ESPN to Broadcast
World Series of Darts Tournament
Darting makes the "Big-Time", on the "Small Screen" in USA!
Eight Televised Episodes, from July 18 to September 5, 2006

After many years of lobbying and promoting, a major USA television broadcaster is finally going to broadcast a steel-point darts tournament.

Nope, not in the middle of the night, on some obscure satellite channel. This is the real thing.

We're talking about Prime Time Televised Darts competition in the United States, a first for darts in the USA.

ESPN's World Series of Darts is the event that darts promoters have dreamed of since the darts the 1970's, when the darts boom led to the creation of modern organized darts competition.

Not only is ESPN televising the event, it is putting up the money and producing it! In close cooperation with the PDC, this event has been promoted, even heralded, as the event that will "make" darts. Now, not everyone believes that one televised event is going to change the world, but there is no doubt that this tournament has the potential to greatly increase public awareness and participation.

Fourteen Qualifying events were held in ten states, with the Finals to be held at the Mohegan Sun Resort in Uncasville, Connecticut. Sixteen Americans and Sixteen PDC Pros will be on stage, in front of the largest potential television audience to ever watch a darting event.

The prize purse was set at One Million Dollars. However, that would be awarded only if an American is the winner.

If one of the seeded professional British players is the winner, the payout will only be $100,000. Even if the prize is the lower amount, that is still pretty a nice pile of cash! And of course, as any American Idol fan can tell you, prime-time USA television exposure is good for anyone's career.

And as mentioned previously, the truly amazing thing is that a "outsider" company such as ESPN sees enough potential in darts to put up the money. And, to send their production crew all over the country to film the various elimination rounds and then the Finals.

ESPN, individual darters, darts leagues, and darts industry officials are hoping that this will give darts a much-needed boost from relative obscurity, into the living rooms of average American families.

The Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) was the organizing force in making this happen, and deserves all of the kudos possible. As an British darts-industry group, the PDC has organized and heavily promoted darts in England for many years. Although major British events have appeared on television, viewers in the USA could generally only see the events in the wee hours of the night, and on certain International sports channels.

This time, the event was organized as a predominately USA event, with playoffs held around the country. Bullseye News, the ADO, and a variety of local darts associations provided manpower and local promotion of the playoffs.

At a recent Sporting Goods trade show, the upcoming ESPN World of Darts Tournament was the talk of the show. Wearing a badge with the word "Darts" anywhere in the company name guaranteed close questioning by exhibitors all over the show.

Equipment manufacturers, furniture makers, sales rep agencies, importers, even carpet & flooring manufacturers all wanted to know "Will this make Darts as big as the "Texas Hold 'em" poker craze? Many of these businessmen had only the vaguest ideas of how darts is played, yet wanted to know whether they should start pouring money into darts merchandise.

Make no mistake about it, although darters always want their sport to be on prime-time TV, this televised event is about money. Big money. The poker fad is fading fast, and broadcasters & marketers are trying-out nearly every possibility for a new game fad. There are now televised tournaments for dominoes, cribbage, horseshoes, you-name-it. Look for a tiddlywinks tournament next!

This is in no way meant disparage the great efforts that promoters have put into the ESPN World of Darts Tournament. Many people have done an enormous amount of work to make this happen, and the massive TV exposure can only be good for the game.

But the reality is that ESPN and other networks are not investing in televised darts events because of any perceived recent surge in darting interest. Nor are they doing this as charity, just to help out our sport. Instead, this was a solid business decision, with the hope of at least partially re-creating the Poker Craze, much as any popular TV series immediately spawns successors.

As darts enthusiast, we all certainly hope that ESPN's optimistic plans for Darts are fulfilled!

Be sure to tune in. And then let ESPN know that they have indeed found a great sport to catch the interest of their viewers!

Rick Osgood
CyberDarts Editor