"It’s played by genuine professional athletes" - CEO Matt Porter continues quest to disconnect PDC from pub image

PDC
Sunday, 21 January 2024 at 09:00
matt porter

Darts was originally a pub sport and is still associated with it. But Matt Porter, Chief Executive Officer of the PDC, would like to get rid of that image.

Barry Hearn, currently President of the PDC, once described darts as 'golf for working people'. Originally, darts was played in pubs and involves some drinking. But Porter doesn't like that association. "The advantage of darts is that it’s played everywhere in the world. You don’t have to introduce people to it, you just have to change the way it’s packaged," Porter told the Financial Times.

"It’s important we put to bed that pub-based image," he continues. "It’s not what people perceived it to be in the ‘80s and ‘90s. It’s played by genuine professional athletes."

Porter hopes new sensation Luke Littler can help with that. "Darts is something people can relate to, and Luke is a very relatable character," he said. "You wouldn’t go to watch a Premier League [football] match and think, 'Oh I could do that'."

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2 Comments
richieburnettrocks 16 February 2024 at 10:42+ 1437

Professional athletes ?!! Most of the players look out of breath by the time they've made the stage. Littler is usually parading with kebabs and is in dreadful dreadful shape. I can't imagine Bunting, Smith etc etc eating healthily or carrying out any kind of exercise. I don't have an issue with them eating and drinking what they want, that's down to them. But to call them profrssional athletes is a fugging joke and utterly ridiculous. Porter spewing class A nonsense as usual , have you seen the people that attend darts nowadays. They are served jug upon jug of alcohol and are usually drunk or unruly before the first match. The World Championships are pub based atmospheres, more like a grotty nightclub atmosphere. I am teetotal and played and watched darts all over the world but I am in excellent physical shape and in health, just to dismiss the players from the 80s and 90s is bullsheet. Phil Taylor came through that period and is the greatest darts player ever, nobody will ever dominate like him ever again.

Mysstree 16 February 2024 at 10:42+ 671

Where in the UK is darts played by adults where there is not the facility to consume alcohol? Dont try and take the working man out of darts, why go the way of many pro sports and end up with a disconnect between the fan and casual amateur player and the top pro players. Have to confess that i am rapidly losing interest in darts with this incessant drive for professionalism and a career and turning it into a business yet on the other hand the lack of organisation at the amateur end with no coherent strategy is also depressing.

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