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 Sorry folks, not up-beat this time around. Why? I
hear you cry Everything looks fantastic. The games on an up of all up's. TV coverage is rampant most places you can see a television,
from Shanghai to Sausalito, Beijing to Brisbane, and everywhere in between. Darts and dart product are zinging out the stores like a regular
Hula Hoops craze, and just about everybody is getting interested in the sport.
We've had it demonstrated in Parliament in the
UK prior to being officially recognized as a sport, so it can't be long before old Dubja here in the
States gets a set of 22 gm T's and swears blind his forebears came over on The Mayflower toting a set. Really! Just everybody has or will be climbing
aboard this Bandwagon of success.
That's cool. It really is. Even I have to pinch myself now and again at the
heights we have scaled in thirteen years since the PDC's inception, and let nobody be under any misconception here. The success is down to the PDC,
absolutely nobody else! All the hard work, heartache, financial risk has been ours and our appointed partners like Bull's-Eye News Magazine. Jay
Tomlinson and Mike Harris (not forgetting Gary Jones) have always supported us from day one as have Pat and Rose Carrigan in Las Vegas, and they are
of course with us today. Players too, such as Steve Brown, Larry Butler, Paul Lim, Gary Mawson, John Part, stuck their necks out in the early days, and I
hope they know that we will appreciate their stand always. The money has gone north in leaps and bounds which was keeping faith in our promise at the
outset, that is to make the sport a viable one financially for the very best of players, the Pro's. If the top end of any Sport is successful, it pulls through
the bottom end for the legion of amateur players. Never the other way round!
All sounds wonderful, doesn't it, and of course it is, but there is always a
downside to everything. For the vast majority of you, you will not notice this particular downside and you are the better for it. It's called envy.
The BDO and WDF (pretty much one and the same at the top) continue to
rubbish our success as if it has come about by luck and worse that we have somehow robbed them of their birthright. When the PDC was formed, it was
out of desperation to save a pretty sick puppy. Television had all but disappeared with only The Embassy World Championships with anything like
decent coverage. Foreign sales were an unknown to anybody but the 'Kremlin' like board of the Organization who regarded any intrusion by the
likes of me or the players as treason. Why could we not be told? Maybe they didn't know which is worse. When I enquired if there might be any more
coverage, I was basically told to 'go away and multiply' although the language was a tad richer and that it was the 'Global recession that prevented
Televisions' increase in interest.
What? That was too funny, for when Tommy Cox and I tried to get it
ourselves, we succeeded! What's more, there was no BDO footprint preceding us into TV's Sport Commissioners Office's. So those bad boys in
the BDO had not been around seeking coverage for some considerable time.
Thirteen years down the line. those days are still fresh in my memory. Lies
are hard to forget. Yet, today those same bad boys just cannot doff their cap just a tad in our direction and recognize that we have actually saved their collective arse.
With TV interest created by the PDC at an all time high, they are getting the
bounce. In Europe, Eurosport TV is covering many National Opens getting the game in front of the masses. It's not the greatest coverage as they (TV)
are patently working to a small budget (it looks crap!), but hey, there was none six months ago, and if the viewing figures stack up, then budgets will
increase and the quality of coverage will increase along with it.
Of course, this was all achieved by their own hard work, nothing to do with
Eurosport wanting some of the PDC's action, and when told the cost, turned to BDO/WDF for a cut price deal. We do not offer our rights cheap any more,
my friends! Still, it leaves Tommy Cox and me, in particular, with a bad taste in our mouth when we should be savouring success. They tried to bury us
and now they coat tail us without so much as a Christmas card.
Here in the States, it's somewhat different. There are two downsides. The first
is about waking Giants. Our continued and increasing success will, without a doubt, encourage the mimics. All networks seek a successful formula. If they
cannot originate it themselves then they will copy. Look at Poker on television over the last three or so years. It couldn't get arrested, now it's on
pretty much every channel in one shape or form. WWF wrestling was an instant hit worldwide, and then came the mimic show, which for me was not
as good, and it diluted the audience. In a similar fashion some network, in my opinion, will copy PDC darts in America.
That's okay, in a way, because it will keep us sharp and on our game to
always have the best players and give them the best money and conditions. It will be almost be affirmation that we are a success. What I do not want to
see, as in wrestling, is a lowering of production standards and player quality to a level where the viewer starts to turn off because they cannot tell good
from bad. There's some mighty big companies out there financially. That's my fear for Eurosport's coverage in Europe. They might start changing the rules
too just to get ratings, changing the sport, as we know it for sensational ends. I'm sure you can all dream'em up. You know 'topless markers' and Jasmine
Bleeth refereeing. How about a revolving board just to make it interesting. Joking? Actually no, it's a nightmare that just maybe out there.
The second downside and the saddest is the envy and desperation that are
also coming to the fore here in the States. Even before our first show on ESPN comes to the screens in July to what I believe will be great success,
some folk are claiming that they made it happen. That they persuaded ESPN to take what is a major risk, albeit a carefully calculated one. That they have
worked diligently to bring all the elements together, the plan, the origination, even that they have 'Professional Players'. It's annoying and makes me very angry.
The Professional Darts Corporation and its' TV Partner here in America made
The World Series Of Darts a reality Absolutely nobody else has any claim to this. We have asked the guilty to desist politely. They hear but do not listen.
They continue to 'spin claims about their involvement, their status in the Sport, their history and their contacts. They stated that if they were not solely in
charge of the zone playoffs, they would not happen. They actually demanded they be involved, said it was their 'right.' That's a huge insult to Bull's-Eye
Marketing, Inc. and the selected local Zone Coordinators who have organized and run them in an exemplary fashion. Maybe our envious 'friends' fear they
will lose out if it's seen that they are not the only game in town as they may well have sold themselves to be. Maybe they will have some major explaining
to do when the World Series of Darts is a major TV Hit and they are not involved, period. Envy is a terrible thing. Sad really. So maybe I shouldn't feel anger, only pity.
So, for the avoidance of doubt. The World Series of Darts is a Professional
Darts Corporation Event. No other Darts Organization has been, is or will be involved either in America or anywhere else on God's earth. Are we proud? Damn right!
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