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Gerwyn Price wants to play in Wales more

Gerwyn Price is right to bemoan lack of PDC darts events in Wales says Paul Nicholson, who wants Scotland and Ireland to have some too

By Paul Nicholson

Darts

Thu April 18, 2024 · 7M ago

Paul Nicholson believes Wales, Scotland, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland deserve to stage a ranked tournament on the PDC calendar.

Gerwyn Price felt the German crowd cost him against Martin Schindler in the final of last weekends European Tour event and claimed that if it had been staged in Wales, he’d have won it.

In this week’s column, The Asset assesses Price’s frustrations and ponders why Wales – and indeed Scotland, Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland – should stage ranked events on the PDC calendar.

Does Gerwyn Price have a point?

Yes, he does, and anybody who thinks he doesn't is wrong! This is not a simple point to make though.

Germany becoming a hotbed for darts in recent times has been fantastic for the sports ambition to broaden its horizons well beyond the UK.

We’re seeing popularity soar all around the globe and the World Series events have been instrumental in bringing the stars of the game to the likes of the United States and Australia.

However, I don’t want us to forget where darts came from and maybe we can get a little lost with moving forward into other countries, hence neglecting Wales, Scotland, The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.

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Apart from the Premier League, they don’t have any proper ranked tournaments.

I don’t really like that.

If you look at snooker, they have the Home Series of events which ensure all these places get a prestigious tournament for fans in those countries to attend.

Some say we shouldn't have everything on our own doorstep, but there’s a lot of majors held in England.

The World Championship is in London, the World Matchplay is in Blackpool and the Grand Slam of Darts is in Wolverhampton and both the UK Open and Players Championship Finals are in Minehead.

We’ve also got one in Leicester but hopefully the World Grand Prix will eventually move back to Dublin soon.

But what about Wales and Scotland. There are so many legends of the game to have come from Wales such as Leighton Rees, Alan Evans, Richie Burnett, Mark Webster, Gerwyn Price and Jonny Clayton.

Scotland has produced many stars as well such as John Thomas Wilson, Gary Anderson and Peter Wright to name just three.

The demand for tickets in both countries would be massive across a full weekend. You only have to see the atmospheres at their Premier League nights to understand that, and don’t get me started on just how incredible the exhibitions can be.

What is the solution?

I wouldn’t copy snooker’s example of bringing in an extra Home Nations series of events to the calendar. As everyone knows, the darts calendar is condensed enough as it.

However, we could expand the European Tour to 16 events from its current number of 13 and give the extra ones to the home nations that currently have nothing.

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The decision to stage some Players Championship tournaments in midweek has freed up some weekends and that’s potentially where these extra European Tour events could be staged. There is no harm in having a European Tour event ‘clashing’ on the same weekend as Challenge Tour, Development Tours or Women’s Series events.

Imagine the atmosphere if Gary, Peter, Soots, Cameron Menzies and some other Scottish players walked out to a European tour in Scotland.

In Wales we’d have Price, Clayton and others. In Ireland the likes of Brendan Dolan, Daryl Gurney, Keane Barry, Josh Rock, William O’Connor and Steve Lennon would have chances to play in front of big home support for ranked prizes.

I still have no idea why this is has not been done yet, and if you would ask the players, they would have exactly the same attitude.

They all love going to Germany – and so do I when I commentate, including this weekend.

However, over the years there have been too many advantages for German players and people have taken full advantage of that. It’s time to redress the balance.

Countries like Sweden are also missing out and it wouldn’t leave Germany too short if we took one or two events away from them.

Should Germany have so many events?

Of the 13 European Tour events currently on the calendar, six are staged in Germany; Munich, Leverkusen, Riesa, Sindelfingen, Hildesheim and Kiel.

The reason why we spend a lot of time in Germany is because it sells. This is also because PDC Europe is a German promotional company.

However, when the tour goes to Gibraltar, Hungary, the Netherlands, Belgium, Czech Republic, Switzerland and Austria, the host nations run them on behalf of PDC Europe.

I don't understand why they don't do that with Ireland, Wales, Scotland and Scandinavia as well.

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Growth is important but we can't forget where we are now.

If I were in charge and it was my decision I would put – as a minimum – a UK Masters onto the European Tour calendar like in 2013 and it wouldn’t take place in England.

That doesn't somewhat extinguish the problem but it starts the process and that event would alternate between Wales and Scotland each year. Then I'd have something in Ireland.

On top of that. We can’t forget that growth is still important so I’d take some of the events that don’t do as well in Germany where ticket sales for the Friday are particularly poor.

Those are the tournaments that should go somewhere else because there’s no way the public in Wales, Scotland and Ireland would let any seats go spare.

To sum up, if you expand the European Tour to 16 and take one event off Germany, you’ll have four new countries to explore and the other Home Nations will finally get the ranked tournaments their history – and current crop of players from those countries - deserve.