Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Chat and Gossip About Professional Darts and The More Farcical Successors To The BDO
User avatar
Rogg
Posts: 64480
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:33 pm
Contact:

Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by Rogg » Sat Apr 02, 2016 11:42 pm

Long write-up/interview with Baz from 2001, on becoming PDC chairman. Published on the PDC site at the time.



During the Stan James World Matchplay this year, Barry Hearn was unveiled as the new Chairman of the PDC. Now that the dust has settled on Blackpool's finest sporting event, Planetdarts spoke to Hearn about his decision to take the reigns at the PDC, his vision for the professional organisation and a global future for darts.

Barry Hearn is one of the names in world sports promotion. Manager of snooker phenomenon Steve Davis, Hearn took the game to new heights in the 1980s, transforming it into one of the country's most popular televised sports.

He has shepherded the careers of amoung others Frank Bruno and Chris Eubank and through his promotion and television production company Matchroom Sport, Hearn has brought so called minority sports such as pool, angling, poker and bowling to the small screen in a big way.

Although best known for his football, boxing and snooker exploits, Hearn has spent the last six years working on securing television deals for the PDC, so is no stranger to the arrows. But why the step up to the Chairmanship in 2001?

"I've enjoyed six years of working on the TV coverage for the PDC and the powers that be approached me and asked me if I'd like to make it a deeper involvement by taking the Chairmanship," he told the website. "Hopefully I can head up a team that can take darts on in the new millenium and to the level we all feel that it should be.

"It's a sport that gets huge audiences everywhere it goes. Internationally its television exposure has been growing dramatically for the last six years. Domestically the audiences have really grown into substantial figures and so the platform is there to take it to the next level.

"As a sports nut myself I find it impossible to resist a challenge and the darts challenge for the millenium is one that I will really enjoy."

While the PDC has made impressive in roads into reawakening the glory days of darts from the 1980s, every ambitious organisation needs a next stage. For Hearn the next stage for darts, unsurprisingly in the age of the information superhighway, is globalisation.

"The next level is taking it to a global market. We've taken coverage around the world, but the immediate next stage is to take events there. It's all very well filming events for subsequent transmission but there is nothing like a live event.

"The audiences see great performances in the sport of darts. Let's not kid ourselves, the technical ability to play darts at the level of Phil Taylor is equal to the technical ability of Tiger Woods in golf, it's just a different sport.

"On the back of the great game, great players and great domestic exposure we have to take tournaments around the world. My job as I see it predominantly will be over the next few months with Tim Darby to make sure we can create some kind of World Series for live TV audiences."

Hearn sees Asia as a hotbed of darts talent, a fact that was brought to the fore last year when Phil Taylor returned from his tour of the Far East singing the praises of Asian darters. For Hearn Asia also holds the key to darts abiding problem - that of stereotypes.

Everyone who is involved in the game knows that darts needs to shake it's image of beer bellied, ale swilling, chain smoking darters if it to break through the prejudice barriers and become accepted as a 'sport'.

As those of us who have witnessed the revolution brought about by Sky's coverage and the decision in the nineties to ban alcohol and smoking from the stage are aware, darts has moved on from the days of Not the Nine O'Clock News, yet there are plenty who have yet to catch on.

A recent feature in US publication Sports Illustrated essentially lambasted the game for its drinking culture. According to Hearn a certain amount of re-education needs to take place, and Asia where such stereotypes do not exist, is the perfect place to start.

"There are still stereotypes attached to the sport and what we need to do is re-educate people. It's not a problem that we have internationally but one we have domestically.

"Internationally there is no background of the beer bellies and the pints, they just see them as being sports stars, we need to make sure that they are seen as such in this country.

"It's tough because in this country the prejudices are there but they are no longer accurate

"A World Series for darts could do that for the players. It's the most exciting thing to happen to darts since it went on to Sky TV. We can have tournaments in America, Asia, Australasia, so that players want to become pro darts players. So that they know they will get the money and the recognition they deserve for being the very best in their sport.

"We did it with snooker when people thought we couldn't and the challenge is to make current and future darts players into the same superstars."

Hearn will be joined on the reshuffled PDC Board by new CEO Tim Darby and city guru Tim Allen as they push for a bright future for darts. Exciting times then for the sport and the PDC, but with darts doing very nicely under the current regime, is it not a huge risk to bring in Hearn to turn the organisation upside down ?

