BDO Not For Sale – Olly Croft’s Retort
Posted on October 22nd, 2009
In The Sun dated October 21st Barry Hearn has claimed that he is offering to buy the BDO for £1 million.
This is the response of OLLY CROFT, founder of the British Darts Organisation:
We know that when this time of the year comes round Halloween happens, the clocks go back and Barry Hearn and the PDC start their usual campaign to try and disrupt our World Championships at Lakeside.
THE BDO IS NOT FOR SALE! IT IS A PRICELESS ASSET THAT FOSTERS, PROMOTES AND LOOKS AFTER THE FUTURE OF OUR GREAT SPORT FOR ALL PLAYERS AT ALL LEVELS.
The BDO was founded in 1973 and is a properly constituted governing body for the sport of darts, with a democratically elected board and a country structure that makes up its ‘shareholders’.
Barry Hearn has gone on record saying that he wants to ‘destroy’ the BDO and is not interested in women’s darts, youth darts and county darts, because they are not profitable. Now he claims that he wants to buy the BDO!
The reason that the BDO doesn’t produce vast net profits, is because we plough back the money we receive into the sport for the benefit of the sport and its players.
This is nothing more than a cheap publicity stunt and has nothing to do with unifying the sport but has everything to do with his inflated ego and perceived self-importance.
The big question is this: If the PDC is such a wonderful success why doesn’t he just concentrate on his own organisation? The BDO has been very successful for thirty-seven years and has over one thousand top officials looking after many thousands of darts players irrespective of age, gender or ability. By doing so, we not only provide the opportunity for everyone to enjoy the great sport of darts, but continue to produce fresh and exciting new names every year.
There are eleven new faces in the line-up for Lakeside 2010, and when we make the draw tomorrow (Thursday) players from nine of the thirty-two countries who competed in the play-offs, will be heading for Lakeside next January.
The BBC and Lakeside Country Club have just extended their contracts for the World Pro until 2013.
The World Pro is seen regularly by audiences of 4 million plus in the UK alone and enjoys the biggest TV audiences for darts in the world - estimated at 100 million!
Contrast that to an organisation that looks after a handful of players and continually produces the same predictable results time after time.
Tags: Barry Hearn, BDO, Olly Croft, PDC, Takeover
Filed under BDO-WDF, General, News, PDC |
