Dutch analysts call for relocation of World Grand Prix to Europe

During the opening two days of the World Grand Prix, the venue was far from sold out. That led Viaplay analysts to advocate moving the double-in double-out tournament to another venue.

According to analyst Martijn Kleermaker, it is more fun to watch darts when there is more audience in the room. ''When you are watching you also notice how the atmosphere is determined. It looks a little different when you see the crowd going wild,'' said the current number 45 of the world, who competed in the 2021 World Grand Prix himself.

Fellow analyst Vincent van der Voort then agreed with him. ''It's an ideal tournament to move to Europe for once right? To see if you can pull it off there.''

Kleermaker then suggested moving the tournament to Belgium. ''There it (the interest in darts) is bizarre at the moment. I'm sure it sells out there every day.''

Van der Voort agrees, and suggests doing the World Grand Prix somewhere else in Europe every year. ''You could then do it the following year in Germany or once in Austria or the Netherlands. All the ranking tournaments are basically all in England, except for the European Championship. It's not full here (in Leicester, ed.) anyway. If you look at how popular darts is becoming in Europe. Also in countries like the Czech Republic and Hungary, there is full the whole weekend with halls of five to six thousand people'', said 'The Dutch Destroyer'.