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PDC darts events unlikely to resume for three months

PDC chief executive Matt Porter says they're preparing for a three month layoff and he doesn't ex...



PDC darts events unlikely to r...
Other Sports

PDC darts events unlikely to resume for three months

PDC chief executive Matt Porter says they're preparing for a three month layoff and he doesn't expect the Premier League to resume until July.

All of April's events were postponed this week, including Premier League nights in Belfast and Birmingham, and more fixtures are set to pushed back due to coronavirus pandemic later this week.

"It's unprecedented times, challenging times not just for us and for sport but for the wider world so it's important to get a sense of perspective," Porter said on The Darts Show podcast.

"We have been working through it. We announced on Tuesday that all the Premier League nights in April are postponed - it's more than likely the May ones will be too, but we are working through the challenges associated with those.

"I think it's fair to say you can write off most of the next three months, it's a difficult position to get anything up and running again."

He added that they've sympathy for players who rely on events for a paycheque and the PDC hope to have the Premier League completed this Autumn:

"It is a case of fitting things in where we can. So far we have been fortunate in being able to reschedule everything for a Thursday and that's great because I think people still associate Thursday with Premier League Darts.

"We don't want to go much later than October, we have the Grand Prix, the Grand Slam, the European Championship, Players Championship, and the World Championships.

"We were a little bit ahead of the game in speaking to many of our venues three or four weeks ago just to pre-empt it so we have had back-up dates in place longer than others may have so we are hopeful the Premier League will be done by Dublin and the Grand Prix."

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