Move of PDC World Darts Championship to larger venue at Alexandra Palace seems not possible

Tickets for the PDC World Darts Championship went on sale at record speed. Even before the start of the general sale, all 90,000 available tickets were sold. The PDC plans to sell more tickets in the future.

This will allow the association to make more prize money available at major tournaments in the future. ''We never rush things at the PDC,'' said PDC president Barry Hearn on the Sky Sports website. "We never rush things at the PDC. We've grown a great business and the players have been fabulous in its expansion.

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"But clearly, we've got to not just grow the business in terms of tickets and viewers, but in terms of prize money. So we have to generate more and more income, so that we can pay more and more prize money. That's common sense."

To sell more tickets in the future, several options are possible. One of the options on the table was a move to a different venue at Alexandra Palace, which can hold 5000 people instead of 3500. However, the PDC has come to the conclusion that this is not a good option.

"The way to do that, however, is difficult, because the atmosphere at Alexandra Palace is fabulous. It's something special. We can't get another seat in the hall we're using. The bigger hall at Alexandra Palace is not really fit for purpose, frankly."

To sell more tickets and stay at Alexandra Palace, the PDC will have to create more sessions. "So by making the event bigger, by making effectively four more days of darts - which is eight sessions - that adds 25,000 tickets to the 90,000 I sold in about five minutes.

"When we drew the line this year and said, 'OK, that's it, every ticket sold', I asked my technical department to market the tickets.

"I obviously understand the principles of supply and demand. How many tickets could we have sold if we had them? Bearing in mind we sold 90,000 very quickly, their answer was somewhere in between 300,000 and 350,000 tickets, judging by the number of people waiting online. I need to satisfy the paying public. It's no good saying we've got the biggest event in the world if after a while, people get so frustrated not being able to get a ticket, they move their attention elsewhere. We're not going to let that happen.

According to Hearn, the ceiling is extremely high. "So next year, make it bigger. Then we've got to look at it in a practical term and say, 'Do we go somewhere else?' Realistically, I could sell 6,000, 7,000, 8,000 tickets a session, instead of 3,500.

"In revenue terms, that adds to it, but also it means I'm not disappointing the darts fans who want that experience of watching one of the greatest shows on earth."

Barry Hearn hopes to admit more fans to the World Darts Championship in the near future

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