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 in, decline and/or game:
“Families suffered badly under industrialization, but they survived, and the lives of men, women, and children improved. Children, once marginal and exploited figures, have moved to a position of greater protection and respect,... The historic decline in the overall death rates for children is an astonishing social fact, notwithstanding the disgraceful infant mortality figures for the poor and minorities. Like the decline in death from childbirth for women, this is a stunning achievement.”
—Joseph Featherstone (20th century)
“Reckoned physiologically, everything ugly weakens and afflicts man. It recalls decay, danger, impotence; he actually suffers a loss of energy in its presence. The effect of the ugly can be measured with a dynamometer. Whenever man feels in any way depressed, he senses the proximity of something “ugly.” His feeling of power, his will to power, his courage, his pride—they decline with the ugly, they increase with the beautiful.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“The notion that the public accepts or rejects anything in modern art ... is merely romantic fiction.... The game is completed and the trophies distributed long before the public knows what has happened.”
—Tom Wolfe (b. 1931)