Why has an American Pro Contender not emerged?

[Dart_talker]

[delfam]

the main reason is youth darts, I myself become frustrated cause I'm not allowed to join a league until 21 and there are no youth leagues.

The second reason is just experience, to become good you have to play the best, but the best are in England and travel and board is very expensive, and most people play darts more for fun than as a job.

[Dart_talker]

[AmericanBadAss]

I haven't read the whole article yet, but my thoughts:

First, agreed with youth darts. I have relatives in Canada and those who play have picked the game up before they were 8-9 years old. It's not like the US where it's Little League baseball, Pop Warner football, etc for the kiddies. I had the paper board setup when I was about 10 and didn't really spend much time with it..I really picked up the game at age 26. My cousin from the Great White North had 18 years under his belt already by that age.

Second, the vast majority of darters in our large league (MMDL) are not what I would consider "serious" about the game outside of league night..and some aren't even on that night.

I consider myself a middle of the road player. I might hit a 140 one turn but can easily hit an 11 the next. If I attend a tournament it's for a good time and some dart lessons. I know I am not going to win it all but I enjoy the experience. Unfortunately quite a few good players I know view it as if they can't win why bother.
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[Erik]

Size and Money.

It's just too easy.

Think about this: when Kevin 'Rainman' Luke wants to compete for $$$ he has to fly 1000 miles to a tournament.

When I was trying to compete seriously I flew to Camellia (others here have also) and as many of you know who've been around a while Craig and I placed in the top 8 in a mens doubles event and were given $25 each.....I'd made TWICE that in Truckee with Roger Crystal and with another player from Cali (I'm having a hard time remembering his name but he was an Irishman from Sacremento I think)....twice being all of $50.

So let's compare worlds a little:

The UK is about 50,000 square miles....Vancouver Island, which is just an island mind you, is over 12,000 square miles....Canada is what? Almost 4 MILLION square miles or 80 times larger then the UK and the USA is about 3.5 MILLION square miles.....

So let me get this right, with something like 8 MILLION square miles of land to travel across, about, around the north American dart players would have to earn CONSIDERABLY MORE cash at tournaments before being able to 'go pro' for real.

And that is only the starters!

Now consider that the big sponsors of darts haven't really considered tapping into the US market. After all, if they did they would stick around long enough to make something of it.

Maybe I'm a little cynical but it seems to me that if the PDC wanted to make darts really big they would first do what Lucky Lites did 30 years ago and start pumping money into big events.

Put up or shut up is what I say. With 50 states you would need 50 $50,000 dart tournaments in a year. So for $2.5 MILLION dollars in purse money you would get every darn semi conscious dart player practicing....and you'd have news all over the place about it...and folks like Johnny K would be making some real money for a change...and someone like me might even be inspired to step up his game.

I'm very certain you'd have the best of the best in every state competing for that money and traveling to ever neighboring state for a piece of that pie....

Just my 2c
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[GeorgeCostanza]

1000% right Erik ! (i's really a " No Brainer " ) Size and Money
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[ae37]

"Size and Money"

Correct....

so maybe someone needs to start to look at the country differently

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[Thorn]

maybe it's 'potential' and 'love'....
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[rob]

[CraigB]

I think the main reason is that we, as a nation, just get too easily distracted by

[Agent5432]

Another reason is because in my opinion ...and I'm not alone...the ADO dart circuit is setup for Amateurs (A person who engages in an art, science, study, or athletic activity as a pastime rather than as a profession). For 4 or 5 years I went to about 25+ tournaments a year chasing ADO points. Of course points are only awarded in singles events and I never liked the fact that 98% of tournaments are best of 3. Anybody has a chance in a best of 3. Often there were tournaments on the East coast that I would have like to have been at but I'm gambling travel expenses on a best of 3. If it were best of 5, best of 7 . . . How about best of 3 sets of best of 5 where it will reflects the players skill set more, rather than the game of chance that best of 3 is. . . . Does this make sense?

