Harsh realities

The money in darts has increased dramatically during the last 20 years or so. The rewards are so much greater but so is the cost and the risk. Players needing sponsorship to compete is nothing new but in the PDC, you can't get on the tour without a major financial backer so the number of players looking for sponsorship has increased. There's only a finite number of people/companies interested in sponsoring players and they only have a finite amount of money.

There are success stories like Nigel Heydon and Mark Hylton who quit their jobs and have made it a success but they have only been able to do that with the help of sponsorship and speaking to them, they openly acknowledge they have been fortunate on that front. Others are not so. In a local paper last month, a player was practically begging for sponsorship to be able to continue on the tour. Another player had to drop out the UK Open qualifiers when his sponsor told him he could no longer afford to sponsor him.

Now, an argument could be made that if they did any good then they wouldn't have a problem. Bring in money for the sponsor, increase their profile and sponsors will follow. But not everyone can do a Barney, Whitlock, Lewis (to name 3) to come in and get in the latter stages early in their PDC career to do that. But what about the BDO? Build your reputation & profile then move? This is not a bad argument but you only have 2 opportunities to really do that (World Champs and World Masters) You still need sponsorship to do the BDO tour (though significantly less of it) and if people think they're good enough, they'll play in the PDC.

This does add weight to the arguments that the PDC caters for the elite and for every success story we hear about, there's probably another 10 that failed. Elite sport has always been a ruthless affair and Darts is now no different. The only thing apparently stopping Scott Waites moving is lack of sponsorship and the cost. I'm surprised no one has offered him some after his superb victory in the Grand Slam of Darts last year.

Darts is big business now and there will inevitably be casualties. Is it the PDC's responsibility to help?