Matthew Porter: Onderbrekingen gaan waarschijnlijk door

De PDC-kalender kan ik de komende weken nog meer veranderingen verwachten als gevolg van de wereldwijde situatie rondom het Coronavirus, zei Matthew Porter.

De wereldwijde restricties rondom de COVID-19 pandemie hebben ervoor gezorgd dat PDC-evenementen van 19 maart zijn uitgesteld. Ook heeft de PDC reeds bekend gemaakt dat alle evenementen in maart en april zullen worden verschoven op de kalender.

Matthew Porter gaf in een interview met The Darts Show Podcast aan dat er waarschijnlijk ook nog uitstel zal plaatsvinden voor de Premier League avonden in mei, de nieuwe data van de al verplaatste avonden laten ons zien dat het seizoen dit jaar zeker doorloopt tot 1 oktober.

PORTER: "We've announced that all the Premier League nights up to the end of April are postponed [and it's] more than likely the May ones will be as well but we're working through the challenges associated with those and we'll fit things back into our calendar as best we can, probably in the second half of 2020.

So far, we've been fortunate in that we've been able to reschedule every night for a Thursday, which is good because I think people associate Thursdays with Premier League darts, so we can keep that continuity even if it does mean we're in the second half of the year.

We don't want to go too late because of the other big events we have in the lead-up to Christmas, so we'll get as much done throughout the summer and early part of the autumn as we can. 

It is difficult. Venue availability is key, things have got to fit in geographically, we can't be in two places at once - we need time to build events and then take them down again afterwards - we've obviously got commitments to fans, broadcasters, sponsors, venues and all sorts of different stakeholders.

We're working through it. Fortunately, we were a bit ahead of the game, we spoke to a lot of venues three or four weeks ago on this just to pre-empt it, so we've had back-up dates held for longer than perhaps other promoters have.

It might be that a couple of events away from the top tier have to bite the bullet for this year, and that might be something we look at, because ultimately there's only so many weekends in the year. We hope to put on as much of it on as possible."

PORTER: "It's unprecedented times, challenging times, not just for us but the wider world, not just sport.

It's important to get a sense of perspective, because when sport's up and running, we all treat it as if it's the most important thing out there for us, and then of course things that are genuinely important come along and puts everything else in its place.

At the moment, we don't want to look too long-term, it's a new situation, an ever-changing situation and we don't know what it's going to be like in six weeks, six months.

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

Whether the restrictions are relaxed at some point in the future and we're able to put events on - tour events for the players' benefit only in controlled situations with extremely limited numbers of people and certain health and safety regulations in place - that's just speculation.

None of us know, but we're conscious of the fact that darts players are self-employed and that, technically, they're not really earning any sort of income at the moment.

Some of them might be fortunate enough to have sponsors who are still paying them, but those who rely on prize money and exhibition income are going to be struggling.

We'll speak to the PDPA about that and we don't want to see anybody fall off the radar in that respect - it's important that players are communicating with us if they do find themselves in a difficult position, and if we have to look at putting things together to help them through these times then so be it."

The Darts Show Podcast bevat het hele interview met Matthew Porter, en een uniek interview met Peter Wright.