"They need to change the venue" - Josh Rock critical about World Grand Prix's current location as he hints for Dublin return

Josh Rock made his feelings clear about the location of the World Grand Prix, slamming the fans and venue for not living up to the expectations of what a major tournament should look like.

The Northern Irishman competed in his third World Grand Prix this week, going into this year's edition without tasting victory in the double-in double-out format. He finally turned his fortunes around with a gritty 2-1 win over doubles-specialist and former semi-finalist Ryan Joyce, coming back from a set down to set up a showdown against the 2020 champion Gerwyn Price.

After taking out 106 in the second leg of the match to bring the score level, The Iceman went on a rampage and won the remaining eight legs to condemn Rocky to another early defeat in Leicester.

After making four consecutive major semi-finals, Rock's brilliant form has been halted for now. Fortunately, there are many more big tournaments coming up for Rock to attempt to get his hands on a second major trophy after his World Cup success in Frankfurt with Daryl Gurney earlier this year.

The World Grand Prix struggled to find a permanent home at first. The first two editions back in 1998 and 1999 were held at the Casino Rooms in Rchester, Kent. It would then traverse overseas to the Republic of Ireland, settling at the Crosbie Cellars Hotel in Rosslare, County Wexford, from 2000-2001.

Its next change would be a more permanent one, as it found a new home at the Citywest Hotel Convention Centre, Dublin. From 2002-2019, passionate Irish darts fans were awarded the opportunity to watch the best players in the world compete for one of the most prestigious titles. COVID-19 forced the 2020 moved to the Ricoh Arena, Coventry. The pandemic kept the tournament in England in 2021 but this time at the Mattioli Arena, Leicester. Instead of moving back to Dublin, organisers chose to keep the event in the Midlands. While this is a huge blow for the Irish darts fans who have been robbed of a major event they could call theirs for so long, it has not been all popular with some of the players, specifically Rock who criticised the lack of fans in Leicester, while hinting at a move to Dublin would be favourable in his opinion.

"I never experienced it when it was in Dublin, but I think the PDC need to change the venue because they don’t get the fans in Leicester at all," Rock said in an interview with The Metro. "It’s meant to be a major. So I think maybe they need to find somewhere that they know they’re going to get the fans from Monday all the way to Sunday. That’s my opinion, they need to change the venue."

While many events have sold out very quickly, the World Grand Prix still had seats available throughout the event with the venue reaching 90% capacity. While this is still impressive, tournaments such as the World Championships sell out in a very short space of time, with tickets increasingly hard to get.

While Rock complains about the attendance in Leicester, he may possibly have his mind on a major once again set in Ireland, something that would be very special for him. The only major PDC events played in either Northern or Republic of Ireland are Premier League nights in Belfast and Dublin. With his form sky-rocketing this year, there is a very good chance that we may see him at these events in next year's Premier League, but there is still a lot of darts to play until that.