PDC Premier League 2019

[Wubbalubbadubdub]

The Premier league is only held in high esteem due to Players/Pdc making a shedload of cash on offer, which bolster the whole season and garner fans for said players involved.
If players only had the BDO choice of events then I think the Premier League for most players would be far from anything they require ,as gaining ranking pounds is far more of a pull to the 16-32 ranked players(barring Barney who always gets picked which also makes this season a slight farce)

If your getting your arse handed to you every week(which I will back barney in losing more than he wins) then these "fairweather" fans will dump their "alledged" player they follow.(As Price has proved in the last few comps).

The Premier league,as most people say, is a glorified exhibition. Until it's the Best 10 in the world over the last 12 months it's not really a Premier League.

[Buzz Fledderjohn]

None of which are at all relevant for how much prestige players attach to competing in it and winning it. You're really grasping at straws here.

Um yes they do. Your talking nonsense without actually coming up with any reasonable arguement. Also how is the prestige of a tournement decided by those competing in it surely it decided more so by the fans.

Surely the prestige of the event is in the eye of the beholder, either player or fan?

For what it's worth Phil, I agree with you in that it is an exhibition tour devoid of any real merit due to the way the field is selected. It's why I rarely bother watching it. The PDC and Sky Sports marketing machines can tell me till they're blue in the face how important and prestigious a competition it is, I'm not listening.

But where it moves away from being an exhibition, and starts to gain legitimacy, is that the players clearly take it very seriously and want to win it. Their reasons for feeling this way are irrelevant. If any player says it's up there with the World Championship as the one they want to win, who am I to tell them they're wrong?

[Buzz Fledderjohn]

None of which are at all relevant for how much prestige players attach to competing in it and winning it. You're really grasping at straws here.

Um yes they do. Your talking nonsense without actually coming up with any reasonable arguement. Also how is the prestige of a tournement decided by those competing in it surely it decided more so by the fans.

Surely the prestige of the event is in the eye of the beholder, either player or fan?

For what it's worth Phil, I agree with you in that it is an exhibition tour devoid of any real merit due to the way the field is selected. It's why I rarely bother watching it. The PDC and Sky Sports marketing machines can tell me till they're blue in the face how important and prestigious a competition it is, I'm not listening.

But where it moves away from being an exhibition, and starts to gain legitimacy, is that the players clearly take it very seriously and want to win it. Their reasons for feeling this way are irrelevant. If any player says it's up there with the World Championship as the one they want to win, who am I to tell them they're wrong?

This was basically my point that they only want to win it because of the money. If I came into the PDC as a sponsor and said I want to host an event where I will pay out £300k to the winner then suddenly all the players would really want to win that event it doesn’t mean it has prestige just a big prize fund.

But is it then the case that the large prize fund creates the prestige?
The players may very well be talking through their wallets when they talk about the PL being such a big deal, and one they really want to win, but the players taking it so seriously is what legitimises it as a competition.

Or looking at it from another perspective, how would it affect the World Championship if the prize fund was cut to the levels of a Player's Championship event? Try selling out Ally Pally and getting Sky to show it every day for the best part of a month in those circumstances.(I'm aware what a ludicrous notion this is and am just using it for illustrative purposes before anyone takes it literally)

[Buzz Fledderjohn]

Um yes they do. Your talking nonsense without actually coming up with any reasonable arguement. Also how is the prestige of a tournement decided by those competing in it surely it decided more so by the fans.

Surely the prestige of the event is in the eye of the beholder, either player or fan?

For what it's worth Phil, I agree with you in that it is an exhibition tour devoid of any real merit due to the way the field is selected. It's why I rarely bother watching it. The PDC and Sky Sports marketing machines can tell me till they're blue in the face how important and prestigious a competition it is, I'm not listening.

But where it moves away from being an exhibition, and starts to gain legitimacy, is that the players clearly take it very seriously and want to win it. Their reasons for feeling this way are irrelevant. If any player says it's up there with the World Championship as the one they want to win, who am I to tell them they're wrong?

This was basically my point that they only want to win it because of the money. If I came into the PDC as a sponsor and said I want to host an event where I will pay out £300k to the winner then suddenly all the players would really want to win that event it doesn’t mean it has prestige just a big prize fund.

But is it then the case that the large prize fund creates the prestige?
The players may very well be talking through their wallets when they talk about the PL being such a big deal, and one they really want to win, but the players taking it so seriously is what legitimises it as a competition.