"It's always a risk when you employ someone like me, especially in this sports environment where you have to be aggressive and you have to know where you want to go and you have to have a chequebook behind you.

"We have all of those things and some dynamic management around the PDC who are capable of taking this to a bigger level. Of course talk is cheap. In eighteen months time you can tell me if tou thinks we have achieved the beginnings of where i think this sport can go.

"I believe darts can be a truly global sport. It's a gamble but for the rewards that are possible it's a gamble that is well worth the risk."

Like the man says we'll need to revisit all this in eighteen months to see if Hearn's midas touch has worked on darts. But there is no doubting that the PDC must push forward if it is to capitalise on the progress made in the last eight years and what better way than with the enthusiasm, aggresssion and nous of someone like Barry Hearn.


https://web.archive.org/web/20030506172 ... 55129&Nv=1
not a girl

User avatar
Rogg
Posts: 64480
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:33 pm
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by Rogg » Sat Apr 02, 2016 11:47 pm

Also an article from the week before, confirming his appointment, as posted in the other thread:

https://web.archive.org/web/20030729071 ... 53377&Nv=1
not a girl

Justin Credible
Posts: 141102
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 4:29 pm
Location: Peoples Republic of Cork
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by Justin Credible » Sun Apr 03, 2016 12:08 am

how dare he get involved in darts.

how dare he actually care and if that was not bad enough promote the PDC , and be bloody brilliant at it,
Then after devoting his time, effort and ability to the PDC and fulfilling his 5 year plan and raise the bar, he then had the audacity to expect to get paid....what a bastard huh ?

The utter cheek of a business man to treat the business like a ...wait for it....A Business, and then expect to be rewarded for all his success.

Fucking disgraceful
Image

User avatar
Rogg
Posts: 64480
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:33 pm
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by Rogg » Sun Apr 03, 2016 11:11 am

Lock him up I say.
not a girl

User avatar
Rogg
Posts: 64480
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:33 pm
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by Rogg » Sun Apr 03, 2016 11:15 am

I never knew this:
Hearn has spent the last six years [1995-2001] working on securing television deals for the PDC, so is no stranger to the arrows... "I've enjoyed six years of working on the TV coverage for the PDC and the powers that be approached me and asked me if I'd like to make it a deeper involvement by taking the Chairmanship,"
...so he was pretty much involved from the very beginning. How disgusting.
not a girl

dartvader
Posts: 1500
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:48 am
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by dartvader » Sun Apr 03, 2016 1:17 pm

Disgraceful. Why weren't Robert Holmes or Sue Williams considered for the job? Shame how it worked out for Hearn and the PDC we could all be enjoying the 1 TV tournament a year still...

Justin Credible
Posts: 141102
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 4:29 pm
Location: Peoples Republic of Cork
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by Justin Credible » Sun Apr 03, 2016 2:05 pm

no, no, no, hearn is a bastard, a business man who not only runs a business but does it for the money.

cunt, like all the rest of us in the country who work for free...oh wait...
Image

User avatar
PT13
Posts: 4260
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2016 5:14 pm
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by PT13 » Sun Apr 03, 2016 2:50 pm

And by late 2001, Barry Hearn was telling the players who played in PDC televised events but at Lakeside rather than the Circus Tavern, to play at the Circus Tavern from 2002 onwards in order to continue being eligible for other PDC televised tournaments. The result was the Skol Six defections in late 2001, when Steve Beaton, Ronnie Baxter, Kevin Painter, Chris Mason, Andy Jenkins and Paul Williams all switched to playing in the PDC World Championship for the 2002 tournament.

Martin Adams famously refused, and had nothing to do with the PDC for 14 years afterwards. He also turned down his invitation to the Grand Slam of Darts for 3 straight years from 2007-2009. I can understand why he refused in 2007, as BDO players invited to the Grand Slam had to choose between the Grand Slam and the World Masters (as the events clashed), but all accept Adams accepted the invitation to the Grand Slam in 2007 regardless. In 2008 and 2009, the events didn't clash, yet Adams refused the Grand Slam invitation again.

