The BDO Appreciation Society - Sponsored by Zeyes

[The Ginge Reaper]

Absolutely pathetic.

[Rogg]

https://dartsnews.com/veenstra-withdraw ... ld-trophy/

So Veenstra fucked the Trophy off because of a party in his village. Makes sense to be fair.

oh god hopefully none of the 4 people booked for the Friday will be too gutted. Honestly it's pitiful.

[sennafan24]

https://dartsnews.com/veenstra-withdraw ... ld-trophy/

So Veenstra fucked the Trophy off because of a party in his village. Makes sense to be fair.

Just seen it. The bottom line is BDO majors are increasingly becoming worthless to overseas players

Fixed:

[Rogg]

Such is the PDC setup now, particularly in its emphasis on youth and with so many exciting players on the fringes, that it's a struggle to see even the most interesting proper darts lads as something special or remarkable at all.

And it's happened awfully quick, too. Reynolds turning down the tour card a year and a half ago was seen as a fairly big miss for the PDC, but the other young players have really turned it up since then - if the same thing was to happen after this year (a Dev Tour player rejecting a card), I think the consensus would be "meh, he'd have just been one among two dozen young talents anyway". Of course, Reynolds himself has hardly managed to be a testimonial for continuing to learn your craft outside the PDC system since then...

Said it on a forum somewhere maybe three years ago, I wouldn't be surprised if the days of darts careers lasting into players' late 40s or even 50s won't be with us much longer. Obviously all-time great talents will probably still be able to make it work (same as in other sports - if your top level was very high, you can survive through a longer decline phase), but fringy top 16 or top 32 players might have to get accustomed to finding a different job once they're hitting their 40s. (Can anyone see Bunting still being around in ten years when he's 43?)

Anyway, for me the only real interest in the World Trophy is whether or not the non-lifers like Machin, Warren, McKinstry or Unterbuchner can show up the regular inmates of the BDO asylum again.

Zeyes! Hello. Reynolds is a great way of demonstrating the shift. He seemed quite exotic at that time but that time seems like ages ago from here. Hard to believe it's a year and a half.

Cadby, De Zwaan, Dimitri, Hopp etc. have all reached excellent landmarks inside the system since Reynolds turned down a card and they're all younger than him too. Then there's Dobey, North, Lennon, Humphries. It's happy days where the game can be clogged with guys like that instead of muffinmen.

[Rogg]

You lads seen the publicity? Where to begin.

Ginge drew the circle. Fancy dress !!! Is this what currently covers every square inch of Preston?

[Fiss Plaps]

"fun packed rollercoaster event"

Lies, please meet bullshit.
Bullshit, please meet lies.

[The Thorn]

There would be fuck all fun at the Trophy even if every cunt in Preston turned up

[Rogg]

16 ladies including Scott Waites

[The Ginge Reaper]

You lads seen the publicity? Where to begin.

Ginge drew the circle. Fancy dress !!! Is this what currently covers every square inch of Preston?

That is from the 50 page "What's On" thing on the Guild Hall website.

The venue added the Fancy Dress bit

[Fiss Plaps]

You lads seen the publicity? Where to begin.

Ginge drew the circle. Fancy dress !!! Is this what currently covers every square inch of Preston?

That is from the 50 page "What's On" thing on the Guild Hall website.

The venue added the Fancy Dress bit

Slaps will be on their way to the Guild Hall staff then.

[The Ginge Reaper]

Howard Miller has spilled his guts.

If I got any details wrong, please feel free to correct me, but let me get this right, we have lost approx £170,000 for the last two WDT (and facing another huge shortfall shortly!) even though for the we were previously given unequivocal assurances that what was at the time a £100,000 prize pot was fully covered.

On top of that we also lost a quite staggering £80,000 for running last years Winmau Masters, and yet some members appeared to have found that acceptable or at best happy to move on with nothing more serious than the slightest shrug of the shoulders. Even though none of these figures before the meeting had ever been publicly divulged!

Amber Rudd, has resigned because she claims, she "inadvertently misled Parliament" now whether you choose to believe the 'inadvertent' bit depends I guess on how trusting you are, or in my case how cynical, but she clearly had to go, one simply cant mislead members like that.

What is now abundantly clear are the reasons why the board have always maintained an historic silence on any questions of note ever thrown in their direction, had they not done so, their departure would surely have come years ago.

In light of these losses, unprecedented in our history, how the hell then, are we throwing away yet another, £70/£80/£90k by pressing ahead with this years WDT? I don't normally have myself down as a stupid man but in view of these confirmed losses, anyone who can find a solitary reason for doing so is clearly far brighter than I.

These losses also suggest that to even contemplate running this years Masters would be commercially catastrophic for us. Forget, when asked that apparently we don't even have a venue confirmed as yet, and worse apparently turned one down who wished to sponsor the event, even if we did, we simply cant afford to risk anything, never mind another possible £80K in what would be no more than a face saving exercise.

Worse, in view of all this is what on earth must our loyal professional players now be thinking about this quite farcical situation?

