Attention Leagues


We've really missed the boat here on some of the opportunities to get involved with the PDC Las Vegas Desert Classic scheduled for July, 2002 in Las Vegas. This is May already so there's only two months until the tournament...Here's what YOU can do to get involved in helping to kick this thing off and also be a part of something really great in the world of US darts (not to mention a world ranked event).

Attention all leagues! Send your darters to the PDC Las Vegas Desert Classic. Need some ideas? Just read further.

Hold a series of local tournaments awarding points to the darter's who place in the Top 4 of each tournament. At the end of maybe an 8-week (and weekly) tournament run, add up all the points and send your number 1 darter to the PDC in Las Vegas. Including entry fees, hotel and airfare you can probably send one darter (from most places in the US) for about $750.00 ($150.00 entry, $300.00 airfare and $300.00 hotel). If you can raise the money, send two darters! You'll send the winner of the local 8-week tournament run and also have a drawing at the end of the 8-week run to draw a darter's name who will also go. Give each darter one entry into this drawing for every week that they compete in the local tournament for each of the 8 weeks. This will help keep darters coming back and competing in the local weekly tournaments because they still might have a chance to go, even if they aren't the number one darter. Now this would really be the "luck of the draw"!

How is a local league going to raise about $1500.00? Take part of each darter's weekly entry fee when they get into the local weekly qualifying tournaments. For example, charge $10.00 per darter, per week. Pay-out $5.00 of each darter's fee on the weekly tournament night to the winners. Put the other $5.00 per darter, per week into the "Let's Send a Darter to the PDC Las Vegas Desert Classic" fund.

Talk to your local dart bars for sponsorship. Talk to your local dart supply stores for sponsorship. Talk to the sporting good chains. Talk to your local beer distributors, your pop distributors, talk to anyone who will listen and might pick up on your enthusiasm. Heck, stand in front of the grocery store and sell candy bars! You never "get" without asking and it just might be worth the effort. Break it down and instead of looking at a lump sum of $1500.00 and wondering how the heck you're going to pull that off, think of it as 15 $100.00 contributions from sponsors, or even 30 $50.00 contributions.

Here's what's in it for your league and its members: Darters who are going to go to Vegas will probably come home with a couple 'helluva stories about the experience. Even if they don't place, this might just be part of history some day in the world of darts here in America. And if you knew one of your friends (brothers, sisters, spouses, or family members) was going to Vegas to compete, wouldn't you be somewhat more inclined to watch this on television? And with television viewership for darts, we might just get some sponsorship.

Consider this as well...the darter you send to Vegas might do well and place. What a great way to help promote the game and support your local darters. This might even become an annual event and a league tradition to "sponsor" your local darters to attend the annual Las Vegas PDC tournament...

Here's the bottom line: The more people who attend, the more successful this PDC tournament will be. Let's have a presence at this event from darters all over the country! Let potential sponsors see what a great turn-out we have. Let's send those International players back "over the pond" with stories about how nice the American darters are...Let's help develop more competitive and skillful players so that we have a larger presence in the world rankings. We want the International and world ranked darters to look forward to competing with us next time whether it's here, there or where ever.

C'mon darters! This tournament is going to be big, and we should all support it. Whether you throw steel-tip or electronic darts, having the positive and televised exposure will be good for any kind of darts. This is just what is needed to infuse new energy into the game of darts here in the US and the next step in helping to get sponsors! Lofty ideas? You bet... but I am, of course, the passionate darter. Good luck and I'll see you at the line.