Or looking at it from another perspective, how would it affect the World Championship if the prize fund was cut to the levels of a Player's Championship event? Try selling out Ally Pally and getting Sky to show it every day for the best part of a month in those circumstances.(I'm aware what a ludicrous notion this is and am just using it for illustrative purposes before anyone takes it literally)

If it was meritocratic and had a large prize fund then fair enough but the PL isn’t that it is simply an exhibition tour that obviously the players want to win because of the money but other than them and sky(because it gets them a lot of viewers) hyping it. I don’t see how any fan can legitmety think that is a more prestigious event than a meritocratic ranked major. Particularly ones that have more history than the PL.

Don’t get me wrong it’s a magnificent event for the players and the PDC but for hardcore Darts fans they should surely be able to see it for what it is rather than buying into the hype of it being only below the Worlds and Matchplay for prestige.

I still think if the consensus amongst the players is that it's a prestigious title to have on their CV (even if only because of the money involved) then that is enough for it to be seen as a prestigious event in the greater scheme of things.
Otherwise I agree with all you've said, and like previous years I'll only be watching on a Thursday if I genuinely can't find anything better to do.

[Mensur Suljovic Fan]

Um yes they do. Your talking nonsense without actually coming up with any reasonable arguement. Also how is the prestige of a tournement decided by those competing in it surely it decided more so by the fans.

Surely the prestige of the event is in the eye of the beholder, either player or fan?

For what it's worth Phil, I agree with you in that it is an exhibition tour devoid of any real merit due to the way the field is selected. It's why I rarely bother watching it. The PDC and Sky Sports marketing machines can tell me till they're blue in the face how important and prestigious a competition it is, I'm not listening.

But where it moves away from being an exhibition, and starts to gain legitimacy, is that the players clearly take it very seriously and want to win it. Their reasons for feeling this way are irrelevant. If any player says it's up there with the World Championship as the one they want to win, who am I to tell them they're wrong?

This was basically my point that they only want to win it because of the money. If I came into the PDC as a sponsor and said I want to host an event where I will pay out £300k to the winner then suddenly all the players would really want to win that event it doesn’t mean it has prestige just a big prize fund.

But is it then the case that the large prize fund creates the prestige?
The players may very well be talking through their wallets when they talk about the PL being such a big deal, and one they really want to win, but the players taking it so seriously is what legitimises it as a competition.

Or looking at it from another perspective, how would it affect the World Championship if the prize fund was cut to the levels of a Player's Championship event? Try selling out Ally Pally and getting Sky to show it every day for the best part of a month in those circumstances.(I'm aware what a ludicrous notion this is and am just using it for illustrative purposes before anyone takes it literally)

If it was meritocratic and had a large prize fund then fair enough but the PL isn’t that it is simply an exhibition tour that obviously the players want to win because of the money but other than them and sky(because it gets them a lot of viewers) hyping it. I don’t see how any fan can legitmety think that is a more prestigious event than a meritocratic ranked major. Particularly ones that have more history than the PL.

Don’t get me wrong it’s a magnificent event for the players and the PDC but for hardcore Darts fans they should surely be able to see it for what it is rather than buying into the hype of it being only below the Worlds and Matchplay for prestige.

But that's the thing, there's only 4 current TV events that have been going on longer than the Premier League. Plenty of other events have had (and indeed still have) unmeritocratic aspects, but still, on the whole, every tournament is pretty meritocratic (8 out of 9 ain't bad you have to admit!). Hypothetically speaking, if I'm a player, I'd place the Premier League (where the weakest player is Barney who is still capable in patches) above, say, the Players where you could get very easily get a lucky run and face few stiff challenges

[BlueSpark]

It is an exhibition tour. Nothing more, nothing less.
I have been watching it less and less the last few years tbf. Back in the early days, watched it every week without fail.
Now, there are so many tournaments on throughout the year, I don't feel I am missing anything special.
The Worlds, UK open, Matchplay and the Grand Prix are all I am really interested in. And the Grand Slam, until the BDO entrants are eliminated. So basically, up to the first knockout round.

[Mensur Suljovic Fan]

This was basically my point that they only want to win it because of the money. If I came into the PDC as a sponsor and said I want to host an event where I will pay out £300k to the winner then suddenly all the players would really want to win that event it doesn’t mean it has prestige just a big prize fund.

But is it then the case that the large prize fund creates the prestige?
The players may very well be talking through their wallets when they talk about the PL being such a big deal, and one they really want to win, but the players taking it so seriously is what legitimises it as a competition.

Or looking at it from another perspective, how would it affect the World Championship if the prize fund was cut to the levels of a Player's Championship event? Try selling out Ally Pally and getting Sky to show it every day for the best part of a month in those circumstances.(I'm aware what a ludicrous notion this is and am just using it for illustrative purposes before anyone takes it literally)

If it was meritocratic and had a large prize fund then fair enough but the PL isn’t that it is simply an exhibition tour that obviously the players want to win because of the money but other than them and sky(because it gets them a lot of viewers) hyping it. I don’t see how any fan can legitmety think that is a more prestigious event than a meritocratic ranked major. Particularly ones that have more history than the PL.