We were promised an announcement about C4 renewing their contract would be confirmed by the end of February, well here we sit just about to enter May (no, not Theresa God forbid, but the month) and still nothing, and surely for all of us, that is the scariest thing of all.

The TV money has previously and quite clearly offset, and certainly allowed us to bury both our organisational shortcomings and of course the shortfalls that ensued, but if C4 is not renewed, we're totally screwed and in more ways than even the Kama Sutra could visualise.

Not only would such a shortfall, scupper any non-sponsored WDT and Masters in the future, if it's not to be, and God let it not be so, what happens to the circuit, what happens to our future, the players future, it could disintegrate over night, and culpability for the state, or possible state we find ourselves is clear.

I think, Des has done the whole of our side of darts a huge service, in getting this previously hidden information out in the open, and whether people like the way he's gone about it as irrelevant as it is immaterial, but even though it looks certain he may be warming Sues Chair come August (still don't know how that happened by the way) one could ask for hat purpose?
Without TV money, and without the world wide exposure it provides for all our loyal and long suffering protagonists, where the hell do we go, what would our future purpose actually be?

Please, please, please let my fears prove unfounded, please, please, please, C4 put us all out of our misery (we've suffered enough already) announce that you are renewing our contract, if you don't, then whoever takes charge come August will possibly be inheriting and taking on the biggest poison chalice in BDO history.

How on earth does a £70k event with the prize fund stumped up by Winmau lose £80k?!?!?!

[The Ginge Reaper]

Seems that Sports Direct didn't stump much up either, a figure of £170k lost for the past two WDTs was quoted at the meeting.

And Winmau didn't pay anything significant last year for the Masters.

Bloody hell.

[Rogg]

Not even sure what to say about all that. A bit shocked tbh. Losing a quarter of a million across 2 WDTs and 1 Masters, and another WDT just around the corner. Absolutely scandalous.

[The Ginge Reaper]

Not even sure what to say about all that. A bit shocked tbh. Losing a quarter of a million across 2 WDTs and 1 Masters, and another WDT just around the corner. Absolutely scandalous.

May even be the Masters 2016 too, no idea yet.

Explains where all the Channel 4 money went. They got all that in spring 2016 and probably couldn't believe their luck. Probably all gone now.

If Des had any sense he would be insisting the event next month doesn't happen, unless it's fully sponsored by the guy who runs the venue.

[sennafan24]

Someone made a good point about the WDT a while back. What is the actual point of it? It loses them money, and it isn't going to persuade those who are thinking of switching to the PDC to stay with them. Also, the likes of Duzza, Wolfie, Warty and Waites will stay put regardless.

[Dazzla501]

“If you book them, they will come.” We need to speculate to accumulate” (or something).

Can’t say i’m the least bit surprised about the sponsorship issue. Social club committee members playing at being a legitimate business for years and finally being found out.

[The Ginge Reaper]

Sports Direct didn't pay the prize fund, who wouldn't thunk it?

The level of their sponsorship was probably sorting Fordham out with a pair of fucking trainers.

[Rogg]

Sports Direct didn't pay the prize fund, who wouldn't thunk it?

The level of their sponsorship was probably sorting Fordham out with a pair of fucking trainers.

MikeAshleyLaughing.jpg. Remember the excitement when 'Dunlop' was spotted on the stage alongside SD. "two sponsors"

The WDT has been a joke for years, hugely irresponsible vanity bollocks. The insults though. The red ink that records the massive losses is a 'hater' like. If it goes ahead next month knowing it's set for another 5-figure loss they all want waterboarding.

The Masters is the worrying part. The game's oldest major a wdt-grade liability that's all smoke and mirrors.

[Zeyes]

Not even sure what to say about all that. A bit shocked tbh. Losing a quarter of a million across 2 WDTs and 1 Masters, and another WDT just around the corner. Absolutely scandalous.

May even be the Masters 2016 too, no idea yet.

Explains where all the Channel 4 money went. They got all that in spring 2016 and probably couldn't believe their luck. Probably all gone now.

What I find astounding about it all is that the Channel 4 money was apparently sufficient to cover all those massive holes created by the other events. Has C4 been paying so much better than the BBC used to? I mean, the BDO was running fewer loss-making events in the BBC days, yet it didn't result in big profits back then, so it seems the Lakeside revenues have actually gone up post-BBC.

[The Ginge Reaper]

Not even sure what to say about all that. A bit shocked tbh. Losing a quarter of a million across 2 WDTs and 1 Masters, and another WDT just around the corner. Absolutely scandalous.

May even be the Masters 2016 too, no idea yet.

Explains where all the Channel 4 money went. They got all that in spring 2016 and probably couldn't believe their luck. Probably all gone now.

What I find astounding about it all is that the Channel 4 money was apparently sufficient to cover all those massive holes created by the other events. Has C4 been paying so much better than the BBC used to? I mean, the BDO was running fewer loss-making events in the BBC days, yet it didn't result in big profits back then, so it seems the Lakeshite revenues have actually gone up post-BBC.

Rumour was Channel 4 paid £400k, of which Sportotal creamed their "fee" from. So BDO probably got what, £300k?

Will all have vanished by now.