Barry Hearn has hinted at moving the World Darts Championship away from the Ally Pally (Image: Getty)
Darts promoter Barry Hearn has been warned not to get ‘greedy’ as he weighs up moving the away from the Alexandra Palace.
The north London venue has hosted the sport’s flagship event since 2007, when it took over from the Circus Tavern in Essex. But now, with darts’ popularity booming in the wake of ‘s high-profile rise to fame, Hearn and the are mulling over the prospect of finding a new arena with a larger capacity.
“For the World Championship this year, 90,000 tickets sold out in 15 minutes,” he told last month. “I asked my people in [the] head office how many could I have sold. They said somewhere over 300,000. Now that puts a different emphasis on it. I have to grow all the time. If you ever get complacent you go backwards.”
While a bigger venue would raise a boatload more cash for the PDC, darts legend Bobby George believes that ditching the iconic venue would be a mistake.
“The beauty of Ally Pally is that it’s always full and there’s always a great atmosphere,” the 79-year-old, who retired in 2009, told Express Sport. “If they moved it to a bigger venue, they may not be able to fill it up every day of the tournament.
“If you haven’t got the audience watching darts, then even for the people watching it on the television, it becomes a less attractive product. The darts players, they love the feeling they get from the crowd at Ally Pally.”
Bobby George has warned Barry Hearn not to ‘get greedy’ with the World Darts Championship (Image: Getty)
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The World Championship’s current venue has a 3,500 capacity, while a massive 14,000 fans were at The O2 in May to watch Littler win the Darts final. It remains to be seen whether Hearn would look towards a similar arena from 2026 onwards, or even consider taking the tournament overseas.
There had been talk of Saudi Arabia staging the World Darts Championship until Hearn confirmed that a strict ban on alcohol ruled it out as a prospect. George, nicknamed the King of Bling, firmly believes that it should remain closer to home.
“I think it should stay where it is for now,” he continued. “I don’t think they need to be getting greedy, because if it moved to a much larger venue and it wasn’t a sell-out, then you lose something very special.
“Stick to Ally Pally and keep it in the UK. Don’t take it to a different country or drop a clanger by trying to put it in the biggest possible venue.”
Bobby George was speaking to The Express on behalf of 10bet.