Despite much speculation in recent months, the potential now appears to be in Saudi Arabia PDC World Darts Championships is not an option. Barry Hearn announced that plans to move to the Middle East have been put on hold due to one key point of contention.
Saudi Arabia’s influence on sports has grown tremendously in recent years. The country hosts more and more international events such as boxing, WWE and golf. Earlier this week, it was even announced that the FIFA World Cup would be held in Saudi Arabia for the first time in 2034. As already mentioned, however, in the case of darts, it seems that the sport will not be seen there for the time being, despite interest from the sheikhs.
Part of the festive atmosphere in darts is singing, fancy costumes and the consumption of alcohol. Currently, buying and consuming alcohol in Saudi Arabia is illegal and can result in penalties such as fines, imprisonment and, in the case of foreigners, even deportation. Due to this, plans to bring darts to the Middle Eastern country have been put on hold for now.
“I’ve been involved in some big events and the players love it,” explained Hearn, president of Matchroom Sports DiscussionSPORT. “About a few months ago the Saudis asked me for darts and I asked them a simple question. Can we have alcohol? And they said no. I said, well, you can’t have darts then.’
“We are a party,” he said. “We are the biggest party in the world and there will be 90,000 [people in attendance] and we will have to think about extending and enlarging it. Will we one day look at a new place? Yes of course. Our job is to look at things and evaluate them. We are currently very happy at Ally Pally. The only danger for me is that so many people say they are disappointed. I don’t want to disappoint players because one day they’ll turn their attention elsewhere, so I’m not going to get complacent.
However, this is not the last nail in the coffin of the plans for the Darts World Championships in Saudi Arabia. While, as mentioned, alcohol remains banned in Saudi Arabia, the country is expected to relax its regulations in the coming years, which could open the door to future talks.
