For the money and the glory

Since the split in 1993, the PDC have firmly established themselves as the most lucrative body in the world of darts. They have the majority of the best players in the world and in conjunction with Sky, have a very slick presentation package to provide high quality enjoyment for everyone. In the 2009/2010 World Champs, the prize fund reached £1million and looks set to increase further and outside these (and even the majors) the prizes on offer are substantial.

The figures above are stuff the BDO can only dream of. Their mantra has always been about catering for all levels but they cannot match the PDC at the top end, the elite and some argue it's about time the BDO conceded on that front. With the recent announcement of a Youth and Womens World Championships with substantial prize money and offerings of a tour card to the last 4 at the Lakeside, the PDC appear to be targeting the core supports of the BDO. Whether these turn out to be successfull only time will tell but it is still very telling that the PDC are going for it.

With the PDC tourcard coming in to play, the very best will get well rewarded with the aim of forcing the rest to improve to gain a lucrative tour card, a system Hearn seems to be about to implement in Snooker. There are advantages and disadvantages to this system but that is not the point of this blog.

As stated earlier, the BDO cannot compete on the prize fund front and the players who appear happy to be competing for comparitively insignificant sums of money is met with ridicule by some. The opposing argument to this has been "well heaven forbid people play just for the enjoyment" This is pretty much reducing the BDO to an amateur game and the PDC to nothing more than money hungry vultures.

Do people really believe the PDC players are only interested in money?

In todays world, wealth is seen as status. Competing for vasts sums of money seems to add excitement, profile and drama to proceedings and things do seem to get more serious. The PDC ranking system is based on how much money a player has earned. If they didn't love the game, they wouldn't play it. Not everyone is seemingly as robotic as Phil Taylor (and I wouldn't be surprised if it was revealed that he really is a robot) but even he plays because he enjoys the game. So why not compete for large sums of money and get masses of enjoyment out the game? Players do exhibitions but whilst they are being paid, they (usually) put on a very good show and are clearly enjoying themselves.

Steve Beaton commented that his fine run of form in the back end of last year was due to him not playing to win but just playing to enjoy himself. So is the main difference between the BDO and the PDC merely the stakes involved? Despite the difference in stakes, I doubt the BDO players enjoy themselves any more than the PDC players. There are people who are very good at darts who simply do not want to turn it into a living and they should be respected for that. But those who do should be treated with equal respect. That said, if you really believe you are capable of mixing it with the best, you take on the PDC. In the words of Bobby George: "If you want to earn a very good living from darts and think you're good enough, you play in the PDC"

It is possible to have your cake and eat it in this case.