MVG has had his share of physical issues the past few years. Then again, he may not be as "hungry" as he was and not putting in the time away from the stage to keep his game sharp. He's been missing lots of end game darts of late.
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Humphries looked tired........... Littler and Cross.... Van Gerwen not what he used to be, or just going through a bad spell.????....
interesting Semi Humphries v Cross... going for Cross .... and in the final Cross over Price
I'm not saying that they do the same things they did at the start of their career...
So, guys like Rob Cross still wake near dawn and head off to do electric work or Jonny Clayton climbs ladders and scaffolding to do plastering???? Seems not worth the money for the risk of injury and shortening their darting careers where I'm sure they make the brunt of their yearly income.
@gumbo2176 even top players on the PDC tour have every-day jobs. to quote one player "I'd be bored otherwise"
I don't blame the PDC for wanting in. It's a huge market and potentially a great money maker for them, but it's not going to be a quick fix for sure. Until the Pro Tournament format is changed that allows for larger payouts to winners, it's going to remain a niche market.
If there's an audience there will sponsors, PDC wants in the US market, US master opened up more tickets for the event so thats a good sign, Winmau is signing US players, you have some smaller Barrel makers now, it takes time
Then consider corporate sponsorship for darting events-------------it's practically non-existent in the U.S. They put more money into "Cornhole" and "Axe-Throwing" comps. than they do in darts.
True about Germany, but German players can travel to the European comps far easier than the N. American players can, so that's to their advantage to get time with the high ranking pros and serious comps.
This why they have World Series events to grow the game, it's not gonna happen over night, look at all the places they started in like Germany, the German players got wiped too now there's alot of Pros, the CDC is starting point which is slowly growing only player not to play in a PDC event before was Sevada
The U.S. has over 330 million people and I'm sure there's lots of talent, but with the size of the country and the current Pro/Am tournament set-up and meager payouts, even the top players need to work to make a living and can't concentrate on just playing darts
I've said this before and will say it again-------NO, not with the current situation concerning what passes for Professional Tournaments in the States. Not sure what's happening in Canada, but with John Part and Jeff Smith being the only 2 to make any real waves in Pro darts, Canada must be doing something right.
Do you think there will be a burst of youth taking up darts on the t'otherside of the pond To teach those Limeys what they can do with their bloody tea?
A quick look at all the World Championship winners and runners up shows John Part winning 3 titles, one with the BDO in 94 and 2 with the PDC in 03 and again in 08. As far as runner up, Part in 01 in the PDC and Smith in 2016 in the BDO. Pretty sparse achievement for the N. American players on the world stage.
Crusher, the problem win so many N. American players in the CDC is they are not experiencing the grind that is the PDC tour where they are playing the elite players of the world, and it showed very clearly the gap in talent this weekend.
apparently Littlers got a tasting for those massive hot dogs.. but do they beat KEBABS ???
Yeah, Littler made short work of his opponent with massive scoring and excellent finishing. Matt Campbell didn't look too happy about the results, but "Welcome to the big leagues".
New York got Nuked... in and out in less than ten minutes - I don't think the old Vulcan's did it any faster during Operation Skyshield in the 60's
Yeah, that was ugly for the N. American players. Smith is the only one that has a fair amount of international play under his belt with some of the others having made just a handful of appearances against the European pros.