User avatar
Rogg
Posts: 64480
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:33 pm
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by Rogg » Sun Apr 03, 2016 3:17 pm

dartvader wrote:Disgraceful. Why weren't Robert Holmes or Sue Williams considered for the job?
"DARTS PEOPLE"

Image
not a girl

Justin Credible
Posts: 141102
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 4:29 pm
Location: Peoples Republic of Cork
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by Justin Credible » Sun Apr 03, 2016 3:23 pm

****placeholder for bdo "keywords" ****
Image

User avatar
Rogg
Posts: 64480
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:33 pm
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by Rogg » Sun Apr 03, 2016 3:23 pm

PT13 wrote:And by late 2001, Barry Hearn was telling the players who played in PDC televised events but at Lakeshite rather than the Circus Tavern, to play at the Circus Tavern from 2002 onwards in order to continue being eligible for other PDC televised tournaments. The result was the Skol Six defections in late 2001, when Steve Beaton, Ronnie Baxter, Kevin Painter, Chris Mason, Andy Jenkins and Paul Williams all switched to playing in the PDC World Championship for the 2002 tournament.
Original article here: TOP NAMES CHOOSE SKOL: https://web.archive.org/web/20030825010 ... 71035&Nv=1

It counts Peter Manley in the 'Six', and a later announcement has Paul Williams as the seventh: WILLIAMS FOLLOWS SKOL SIX: https://web.archive.org/web/20030825011 ... 71168&Nv=1

first article wrote:Barry Hearn, Chairman of the PDC, commented:

“The Skol World Championship is the only darts tournament worth winning. The fact that six leading players from a rival event have decided to join us underlines this fact and we are looking forward to a cracking event over the New Year.

"The game will benefit enormously from having such a highly competitive tournament which will excite the wider British public in a way which we have not seen since the glory days of the sport”
not a girl

User avatar
PT13
Posts: 4260
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2016 5:14 pm
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by PT13 » Sun Apr 03, 2016 3:38 pm

Yeah, Peter Manley decided to stay put in the PDC. He had an awful year on the TV in 2001. I mentioned Williams rather than Manley because Manley was already playing in the PDC World Championship in the years before 2002.

User avatar
Rogg
Posts: 64480
Joined: Mon Feb 02, 2015 11:33 pm
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by Rogg » Sun Apr 03, 2016 3:46 pm

So Baz became PDC chairman in July and by November had overseen a cracking little "influx" :D
not a girl

User avatar
PT13
Posts: 4260
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2016 5:14 pm
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by PT13 » Sun Apr 03, 2016 4:00 pm

Rogg wrote:So Baz became PDC chairman in July and by November had overseen a cracking little "influx" :D
Yes. In 2002, there was also a new TV tournament introduced, the Las Vegas Desert Classic, held at the MGM Grand, to add to the 3 established tournaments of the World Championship, World Matchplay and World Grand Prix. In 2003, the UK Open was introduced. And in 2005 came the Premier League with 7 players, initially played in smaller towns like Taunton, Colchester and Widnes and entirely within England in that first year.

2006 was the seismic moment with Raymond van Barneveld's move to the PDC, and his rivalry with Phil Taylor. By the early months of 2009, all of Michael van Gerwen, Jelle Klaasen, Vincent van der Voort, Mervyn King, Tony Eccles, Robert Thornton, Co Stompe, Mark Webster, Gary Anderson and Simon Whitlock, had switched to the PDC.

dartvader
Posts: 1500
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:48 am
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by dartvader » Sun Apr 03, 2016 9:18 pm

Justin Credible wrote:no, no, no, hearn is a bastard, a business man who not only runs a business but does it for the money.

cunt, like all the rest of us in the country who work for free...oh wait...
The irony of it all of course being that the gimps/mushrooms whatever you want to call them slag Hearn for lining his pockets while the people running the BDO do exactly the same thing while giving fuck all back to their players/whatever fans they have left. Hearn makes a shit load from darts but he puts a shit load back in as well.

