The 2024 PDC World Darts Championship gets underway this evening with Kevin Doets and Stowe Buntz taking to the oche in the first match of the tournament in front of a sold out Alexandra Palace.
The iconic tournament takes place once a year in the historic venue and crowns the first sporting champion of the new year. Darts is a sport that is growing in popularity year on year with crowds flocking in to watch the worlds best hit maximums, hit 100+ checkouts and maybe, if they’re lucky, a nine dart leg. With this growing popularity comes increased scrutiny and one of if not the biggest is drinking…
So let’s take it back to its roots. Darts is a sport that through the years has been played in pubs up and down the country. It was common for pubs to have a darts team and for regulars to head to the pub for a pint and some darts after a long day at work.
On the professional side of the game, drinking culture has always been associated among the players. For years it was known that players would drink and play claiming it settled nerves and made them play better. In the modern game it is prohibited under PDC rules, despite some pros on the circuit claiming it still happens. Other methods have been used to focus in the modern game most notably, Iceman, Gerwyn Price struggling to keep his cool, losing to Gabriel Clemens in last years quarter-final while wearing headphones.
It is no longer the players that are under scrutiny for their drinking. The growth of darts as a sport now sees every session of the tournament sold out. The Great Hall of Ally Pally holds 10,500 and it is full for all 16 days of action. The vast majority will be in attendance to enjoy the utterly sensational spectacle but unfortunately the growth of the sport has also seen more casuals attend the championships.
These spectators are the issue in my opinion. The ones there just for a day out drinking. Darts is so much more than that. Pitchers of beer across the long tables of Alexandra Palace are not my concern but they should not be the focus and thankfully for most it’s not.
Drinking culture itself is almost integrated within British culture so it is no shock to see fans spectating the world’s best accompanied by pints and pitchers of Amstel. The party-like atmosphere created by fans has attracted sporting fanatics to screens and seats with viewing numbers growing exponentially year-on-year.
The fans are being treated to the best darts there have ever been too. There have been two televised nine-darters in the last month within two weeks of each other. Pre-tournament favourite ‘Cool Hand Luke’ Humphries has won three out of the last four PDC events including the World Grand Prix and the Grand Slam of Darts.
It is an event held in the festive season welcoming crowds from around the world, more often than not in fancy dress. The mood is always a jubilant one and the odd bad apple won’t take away from that. Throughout the next three weeks tungsten will be flying into cork and the biggest of cheers when the likes of Russ Bray announce one hundred and eighty to a buoyant Ally Pally crowd!
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