Talking Points is a regular area of the Darts World Website and involves important or smaller pieces of news or those stories which may need longer exposure than the 24hrs cycle usually allows. Here are Darts World Extra 9’s treble:
Oversharing:
Players are encouraged to speak more often these days and to go more and more in-depth both personally and professionally. Media of all kinds, including ourselves at DW, demand more and more, and of course, there is airtime to fill after more and more days of darting action. BUT players and their teams would be wise to consider what they share and in how much detail. Potential hostages to fortune can be uttered or useful information for future opponents. Nathan Aspinall’s naturally open nature has recently led him to discuss technical, and possibly psychological, elements of his game recently. Too Much Information? Quite possibly.
The Third Age:
A glance at those making inroads within the various darts opportunity streams now available shows a wide range of ages from a wide range of nations. This presents what some might call a teachable moment.
The third age of modern darts seems likely to be broader than the previous, mainly UK based, two. A brief look at the history of expanding commercial sport shows the ‘host nation’, often the UK or USA, overshadowed by new adopters from Scandinavia and Central / Eastern Europe before the most populous nations on the globe join in.
It’s not solely players, for a commercial illustration, look to the recently announced Polish Masters. The PDC went for a 9000-seater venue for its debut and tickets sold out in less than 1 day. How long did it take for the Premier League to attain that level even in the UK?
Athletics, Motorsport, or Tennis all witnessed similar patterns. Snooker even seemed to cut out the middleman and move straight to China and the far East!
Beware Golfication:
For more than a decade many of the most influential figures in darts have used Golf as the model for the development of professional/commercial darts. Although many positives come from such an example, there are pitfalls of copying anything too closely. Could Triple 20 shoes be an example of such overreach?
Talking Points proved so popular that it is now the opening section of every issue of Darts World Extra
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