[Gene]

Erik is right on it!
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[cannibal]

This is a discussion we have had many times and I think it is an interesting one. Personally I think part of the problem that people don't like to admit but I think is obvious is we just don't have the standard of play in this country. I know many will disagree because it just irritates our American ego that we are not as good at something as some other country. I am not saying size and money are not problems; they are and in fact have a relation to the problem of not having the standard of play they do in the UK. And the effect goes the other way standard of play effects the money coming into the game. But I think that to say that it simply is size and money is just a little myopic. If we solved those problems it is not going to magically raise the standard of play. And vice a versa raising the standard of play isn't going to solve the size and money problems either.

Because these problems have direct effects on each other the solution should deal with all the problems simultaneously.

One step in the process of solving these problems is being offered by Foto and Major league darts he is trying to get going. But IMHO if those who are trying to make a living at darts or want to raise their standard of play don't get behind it then it won't be a solution to the problem. The thing is for them they are the ones that should be promoting it, making the calls, finding venues, sponsors etc...Isn't this what happened when the PDPA started a bunch of players got together created what they needed.

Really sick of hearing size and money as an excuse, lot of belly aching in darts in general. Very little productive comes out of these discussion unfortunately, I will say its nice to see people like Foto and Ae take some chances and start something. Me I am a crappy pub shooter and I do what I can to help better shooters in my area and those who want to improve by giving them opportunity to play in the most competitive format and put money in their pockets. If an event comes to my area I help out show up and chalk, set up, tear down, hand out flyers whatever I can contribute etc....But if those who it benefits the most don't put up then it will go away just like the other opportunites that came along.
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[Dart_talker]

[scottyb1001]

I would like to thank Anne for getting the public ball rolling on this topic. I have a reply that I have laid out on my website for all to see. Being a PDC member and 2011 Tour Card holder means a lot to me, but not if we will have cheap shots taken at us as Americans trying to figure out ways to get to these events and play.

I ask you please read my response and feel free to comment.

Regards,
Scotty
www.scottyburnett.com
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[fotoman]

Shocking, but I'm not here to promote Major League Darts...

I think what delfam said is right on. Youth Darts!!

My wife teaches Jr High (I know, I offer her a gun every year!). Anyway, her math team member said she would offer extra credit to any kid who played in a darts league. Now I need to get the youth program in the US kick started as well...

Could you imagine what darts in the US would be like in 10 years if every town had 50-100 kids playing darts for math extra credit??

I bowled from 2nd grade through my sophomore year in college. I haven't bowled in like 3 years, but could probably still head out and roll in the 180s (ha, just noticed the dart cross over number there...). It was offered to me. If a sport isn't accessible, then how are people to know they can be any good at it? Even if the majority of kids playing don't make it to the 'pro' circuit, at least they could still attend the ADO events, or better yet, the local leagues would surge!

Ok, so, not to make this into an ADO bash thread, but other than hosting nationals for youth, what does the ADO do to promote the youth game? They're bringing in a ton of cash; I would assume they are attending every tradeshow for youth athletics/activities in the country, trying to promote darts.
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[delfam]

I also agree with the best of 3 legs theory. Anyone can win in best of 3 and traveling across the country is a big gamble money wise if you have say 2 bad legs, and your out.
I think best of 7 would be ideal, the only thing is the time constraint.

[Dart_talker]

Another part of the issue is that we in the states have not developed league players into darts fans. Very few folks know much about the the PDC World Championships, some know about the BDO World Championships. If fans show interest in the sport, sponsors will show interest.
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[POOHBEAR]

I think it is not impossible for an american to be good enough, travel enough and live and work as a professional darts player. if a canadian can do it (John Part world champion mind you) why can't an american?

more american's seem to have played overseas than ever before in the last 10 years. the pdc doesn't seem to want them though with the new tour card nonsense.

are players like colin osbourn, terry jenkins, and kevin painter better than darin young and any one else that goes over there? maybe/maybe not. but they have Unicorn money thrown at them and haven't won much/anything.

i don't hear dick allix complaining that those guys aren't practicing enough. or don't have the nerves enough to overtake Phil Taylor. but then he can't actually rip on the european players.

[Shannonmiles]

[delfam]

^ my parents actually don't play and I still picked it up, but I do think that's a big reason.
The reason I started playing was when they showed the PDC Worlds on ESPN that one year. The only thing is that lasted one year. TV coverage would be great but I'm not sure if any TV stations would pick it up.

[habanerojooz]

[podge]

Simple answer is "you don't have anyone good enough"

[Erik]

[podge]