Cold Weather finally reaches hell

shockframe

BDO chief Olly Croft is 'working on' PDC's takeover bid
By Stephan Shemilt
BBC Sport at the Lakeside



Martin Adams beat Dave Chisnall to win the 2010 BDO World Championship
British Darts Organisation chief Olly Croft says he is "working on" a takeover offer from rival organisation the Professional Darts Corporation.

PDC head Barry Hearn had an offer of £1m plus a further £1m to invest in the game rejected by Croft in October.

But Croft has now told BBC Sport: "My opinion is that it has no substance but we are working on it.

"We want to know what's behind it before we can move forward but you won't get a decision overnight."

Darts has been divided since 1993 when 16 players chose to leave the BDO and form what is now the PDC.

The split now sees both organisations stage their own versions of the world championship, with the BBC covering the BDO's event at the Lakeside and Sky televising the PDC's showpiece, which is currently held at Alexandra Palace.

As well as the £2m cash, Hearn also offered to honour all existing contracts currently in place with sponsors, venues and the BBC.

Croft, who turned 80 in November, added: "He's offering money - where is that money coming from? Has he got it or is it coming from investors? If investors put money in they will want a return.

606: DEBATE
Would a takeover of the BDO by the PDC be good for darts?
"If he takes 100% control, what will happen to our officials and board of directors?

"Our property is worth more than what he's offered and we want to know what he wants to do with the second £1m he's offered."

Croft initially said that his organisation was "not for sale" and that the offer was "nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt" but now seems to have been forced into a change of heart by the individual counties that go to make up the BDO.

"Our original offer has not been considered properly," Hearn told BBC Radio 5 live.

"I understand that the county organisations that own the BDO have instructed the BDO to commence negotiations.

"I want to buy it all so I control all of it. I want to sling everybody else out and make sure it's all done properly instead of just owning the PDC.

"I can't afford to have my market place polluted by a poor case of commercial exploitation.

"You've got to make sure that the market is controlled so that you deliver a standard product, and their product is not good enough."

vindaloo1

I wonder where this would leave all the other WDF affiliated organisations?

Presumably up sh1t creek, as no World Masters or Lakeside qualifiers, only
the pride of paying to play for your country at the World Cup or Europe
Cup.

Lemegeton

the takeover has to happen. sure a lot of people in the BDO will lose their jobs and such but for the future of the sport it has to happen. glad to see the BDO member counties pushing for this. if even they can see that this needs to happen then olly should let the BDO die. its been on life support for too many years now

briany

This would be a great thing for darts in my humble opinion but I'm sure the BDO boys (Adams, Hankey etc) will be vehemently against it. I just wonder what will happen to the grass roots of the sport. Perhaps they could keep the BDO around but as a "Brand" owned by the PDC that would look after the amateur side of the game? Maybe we'll see Tony Green and Sid Wadell together at last?

Devastator

shockframe wrote: »

Croft, who turned 80 in November, added: "He's offering money - where is that money coming from? Has he got it or is it coming from investors? If investors put money in they will want a return.

Firstly - has he ever seen the crowds at any(Vegas & South African being exceptions) events? :eek:
Secondly - even IF it was from investors its got sod all to do with him where Hearn got it from.

Lemegeton wrote: »

the takeover has to happen. sure a lot of people in the BDO will lose their jobs and such but for the future of the sport it has to happen. glad to see the BDO member counties pushing for this. if even they can see that this needs to happen then olly should let the BDO die. its been on life support for too many years now

Same as any business/company take over....people get put out of work.


I think after such a poor showing at Lakeside this year the BDO can not hang on with their finger nails any longer. If they try it will eventually turn into a complete shambles!


I think Hearn already said his second £1m investment was for grass roots darts(youth,amateur), so it will become like an official breeding ground for the PDC.

