New Tourny to bridge the BDO/PDC divide

TheBigEvil

A new cross brand tournament is being lined up betweent he BDO and PDC for the autumn. Looks like 16 players from each brand.

Looks an interesting one, although they are trying to make it viewable by all, so will be interesting to see who shows it and what SKY will have to say about it.

Details can be found here.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/other_sports/default.stm

Kingp35

I never thought I would see the day when the BDO and the PDC work together to bring us a tournament with players from both organisations. This is great news because it will be the first tournament in a long time when ALL the worlds best players will be playing it and we will get an undisputed champion. Very excited about this!

Carrickman

Brilliant news an event to really look forward to!

hawker27

here here yes great stuff and the pdc will prevail.:)

cast_iron

Wonderful news. And what a prize fund - £250,000!

The TV rights will have an interesting outcome.

cooker3

Wow, that is great news. It will be a hell of a event.
Is there a danger this will become bigger then both world championships?

Kingp35

I was thinking that myself cooker although this could well be a once off tournament because there was no mention of it being an annual event. Maybe the PDC are trying to better relations between the two after the PDC taking most of the best players in the BDO.

cooker3

Kingp35 wrote:

I was thinking that myself cooker although this could well be a once off tournament because there was no mention of it being an annual event. Maybe the PDC are trying to better relations between the two after the PDC taking most of the best players in the BDO.

If it turns out to be successful I can't see how it wouldn't become an annual event, I mean ther demand will be there and if tv coverage is good then I would be shocked if it didn't continue. I certainly will not be complaining.

MBC

I really hope skysports take up the tv rights at least they will show all and full matches - unlike the bbc who show you up till the final set and then switch off and show the highlights at 2 o'clock in the morning:mad:

Kingp35

I think there will probably be some kind of deal struck up between Sky and a terrestrial station whereas they will each show some games. I cant see either of them getting exclusive rights seems as though the BDO are signed up with the BBC and the PDC are with Sky.

Shane190

I will watch it no-matter who takes the rights..

cast_iron

One can only assume the BDO were forced into this situation in light of losing all the top players recently.

I'd like to see the BBC have some rights as the wider the audience, the better it is for the sport. Though the quality of Sky's coverage is really unrivalled.

cooker3

I wouldn't mind a hybrid say Sky do full live coverage while BBC do highlights each night like they do with the lakeside.

The Rooster

The PDC needs to get its players on terresterial to increase their profile. Sky shouldnt mind so long as its just one tournie a year - may increase the people who want to get Sky to watch the darts.

The BBC coverage will be very good - if you have the red button.

But its not all sweetness and light between the two organisations, and it certainly won't be 16 v 16 (and with the recent defections 16 each certainly wouldnt be fair anyway). The PDC should have and will have a represenation, and there's still a fair chance the BDO players will turn it down.

From the PDC website:

The tournament will involve finalists from major tournaments over a two-year period from both the Professional Darts Corporation and BDO/WDF circuit.

Played with a 32-man international field at the Wolverhampton Civic, the list of competitors will be headed by current Ladbrokes.com World Darts Champion Raymond van Barneveld.

He will be joined by 13-time World Champion Phil Taylor, with the losing semi-finalists from the PDC World Championship and Lakeside Championship also being invited.

Lakeside winner Martin Adams and 2006 champion Jelle Klaasen will also receive invitations, alongside current World Masters champion Michael van Gerwen – who hit a nine-darter in last week’s Masters of Darts – and reigning Las Vegas Desert Classic title holder John Part.

The inclusion of finalists from the major tournaments will also see James Wade, Terry Jenkins, Barrie Bates, Roland Scholten, Colin Lloyd and Phil Nixon qualify.

The seven major tournaments staged during 2007 will provide further competitors, with a selection of national champions from around the world to join those players who have already qualified.

Grand Slam of Darts Prize Fund
Winner: £60,000
Runner-Up: £30,000
Semi-Finalists: £15,000
Quarter-Finalists: £10,000
Second Round Losers: £5,250
First Round Losers: £3,000
Total: £250,000

From the Times on Feb 22

The division between the rival darts bodies widened last night when the British Darts Organisation (BDO) accused the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) of discourtesy by unveiling a new unifying tournament without its agreement.

There has been fresh hostility after four players defected to the PDC this year. Players from both codes already compete in open events but the BDO says that the new Grand Slam of Darts was to be a jointly organised tournament. It claims not to have approved of many of the criteria for the tournament, including the rules for entry and the make-up of players. It wants 16 players from each body to compete, but the PDC, which holds more big events, has said that the 32 players will involve the finalists from the leading tournaments over the past two years.

The BDO is also unhappy about Wolverhampton Civic Hall, which is used by the PDC, being chosen as the venue as well as the planned date in November and the prize fund of £250,000. “It does not inspire goodwill and confidence between us — it is like a partner you cannot trust,” Robert Holmes, the BDO spokesman, said. The PDC hopes that the BBC will screen the event.

Barry Hearn, the PDC chairman, offered fresh criticism of the BDO this week. “I don’t care about the BDO, they do a good job at grass roots but they are not up to challenging on the professional front,” he said. “They should pack up and should sell to me. If they had done their job properly, there would not have been room for Barry Hearn and the PDC.”

BRITISH DARTS ORGANISATION STATEMENT

In order to clarify any misinterpretations of a PDC press release issued on Wednesday, February 21st announcing a tournament involving players from the BDO and PDC, I can confirm that it was released without the prior agreement or permission of the British Darts Organisation or the potential broadcaster.

It is important to point out that as a direct result of the constant striving of the BDO to secure more televised tournaments, we have been having preliminary confidential talks with a major broadcaster to create a one-off invitation event, which would involve both BDO and PDC players.

We have given an undertaking to support such an event if it clearly benefits the BDO, its players, its officials and the sport of darts.

With this in mind, it is vitally important to the success and viewer appeal of such an event that both codes are fairly represented in terms of players, officials, staging and presentation.

In order to achieve this, the talks need to be ongoing so that we can create a major televised event that will be mutually beneficial to all parties.

It has always been a British Darts Organisation policy to announce events to our members only when they become reality.

At the moment no agreement has been reached in regard to this proposed event.

OLLY CROFT, OBE
23/2/07

Kingp35

Well for once I have to admit that the PDC have got this all wrong. They should not have announced the tournament until all the organisation had been complete. This has just annoyed the BDO more and has out the tournament in a bit of doubt.

Personally I think the PDC are being unfaor towards the BDO in this one. It should be 16 players from each code that takes part in order to make the tournament as fair as possible. However for this year I think that the 4 players that just joined the PDC should be counted as BDO entries, providing of course that they meet the BDO qualifying criteria.

The PDC and Barry Hearn have really messed this up and I think its a just a case of bullying tactics. The PDC wanted to make the announcement so it looked like they were the ones that organised it all. Very bad form imo.