Justin Credible
Posts: 141102
Joined: Thu May 05, 2011 4:29 pm
Location: Peoples Republic of Cork
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by Justin Credible » Sun Apr 03, 2016 9:26 pm

hearn should be well compensated if he does well.
Its no different from any company director who makes more when they are successful

Sue and the gang take free fact finding trips in las vegas, paid for holidays in cyrpus and spain etc, free trips to wdf world cups at the expense of the players and fans and what have they done for them ???
Image

dartvader
Posts: 1500
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:48 am
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by dartvader » Sun Apr 03, 2016 9:31 pm

Justin Credible wrote:hearn should be well compensated if he does well.
Its no different from any company director who makes more when they are successful

Sue and the gang take free fact finding trips in las vegas, paid for holidays in cyrpus and spain etc, free trips to wdf world cups at the expense of the players and fans and what have they done for them ???
Exactly fuck all is what they've done. People can say what they want about Hearn but pro darts would be dead today without him. Well him and those other 14 gladiators who saw the light of course.

User avatar
PT13
Posts: 4260
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2016 5:14 pm
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by PT13 » Sun Apr 03, 2016 9:41 pm

dartvader wrote:
Justin Credible wrote:hearn should be well compensated if he does well.
Its no different from any company director who makes more when they are successful

Sue and the gang take free fact finding trips in las vegas, paid for holidays in cyrpus and spain etc, free trips to wdf world cups at the expense of the players and fans and what have they done for them ???
Exactly fuck all is what they've done. People can say what they want about Hearn but pro darts would be dead today without him. Well him and those other 14 gladiators who saw the light of course.
Guys like Tommy Cox and John Raby, and the 14 original rebel players who held firm under BDO pressure, were the stars that got the WDC through the 1993-1997 period when the WDC was threatened with bankruptcy due to spiraling legal fees. Barry Hearn's involvement at that time was purely on the TV side. Barry Hearn became PDC chairman in July 2001 after 4 years of stability and modest growth within the organisation. Modest compared to what has happened since Hearn's chairmanship of the PDC, that is. That modest growth was huge compared to the fears of 1993-1997.

John Raby gave a lot of his own money when the WDC was under threat. Many of the players did too. The WDC even had to take out a £20,000 loan at one stage.
Last edited by PT13 on Sun Apr 03, 2016 9:44 pm, edited 1 time in total.

dartvader
Posts: 1500
Joined: Wed Jul 13, 2011 10:48 am
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by dartvader » Sun Apr 03, 2016 9:44 pm

PT13 wrote:
dartvader wrote:
Justin Credible wrote:hearn should be well compensated if he does well.
Its no different from any company director who makes more when they are successful

Sue and the gang take free fact finding trips in las vegas, paid for holidays in cyrpus and spain etc, free trips to wdf world cups at the expense of the players and fans and what have they done for them ???
Exactly fuck all is what they've done. People can say what they want about Hearn but pro darts would be dead today without him. Well him and those other 14 gladiators who saw the light of course.
Guys like Tommy Cox and John Raby, and the 14 original rebel players who held firm under BDO pressure, were the stars that got the WDC through the 1993-1997 period when the WDC was threatened with bankruptcy due to spiraling legal fees. Barry Hearn's involvement at that time was purely on the TV side. Barry Hearn became PDC chairman in July 2001 after 4 years of stability and modest growth within the organisation. Modest compared to what has happened since Hearn's chairmanship of the PDC, that is. That modest growth was huge compared to the fears of 1993-1997.
Yeah I meant he carried on the work the 14 'rebel's started obviously I didnt word it very well. Point still stands though, the game as a TV sport would be dead today but for the split.

User avatar
PT13
Posts: 4260
Joined: Thu Mar 17, 2016 5:14 pm
Contact:

Re: Hearn becomes PDC chairman - July 2001 [Article]

Post by PT13 » Sun Apr 03, 2016 9:49 pm

dartvader wrote:Yeah I meant he carried on the work the 14 'rebel's started obviously I didnt word it very well. Point still stands though, the game as a TV sport would be dead today but for the split.
The irony is that what the PDC is today could have all been done within the BDO if the BDO hadn't had been so ridiculously intransigent. Marcus Robertson was one of the PR guys at the time of the split helping the WDC to change darts' image of boozy, fat blokes etc. that turned sponsors away. Robertson had initially gone to see Olly Croft about helping with darts' image problem, but Croft acted as if Robertson had wanted to take over darts.

Post Reply
Users browsing this forum: Ahrefs [Bot], Emulsfier, Google [Bot], Jezza, phil the great, shenmue, skweezit, tungsten tossers and 98 guests