DrDarts

The thought of Darts being run by one man " Barry Hearne" who's main a is to
make as much profit for himself and the PDC's top earners as possible is a very scary thought indeed :eek:

Devastator

yeah!! how dare anyone who runs a business try to make money :mad:

keithiws

Before any the two org's come to been united again it will take at lest 18months. as both code has to change there player contracts and will have to decide on wether to run the system of ranking points or as an order of merit. also the pdc if they take will be bound by the counties of the bdo, who are a governing body of sport in the uk and in the world as the wdf, and i governing body of sport is bound to be a non profit body whos profits go back into the sport. plus the bdo as a largoe amount of assets. both the pdc and bdo are good for the sport in their own way but i want only one thats united.

Lemegeton

DrDarts wrote: »

The thought of Darts being run by one man " Barry Hearne" who's main a is to
make as much profit for himself and the PDC's top earners as possible is a very scary thought indeed :eek:

modern sport is a business. at least Hearne is also looking after the major players which is what Olly should have done before the split. If Hearne is able to look after the main players and the sport and at the same time make himself some money then all power to him.

death1234567

DrDarts wrote: »

The thought of Darts being run by one man " Barry Hearne" who's main a is to
make as much profit for himself and the PDC's top earners as possible is a very scary thought indeed :eek:

Its what the sport needs. The Premiership is run by the teams for the teams so that they can all make as much money as possible and as a result of this its the biggest league in the world. The only way darts can progress to a mainstream sport (if it ever can) is by having one governing body with one main tour where all the top players play. I don't see any problems with the merger if its done over a period of 1-2 years. The BDO county setup can continue and then there would be one big worldwide tour with all the televised competitions and an order of merit/ranking points system.

dionsiseire

i think it could be very interesting especially having international ranking with regional outifts running competitions and guys picking up merit points for amateur ranking and then you progress to the PDC tour once you have proven your pedigree on the amateur BDO tour

padr81

Would be quite interesting. England sure would have one hell of an international team.

Taylor, Wade, Jenkins, Adams, Lewis etc...

Any Double !

I still find it hard to believe that Barry Hearne and Co would be be accepted by the county officials in the UK who have put decades of hard work into getting the game into towns and villages across the country. The counties are run mainly by volunteers who must love the game deeply or otherwise they wouldn't do it week in - week out and it benefits of thousands of players, both men and women as well as youths.
There are just a few hundred players registered with the PDC and you could probably find more players in many small town leagues than can be seen at most PDC events. The PDC is run really to make profit for Hearne, a handful of top players and a few shareholders. I believe Phil Taylor is the biggest of these, having bought up many shares in recent times and every dart thrown on TV makes them more money. Players outside the top 20 can't be making much money as it is so expensive to enter, travel, play and stay at PDC events.
There is nothing at all wrong with the PDC motto as there are a lot of good pros in there making a living out of it and without it being able to make a profit it couldn't exist. We wouldn't see half as many good darts on TV if it were not for them. The BDO couldn't do this but similarly the PDC wouldn't know where to start if they had to arrange county matches on their own.
Because of some of the fundemental differences mentioned above I can't see the 2 codes ever marrying and I still think as I did when Hearne's offer was first announced that the whole idea is a non-.starter.

Kingp35

I don't see there being a problem Any Double as long as Hearn doesn't go messing with the County structure and leaves the same people that are running things now to do the same thing. The only difference being they will have more funds to do their jobs.

Admittedly some of the old schoolers might have a problem working for the PDC (I include all the Blazers in that) but I'm sure most wouldn't have a problem and if these volunteers love the game so much then they will stay working for free.

I can't see there being a problem and the advantage of being run by a professional organisational is huge.

Any Double !

Kingp35 wrote: »

I don't see there being a problem Any Double as long as Hearn doesn't go messing with the County structure and leaves the same people that are running things now to do the same thing. The only difference being they will have more funds to do their jobs.

Admittedly some of the old schoolers might have a problem working for the PDC (I include all the Blazers in that) but I'm sure most wouldn't have a problem and if these volunteers love the game so much then they will stay working for free.

