Paid Members garynysmon Posted January 1, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted January 1, 2020 (edited) On 12/31/2019 at 2:30 PM, Keith Houchen said: Lakeside IS the spiritual home of darts. I'm not too sure if it really is by now, but the Lakeside does mean the world to a certain section of the public. There are thousands of people out there who used to watch the BDO World Champs every year on the BBC, pretty much unaware of the PDC which was tucked away on Sky, and as a result were of the opinion that Martin Adams, Scott Waites etc were legit among the best players in the world. "I wonder why Gary Anderson/Mark Webster etc didn't qualify this year?" Once they lost the BBC contract you feel that was the beginning of the end, thrown around to Channel 4 and now tucked away on Quest and Eurosport which is only on pay tv. The people who loyally went to the Lakeside every year, judging from forums and FB groups etc, either didn't care about the PDC being vastly superior or disliked the football-type crowds. They liked the homely, family feel of the Lakeside and treated is as a chance to meet old friends etc. Moving it to the O2 has been an unmitigated disaster. The BDO brand isn't enough of an attraction to get the London crowds in, while simultaneously alienating the thousands who loyally followed the BDO every year at the Lakeside. This Des Jacklin bloke comes across as a proper clown, but you feel that the damage had long been done before he arrived on the scene. That said, I find it amazing that such a tournament with decent TV and media exposure (even for such a tainted brand) couldn't find any kind of sponsor. Betting companies seem to fall over each other to sponsor other events, and it doesn't seem like it would have cost more than £100-200k. Edited January 1, 2020 by garynysmon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted January 1, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted January 1, 2020 Can you really imagine Barry Hearn (on a FB account he shares with his Mrs) posting stuff like this on a PDC Facebook group? Fuck me... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members TheBurningRed Posted January 1, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted January 1, 2020 They’re probably hoping more drop out so Paula can get a straight bye to the final to face no one and pick up the £8000 herself. Uber home with that will be nice for them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Lion_of_the_Midlands Posted January 2, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted January 2, 2020 On 15% of expected ticket sales at least they are not going to have to worry about an Uber price surge due to high demand. Every penny counts for the BDO Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted January 2, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted January 2, 2020 (edited) The timing of the BDO "Professional" World Championships often hurt the brand too. Usually starting a day or two after the PDC final, it was hard to go straight from the world's elite hitting 10,11 dart legs with regularity in front of noisy crowds, to the drab atmosphere of the Lakeside and "best of order please" and the meat raffle as two qualifiers struggled to finish the leg with both needing double one. Edited January 2, 2020 by garynysmon Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
deathrides Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 4 hours ago, garynysmon said: The timing of the BDO "Professional" World Championships often hurt the brand too. Usually starting a day or two after the PDC final, it was hard to go straight from the world's elite hitting 10,11 dart legs with regularity in front of noisy crowds, to the drab atmosphere of the Lakeside and "best of order please" and the meat raffle as two qualifiers struggled to finish the leg with both needing double one. Being on straight after the PDC Worlds would have got a lot of people who'd just watched that and were looking for more darts to tune in . If it was on when the weather was nice and there was other sports to watch they wouldn't bother. Even at the end the BDO was getting millions more viewers on the BBC than the PDC on Sky. Most of them didn't watch the PDC anyway, probably never had done. Most of the viewers were watching out of tradition. They weren't darts fans, not enough to follow it to a different channel. Once they lost the BBC contract it was obvious they would be dead in a few years Same with the Lakeside, most of them went because they had been going there for years, they weren't big enough fans to follow it to another venue and probably wouldn't have gone if it was ob at a different time. Leaving the Lakeside not only lost most of the rest of their audience but Bob Potters sponsorship money too Being at the same time, same venue, same channel every year is the only reason it kept going so long. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted January 2, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted January 2, 2020 25 minutes ago, deathrides said: Leaving the Lakeside not only lost most of the rest of their audience but Bob Potters sponsorship money too Apparently the decision to leave the Lakeside was at least partially based on Bob Potter stiffing them. Of course, less Bob Potter money and a full Lakeside is still better than an empty O2 and no sponsors at all, but there you go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Magnum Milano Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Just now, garynysmon said: Apparently the decision to leave the Lakeside was at least partially based on Bob Potter stiffing them. Of course, less Bob Potter money and a full Lakeside is still better than an empty O2 and no sponsors at all, but there you go. I was under the impression that Bob Potter put up the funding/prize money but got to keep all the income in return (accommodation, beer money, food etc). Apparently he was raking in over seven figures from the elongated Darts week, so no wonder he was happy to stifle up £350K. I could understand why the BDO would be aggrieved, wanting some of that pie, but absolutely foolish from them leaving with no concrete certainty of what they're doing next, no real sponsorship and banking on ticket sales to fund the prize money. I had the chance to go to Lakeside probably around five years ago but turned it down. A couple of years prior to that we went up to Hull to watch the Masters and also take in the World Championship qualifying prior and it was an utter shambles. It was an early start for the qualifying but you saw players boozing pre-08:00 a.m., very little in the way of organization and we, as paying spectators, were asked to score at one point because the were short on chalkers. I'll also never forget leaving the building and walking through a sea of cigarette butts, never seen anything like it in my life. We returned for the afternoon/evening session (at the Ice Arena) and watched I think five matches, two of which were the male and female youth finals which were on first, before calling it a day and heading out to find a pub in town. We were treated to some of Martin Fitzmaurice's dated jokes, nothing sexist frankly, just effing and jeffing about the football and swearing at people, while the Arena itself was cold (they placed boards over the ice but it made no difference), the beer was crap, there was no atmosphere, the majority of spectators were players and their friends/families and to top it off we ended up paying twice for this dross! Basically we paid for the qualifiers and were given a wristband, return for the Masters and all we had to do was flash this and we were let in, no showing of our tickets or anything. Shambolic. The lone highlight of the day was getting back to our Premier Inn and seeing a pissed up, legless Trina Gulliver having to be carried from the bar back to her room by her lesbian partner. Not so much the clean cut 'Golden Girl' they'll have you believe! That was enough for me and I swore from that point on the BDO would never get another penny of my money. My two friends who I went with on that day then decided to go to Lakeside a couple of years later I forget why) and it was an easy decision to turn down the invitation. They said nothing had changed with the organization, everything about Lakeside itself was designed to screw you of money (right down to being forced to put your jackets in the cloakroom, something you of course had to pay for) and organization was non-existent as they, and others, were left queuing out in the rain when doors should've been open. Similarly to when we went to Hull, they left early and ended up watching the matches on their iPad in their hotel room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted January 2, 2020 Share Posted January 2, 2020 Trina Gulliver is meant to be clean cut? Next Ted Hankey will be sponsored by Lynx Africa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members TheBurningRed Posted January 2, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted January 2, 2020 https://youtu.be/wzdgi0uUFio Barry Hearn interview from a couple of days ago. He talks about the BDO and their situation and literally says they’re fucked. Watch from 11:15 onwards for that. The BDO mob hate him, but he talks a lot of sense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted January 2, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted January 2, 2020 Cracking thumbnail. Barry's just read one of Mickeynumbers posts. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted January 3, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted January 3, 2020 Fair play, the setup looks pretty good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members tiger_rick Posted January 3, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted January 3, 2020 Looks great. Everyone who's bought a ticket is in already: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members garynysmon Posted January 3, 2020 Paid Members Share Posted January 3, 2020 Still blows my mind how the BDO, given its present state and diminished prize money, decided to drop the word 'darts' instead of 'professional' from the title. Might as well call it the "BDO Grand Slam of Darts qualifiers" by now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hallicks Posted January 3, 2020 Share Posted January 3, 2020 The head guy must have seen Vince desperately trying to erase the word "wrestling" from his product Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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