Michael van Gerwen would be fine with move of World Darts Championship to Saudi Arabia: ''They want to make sports big in that country"

Michael van Gerwen would be fine with the PDC World Darts Championship moving in the future from its old home Alexandra Palace in London to a new venue in Saudi Arabia.

The Gulf state has been trying to bring more and more major sporting events to their country in recent years. PDC chairman Barry Hearn recently opened the door wide for a departure to the Middle East.

In an interview with the Daily Mail, Van Gerwen indicated that he would be in favor of this. "[It] will be great, I think," he said. "They wanna make sports big in that country. You saw the big boxing games there, the football there. For me, I don't mind where I play. I will be competing, and that's how it is."

After winning the 2023 US Masters, in which Van Gerwen won 8-0 against Jeff Smith in the final, he is back in New York this week to play again at Madison Square Garden. Van Gerwen is obviously looking forward to playing in this iconic sports venue again.

"[I'm] looking forward to it,' he continued. "The setting is absolutely amazing. The PDC did a great job to bring darts back to the most iconic venue in the world. All the big sports have been there, and you wanna perform there - simple as that. The field this year is quite strong, I think - same as the Premier League, of course. The PDC did very well with this lineup, and this country deserves it - they deserve the best. We're playing in the best venue. You wanna compete against the best to make the sport bigger, and that's really important."

According to the three-time world champion, there is still plenty of room in the United States to make the sport of darts even bigger and stronger. ''It took ten years for PDC to get it back off the floor in China. Sometimes things take time. Americans love sports, so you need to respect that.

"I think there's room for improvement [in darts] here in this big country. I think there's a lot of good darts players coming from here, but it's not easy to be a professional."

"I've been in the PDC for 18 years - it's quite a long time. I've been everywhere. I've been to all the top places, the nice places, the best places when you didn't have a lot of money, when you had to book not the best hotels. Now we're in New York. That's how quick darts can grow. And I think the people behind [the scenes], the PDC, and Matchroom did a phenomenal job."