I can't see there being a problem and the advantage of being run by a professional organisational is huge.

Good views King but I think your words ( as long as Hearn doesn't go messing with the County structure) summed up many peoples fears. I'd say Hearne will initially allow input from the counties but may afterwards weed out the naysayers bit by bit. I'd also say that if by any chance they voted for the takeover then (as Hearne probably always hoped) it would split them down middle. Many of the old blazers as you put it ... would surely ride off into the sunset and that in itself would be no bad thing really. However what would happen afterwards is the $6m dollar question.
If darts over there was like soccer and players through the divisions were paid for a living then it would be ideal if the whole thing was run by professionals but as the vast majority will always be amateurs whether playing pub, league or county darts problems are bound to arise.
I'd like to think Hearne would has a real interest in all darts but having watched him for decades firstly through snooker then boxing and now darts I'm not certain.
If I was a top player I'd consider him God ... if I was a county player or official I'm not so sure. I don't think that the tail will be allowed wag the dog ... especially if the dog's name is Barry

padr81

Barry Hearn has already said he won't mess with the system too much. What he intends to do imho is leave everything as is but create a professional darts calender and a non pro one. Basically like is in place now but with the best 128 players in the pdc and the rest in the BDO (or whatever it gets called), it would be a fairer WC in my opinion. Adams etc.. would have the choice to step up and compete for a world title or play for the lakeside amateur championship this would mean you wouldn't have 8 professionals guaranteed a spot in the masters last 16 etc.... Basically i think he's paying £2m so he can call the pdc world champs the only world champs and the lakeside something else.

Jaysoose

I for one hope hearn does not get the BDO as at least it is about the darts and less concerned squeezing as many pissheads in bananaman suits into the biggest venue available.

Granted he is about making money but it appears that the darts is becoming secondary to the profits being generated at the gate and across the bar.

dionsiseire

How has the darts become secondary jayzoose

its now beamed into millions of homes ALL YEAR LONG through sky and ITV and various contracts for television

The Premier League,Vegas, Bolton, Dublin all getting massive sky coverage

Sky gives the darts a priority BBC cannot (you cant even watch all the games on the poxy bbc) you have dedicated commentators who are from a darts background unlike the BBC

Champions League of darts pioneers an internet watching method with bookies

The Standard of darts is higher in the PDC with so many of the players capable of 100+ averages which you cant say about the BDO where Adams averaged 95 and according to himself and bobby george was playing the best darts of his career.

As much as the players and hearne are making the money from it, they are putting up a level of darts that is worth every penny

I would say its 75% darts 25% money in the PDC, The Structure, The Players, The Standard are all so so so much better

Jaysoose

Cant argue about the difference in the quality of the organisations and more power to the players raising their games in the last few years and the more money they make from telly the better.

It cant in my opinion be argued that there has been a definite shift towards larger venues filled with people who seem more intent on gettin ****-faced than watching whats happening on the stage and when they do look at the stae they are shouting out. The premier league as high quality as the darts are was designed with this in mind and as a concept is imo a money making exercise first and foremost.

As for the commentators i always turn the volume down when sid is banging on about "undastackas" and how much promise Adey lewis has for the milionth time in between talking about Taylor being Fantasmagorical

Just my two cents dont get me wrong i love watching the darts and think there is a place for each organisation althought the BEEB really need to sort the coverage out its atrocious.

Kingp35

Jaysoose wrote: »

As for the commentators i always turn the volume down when sid is banging on about "undastackas" and how much promise Adey lewis has for the milionth time in between talking about Taylor being Fantasmagorical

This bit has nothing to do with the PDC, it's Sky Sports who employ these people.

As for bigger venues, I agree there are a huge amount of idiots but unfortuately it's a price you have to pay in order for the sport to progress. It allows for bigger prize money, which allows for more Pro's which allows for a higher standard.