Don’t get me wrong it’s a magnificent event for the players and the PDC but for hardcore Darts fans they should surely be able to see it for what it is rather than buying into the hype of it being only below the Worlds and Matchplay for prestige.

But that's the thing, there's only 4 current TV events that have been going on longer than the Premier League. Plenty of other events have had (and indeed still have) unmeritocratic aspects, but still, on the whole, every tournament is pretty meritocratic (8 out of 9 ain't bad you have to admit!). Hypothetically speaking, if I'm a player, I'd place the Premier League (where the weakest player is Barney who is still capable in patches) above, say, the Players where you could get very easily get a lucky run and face few stiff challenges

Thing with PL aswell though is you can play pretty shite in a lot of games but still do enough to scrape into the playoffs. Every other event that is ranked bar the GSOD if you get beat your out. Players have even survived the drop for example with 4 points from 9 games.

True, but survival in itself isn't anything to write home about, and if you scrape into 8th place after Judgement Night, you have to play superbly well to even stand a chance of making the play-offs (didn't Barney do that one year?). Obviously it's very difficult to go a season unbeaten these days, but over the course of a season you get what you deserve

[Mensur Suljovic Fan]

It is an exhibition tour. Nothing more, nothing less.
I have been watching it less and less the last few years tbf. Back in the early days, watched it every week without fail.
Now, there are so many tournaments on throughout the year, I don't feel I am missing anything special.
The Worlds, UK open, Matchplay and the Grand Prix are all I am really interested in. And the Grand Slam, until the BDO entrants are eliminated. So basically, up to the first knockout round.

They are certainly the big 5 majors IMO. This years PL is less intresting than it has been in a while too as their are zero debutants(the one of games don’t count as they are merely a nice pay package for the Gando replacements) and let’s be honest MvG is going to walk the league phase.

Haven't watched it religiously for a while (in fact I'll be travelling during opening night), but if anything the new players have made it slightly more interesting for me, more so than a player who would almost certainly be battling to avoid the drop

[JOEY]

I love this comp, for the darts but also for the gambler in me, MVG made me a killing on Sunday night so I'm raring to go

[Addicks Fan]

It is an exhibition tour. Nothing more, nothing less.
I have been watching it less and less the last few years tbf. Back in the early days, watched it every week without fail.
Now, there are so many tournaments on throughout the year, I don't feel I am missing anything special.
The Worlds, UK open, Matchplay and the Grand Prix are all I am really interested in. And the Grand Slam, until the BDO entrants are eliminated. So basically, up to the first knockout round.

How can anyone see it as a major? It has only 10 players, the majority are wildcards, and you can win the damn thing whilst losing half the games you play in it! The similarities with tennis and golf majors are, lets see...none! There are plenty of golf and tennis tournaments with huge prize money that are not considered majors, which is exactly how the Premier League should be seen. It serves its purpose, and there's nothing wrong with something not being called a major!

[BlueSpark]

It is an exhibition tour. Nothing more, nothing less.
I have been watching it less and less the last few years tbf. Back in the early days, watched it every week without fail.
Now, there are so many tournaments on throughout the year, I don't feel I am missing anything special.
The Worlds, UK open, Matchplay and the Grand Prix are all I am really interested in. And the Grand Slam, until the BDO entrants are eliminated. So basically, up to the first knockout round.

How can anyone see it as a major? It has only 10 players, the majority are wildcards, and you can win the damn thing whilst losing half the games you play in it! The similarities with tennis and golf majors are, lets see...none! There are plenty of golf and tennis tournaments with huge prize money that are not considered majors, which is exactly how the Premier League should be seen. It serves its purpose, and there's nothing wrong with something not being called a major!

Quite right mate

[BeppeBergomi]

Your 2019 Line Up

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

[BlueSpark]

Nice photoshopped dartboard and surround there

[ssjsa]

LiveDarts interview with Gerwyn Price.

[ssjsa]

LiveDarts interview with Matt Porter.

[ssjsa]

LiveDarts interview with RVB.

[trotter01]

It doesn't really matter what people think but if you listen to MVG he obviously sees the Premier League as a major and rates it as probably second to Ally Pally as a tournament to win....and he's not alone as a player

[trotter01]

In terms of wider public profile then it is probably second to Ally Pally in that respect...it's really irrelevant what a few forum people think..

[Skewball]

On a diffrent note who do people think is getting eliminated this year?

Don't know, don't care. I never watch it anymore. The most boring major.....

[Vriezzer]

There is really 0,0% confidence for Barney. At this moment I can only see Barney's career end like a disaster.