Michael van Gerwen proposes radical innovation
“Fun for the people too”: Michael van Gerwen has new plans
Quelle: Getty Images/Luke Walker
Many fans think that the tournament calendar on the tour of darts professionals needs to be more varied. Michael van Gerwen has now published his idea. He proposes an event that is no longer about 501 points.
Eit was his tournament. From 2015 to 2019, the first major of the year only had one winner: Michael van Gerwen won the Masters five times in a row.
The invitation tournament is a kind of bonus. Anyone who ranks among the top 24 players in the world after the World Cup in January (top 16 by 2020) will be there and will take part in the special payout from the Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) totaling £220,000. In terms of sport, however, the event is one of the less important tournaments, and the prize money does not count for the ranking either.
The last Masters winner? Joe Cullen (right, with his father) won the event on January 30th
Quelle: Credit: Taka Wu/PDC/Taka G Wu
So why not create something more interesting, thought van Gerwen. The Dutchman, number one in the world from 2014 to 2021 and slipped out of the top 4 for the first time at the UK Open last weekend, has now made his idea of a unique tournament public – as a replacement for the Masters.
1001 instead of 501 points
He did not name the event, but he already has the format in mind: “The legs start at 1001 points, including the top 32 in the world. Best-of-5 matches, and then on,” said the three-time world champion.
For many years the PDC has been considering how to make the tournament calendar more varied. So far, the tournaments differ only in small things. At the UK Open, for example, there is no seeding list, round after round a new draw is drawn. The World Grand Prix is played in Double In/Double Out mode, in the Grand Slam the players first compete against each other in a group phase, and in the World Cup, the national team comparison, there are doubles. Otherwise, only the number of participants and the length of the game vary.
Van Gerwen now wants to (almost) double the starting number of the standardized 501 points and thus focus more on scoring, possibly also as a ranking tournament.
“It’s also fun for the people at home, but I’m not the leader of the PDC, that’s other people’s business. Unfortunately,” said van Gerwen, “otherwise I would have scheduled this tournament.”
1001 points: Michael van Gerwen sees good reasons for innovations
Quelle: dpa/Kieran Cleeves
The PDC has not yet commented on the plan of one of their superstars. There should not be a lack of the necessary will to change. In February, the organization opened the Premier League with a new format.
