If you have tuned into the World Grand Prix of darts in Leicester this weekend, you’d have needed to stare deep into your screen to see an empty seat at the 3,000 capacity Mattioli Arena.
The sport’s hottest property Luke Littler has been showing off in the early rounds, and the class of years gone by are still grinding away at the oche.
But packed arenas are no longer a novelty in darts, because the sport has taken off and soared in the last 15 years.
Professional Darts Corporation chief Matthew Porter tells City AM that consistently sold-out arenas were once a “pipe dream”, but now the challenge is finding new markets to open in.
One of those, it was announced this month, is Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Darts Masters is the latest iteration of a union between Turki Alalshikh’s Riyadh Season brand and PDC majority owners Matchroom Sport, led by Barry and Eddie Hearn.
Riyadh Season
“Riyadh Season is a brand that’s had a strong affiliation with our parent company, Matchroom, over recent years, to stage boxing and snooker events,” Porter says. “So it was a natural progression for them to show interest in staging a darts event as well.
“It will be different to the atmosphere that you see at a normal event, but I don’t think that means that the people who are there will be enjoying it any less.
“You have to respect local cultures wherever you go, so the crowd that comes to the event in Riyadh will know what’s appropriate and what isn’t.
“But from a sporting perspective, I don’t expect there to be any change.”
The big stars are expected in the kingdom too, with the Bahrain Darts Masters scheduled to take place a week prior to the Riyadh event, which is being staged on 19 and 20 January.
The iconic north London venue has been home to darts for decades, but there have been rumblings about the wildly popular championship moving from the site in order to accommodate more people.
Darts at Ally Pally
“Sooner or later,” Barry Hearn said last year, “I should be looking and saying: ‘Do you know, like with snooker, I need a bigger venue’.”
Nearly 12 months on Porter reiterates that the venue is “synonymous with the sport”, adding that “it is a beloved venue, not just by the fans but the players”.
“It’s the pinnacle of our calendar and we’ve got a responsibility to grow the sport and grow the event as much as we can. But we’re very keen on engaging with Ally Pally about how we can make that happen in the future.”
Porter cites three reasons as to why darts has had a recent surge into the sporting psyche: Littler, Fallon Sherrock and the ability to play darts using a webcam during the pandemic.
Plan for darts
The sport now regularly fills arenas across the British Isles, the continent and the likes of Madison Square Garden in New York City; and it is a feat Porter is keen to see continue.
“It was probably a pipe dream 15 years ago,” he says. “But now we’re selling out venues. It’s a global sport, and it will continue to grow with the investment that we’re ready to put into it.
“It’s all about identifying new markets, continuing to expand the sport, grow the game and keep ensuring that people understand that modern darts is perhaps not necessarily the sport that they thought it was from 30 or so years ago.
“Breaking down barriers and changing perceptions is what we’ve been really good at over the last couple of decades, and that’s why darts is in the place that it is now. So we’ll keep on doing that.”
