PDC chief executive Matt Porter says the PDC will ‘100 per cent’ be going back to Hungary again next year, following last week’s first-ever European Tour event in Budapest.
The darts leader made its debut in Hungary last weekend, with the inaugural Hungarian Darts Trophy, which was won by world number one Gerwyn Price, who defeated Michael Smith 8-2 in Sunday’s final.
A crowd of 4,500 packed into the Papp Laszlo Arena on the final day – a record attendance for a European Tour event – and Porter insists the PDC will stage another event in Hungary in 2022.
“It’s 100 per cent going to be on the calendar next year,” Porter told the Weekly Dartscast.
“It was a fantastic event with a great crowd. There’s a lot of appetite for darts in Hungary, and actually that part of the world in Eastern and Central Europe.
“Full credit to the Hungarian team, who backed the event and put it together. They were very committed and stuck with it throughout the pandemic.
“When they had the opportunity to cancel, they didn’t and they were rewarded by the players travelling. I think the majority of the top players were out there.
“The crowd was fantastic and they also got local TV exposure for it as well. It was a real plus after what’s obviously been a difficult year for the Euro Tour.”
Last week’s event in Budapest was the first on this year’s condensed European Tour, which consists of two events, the second taking place in Gibraltar later this month.
The PDC did put on three European Tour qualifiers for tour-card holders earlier this year, but Porter admits a third event is unlikely to materialise, with the players who qualified now expected to play in the first event of the 2022 European Tour instead.
“(The third event) is more likely to be held over to next year,” he said. “We’re running out of time, running out of venue options.
“We always said the third qualifier was kind of a precaution, just in case that we did get to stage a third event.
“We didn’t want to get to a point where we could do a third event and we didn’t have any players.
“Everybody was aware when they played in the qualifier for the third event that there wasn’t necessarily going to be a third event.
“The players were completely understanding of that. It’s going to be extremely challenging, probably impossible, to put on a third Euro Tour event this year.”
Listen to the full interview with Matt Porter on tomorrow’s episode of the Weekly Dartscast podcast. Available on Spotify, iTunes and all good podcast providers!
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