Barry Hearn reveals impending announcement for darts at home expansion

Darts events have been pushed back due to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak, but while other sports have ground to a halt entirely, there has still been oche action. PDC chairman Hearn revealed that a plan is in place to prepare the sport for a return to normalcy.

"We're looking at what's possible, at what's not possible," he told the Weekly Dartscast.

"This is going to go on, we know, for the next three or four weeks. I think there's going to be an extension of the lockdown before there's any chance of anything happening.

"We are looking at three or four stages. One is behind closed doors, as in your own house. The second is behind closed doors, in as far as tournaments without crowds. The third might be limited crowds but standard tournaments, before we go onto the utopia of four, which is back to normal."

Hearn warned that the process will take time, even if reports coming out of a number of nations are more positive than in previous weeks.

"Estimates of how long that's going to take vary. We're seeing slowdowns in Spain and Italy. In a week's time or so, we should see a beginning of a slowdown in the UK. But don't forget, we're a global sport now.

"It's not a question of: 'OK, we can have Players Championship games behind closed doors'. We can't if our membership can't travel, it wouldn't be fair," Hearn said.

"That's a big issue, in terms of rankings, in terms of what's going to happen with Q School next year...there's a thousand things that we can't make a decision on yet. We're going to have to wait and see."

Thanks to the vast majority of players having a home setup, 'darts at home' has been a popular source of entertainment. The PDC hosted two nights of play, while MODUS have scored success with the Icons of Darts and A Night At The Darts events.

Raymond van Barneveld and Phil Taylor made headlines with their live-streamed charity clash, with both playing from their respective homes.

Hearn confirmed that house-based darts would soon step up a notch, as the wait for standard tournament play continues.

"Next week we'll announce a major move on 'in your own house' development. We have a brilliant team that have been working on a masterplan to involve the entire tour in an extravaganza of darts.

"It will lack the atmosphere of a crowd, of course, and it will not be at the production level that we're used to. But it'll give us that regular supply (of darts).

"An announcement will be early next week, so watch this space and get ready to watch a lot of darts!"

https://twitter.com/WeeklyDartscast/status/1249643629049675777?fbclid=IwAR3xNKbexrvrCRMyk6XgeES5tOffhSdI-jYbSManb6r9_-vbLo_GHwT_2H4