Almost everyone loves sitting around the TV at Christmas, watching the World Darts Championship in full effect.
James Wade, however, claims that it is a “s*** time” to hold the sport’s biggest event of the year and insists that it “ruins Christmas” for those involved.
The four-time semi-finalist has voiced his frustrations that he and his family are forced to put their plans on ice if he is still in the tournament on Christmas Day, a growing issue as his kids grow up.
While matches are not played on December 25, with the second round culminating on December 23 and the third round starting on December 27, players in the draw often have to travel back and forth to London.
Wade has done so on 13 occasions and while he acknowledges that the product benefits from its festive scheduling, it is far from ideal for players at Alexandra Palace.
He told Sky Sports: “I enjoy it – ish. It’s just Christmas though, isn’t it? Yeah. I don’t want to be playing darts at Christmas. I want to be at home. Yeah, it kind of ruins Christmas. You’re robbed of Christmas.
“I’ve got young children now so I actually do like Christmas. I genuinely do like it. I love seeing their little faces and their little eyes light up.
“But yeah, it’s a kind of a s*** time to have it, isn’t it? But it’s obvious why we have it because Christmas is a great time to capture an audience.
“It’s a great business model and it’s a great idea, and it works really well, but it’s not so great for people that have to work around it.”
Unfortunately for Wade and his fellow professionals who lament the schedule, it is likely here to stay.
There could be sweeping changes to the event as we know it, however, with fears continuing to rise that the Championship could leave Ally Pally for good.
The competition has been held in the north London venue for 17 years, but darts supremo and Matchroom president Barry Hearn has hinted at a change in order to meet increased demands for tickets.
It took just 15 minutes for 90,000 tickets to be sold this year and Hearn believes that a new venue may be necessary to capitalise on the sport’s booming popularity.
He told talkSPORT: “For the world championship this year, 90,000 tickets sold out in 15 minutes. I asked my people in head office: ‘Tell me, how many could I have sold?’
“They said, somewhere over 300,000. Now that puts a different emphasis on it.
“Same as when we moved from the Circus Tavern all those years ago, now I’m looking at Alexandra Palace.
“And I’m saying, well, it only holds 3,500. I have to grow all the time. If you ever get complacent you go backwards. So, next year we will go from 96 to 128 players. We will add four more days, which is eight sessions, which is another 25,000 tickets.
“Sooner or later, I should be looking and saying: ‘Do you know, like with snooker, I need a bigger venue’.”
