Decline in The Game
Darts players were allowed to drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes on the stage during matches, a reflection of the game's roots in British pubs. The players were famously mocked on a Not the Nine O'Clock News sketch in 1980 right at the height of darts' popularity. Whilst the sketch did not put any immediate halt to darts' popularity, it reflected the detrimental image of the game and may have contributed to its long-term decline in future years.
After the peak of the darts boom was reached in 1983, professional darts in Britain began to haemorrhage sponsors and lose television coverage. By the end of 1983, the British Gold Cup (BBC), Butlins Grand Masters (ATV) and British Matchplay (ITV) had all ended, and in 1985 ITV decided to cancel its World of Sport show which had covered darts on a regular basis. ITV continued to show darts as programmes in their own right - but eventually withdrew from the game after the 1988 World Matchplay and their final tournament was the World Masters in 1988. The BBC pulled the plug on the British Professional Championship in 1988. Also, the ITV regional channels that covered local darts tournaments cancelled the tournaments throughout 1988 after being held for the last time. As a result, 1989 saw a very drastic slump in the amount of darts seen on TV, down to just one tournament, the world championship.
The BDO banned alcohol on stage during all matches from the 1989 World Championship, but the game maintained a poor image to sponsors.
Read more about this topic: Split In Darts
Famous quotes containing the words decline and/or game:
“I heard a Californian student in Heidelberg say, in one of his calmest moods, that he would rather decline two drinks than one German adjective.”
—Mark Twain [Samuel Langhorne Clemens] (1835–1910)
“Neighboring farmers and visitors at White Sulphur drove out occasionally to watch ‘those funny Scotchmen’ with amused superiority; when one member imported clubs from Scotland, they were held for three weeks by customs officials who could not believe that any game could be played with ‘such elongated blackjacks or implements of murder.’”
—For the State of West Virginia, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)