ITV to Broadcast the Grand Slam of Darts

Kingp35

Planetdarts.tv wrote:

THE Professional Darts Corporation and ITV are delighted to announce that the inaugural Grand Slam of Darts will be screened live on ITV from 17-25 November 2007.

With a massive £300,000 prize fund the tournament will see 32 champions of the sport, from both the PDC and BDO/WDF, compete at the Wolverhampton Civic, with the champion of champions taking away a cool £80,000.

Live coverage of the tournament will be screened on both ITV1 and ITV4 in addition to nightly highlights throughout the week.

"It's great to welcome ITV back into the sport of darts," said PDC Chairman Barry Hearn.

"There has never been a better time to be a professional player and this event will show darts fans nationwide the very best in the business battling for huge prize money.

"If a player has the necessary ambition they really can fulfill their ambitions in their chosen sport now, as the prize money on offer is unprecedented.

"All of the world's best and most successful players will be invited to compete in the Grand Slam of Darts and we hope they have the ambition to want to compete against the real superstars of darts.

"Qualification is still open to all players, with a number of major championships coming up over the next five months for them to win their place alongside Phil Taylor and Raymond van Barneveld in this highly-anticipated event."

ITV's Director of News and Sport, Mark Sharman said: "We are delighted to be back in darts as the exclusive broadcaster of a tournament that will produce the sport's champion of champions. Darts is an enduringly popular sport for television, with wide audience appeal."

Great news as now everyone will be able to watch this fantastic new tournament and not just people who have Sky Sports.

matty84

thats great news for darts as a whole,as it will be viewed by far more people on itv than it wud be on skysports and even make the sport more popular!so how come it says join the likes of taylor and barneveld,are they the only players picked to play in the tournament so far,hopefully we see phil nixon in it he deserves, along with martin adams to be automatically picked

cast_iron

Great news.

Is this the start of going back to the good old days of TV darts....

Kingp35

matty84 wrote:

thats great news for darts as a whole,as it will be viewed by far more people on itv than it wud be on skysports and even make the sport more popular!so how come it says join the likes of taylor and barneveld,are they the only players picked to play in the tournament so far,hopefully we see phil nixon in it he deserves, along with martin adams to be automatically picked

Im not entirely sure how it works but as far as I know the winners of the major tournaments in the PDC and BDO in the last two years are entered into it. Dont hold me that but thats how I think it works. Im not sure about Phil Nixon but Adams is definitely in it.

Carrickman

cast_iron wrote:

Great news.

Is this the start of going back to the good old days of TV darts....

Let's hope so!!

DFD

As far as i know martin adams won't be playing in this competition along with a few other bdo players as the bdo have re-scheduled the world masters to clash with it.So on the same weekend you'll have darts on itv and bbc.Players turning up for it get £3000 straightaway which is nearly the same as runner up gets in the WM.Seems very childish of the bdo.

Carrickman

DFD wrote:

As far as i know martin adams won't be playing in this competition along with a few other bdo players as the bdo have re-scheduled the world masters to clash with it.So on the same weekend you'll have darts on itv and bbc.Players turning up for it get £3000 straightaway which is nearly the same as runner up gets in the WM.Seems very childish of the bdo.

Thats shocking if true, but sure what else do you expect from the BDO:mad:

Kingp35

DFD wrote:

As far as i know martin adams won't be playing in this competition along with a few other bdo players as the bdo have re-scheduled the world masters to clash with it.So on the same weekend you'll have darts on itv and bbc.Players turning up for it get £3000 straightaway which is nearly the same as runner up gets in the WM.Seems very childish of the bdo.

Yeah thats a bit of a joke alright. The BDO really are doing everything in their power to destrpy their own organisation. They could easily have the World Masters on at a different time meaning that BDO players will get TV coverage in two tournaments instead of just the WM.

Tbh If I was Martin Adams I would play in the Grand Slam because there isnt a lot of money to be earned on the BDO circuit and the Grand Slam could be a much needed pay day for the BDO players.

DFD

If you go on superstars of darts site you'll get all the info.The bdo are blaming bbc and vice versa.