxed rules