PDC chief executive Matt Porter hoping to still complete 2020 calendar

Chief executive Matt Porter says the Professional Darts Corporation will do everything in its power to complete the 2020 calendar.

Darts is one of many sports that have been ground to a halt by the coronavirus pandemic, with all events in March and April wiped out.

May’s tournaments look likely to be postponed too, even with Porter admitting the PDC is holding on for as long as possible, meaning there is going to be a big backlog to fill once the action can be resumed.

Some events, such as Premier League rounds, have been rearranged and Porter wants to get as much of the 2020 calendar fulfilled.

“Most of our events can be played at different times of the year, so we will try, whatever means we can to get our 2020 calendar out of the way, even if it means back-to-back and flying through the night to get somewhere,” Porter told talkSPORT 2.

“At some point we will run out of weekends to rearrange things into and then unfortunately some events will bite the dust for 2020.

“We are not quite there yet and that is one of the reasons we are holding on to the May events, because we need the time in the calendar.

Premier League rounds cancelled in March and April have already been rearranged
Premier League rounds cancelled in March and April have already been rearranged

“We were fortunate in that we had back up dates for all of our Premier League dates, we have announced for March and April, the May stuff is on hold, just because you never know.

“It is extremely unlikely and don’t get me wrong, we are expecting to have to postpone everything we have got in May, but we are not quite going to push the button just yet, give it a few more days and see how things pan out.”

As with other sports, the prospect of playing behind closed doors has been mooted and Porter is not ruling the idea out.

He added: “It has been discussed. There are certain events that could work behind closed doors, some tour events, but it would be pointless to play the Premier League behind closed doors, it just wouldn’t serve anybody’s purpose.

“It could be that there could be some other content we could create to fill the void left by live sport but at the moment that is not something that is going to happen in the immediate term.

“It would be wrong for us not to have those conversations and have plans in place. At some point things are going to have to restart and it will probably be a slow and gradual thing rather than an immediate return to normality.

“We are not ruling anything out, we are looking at all options.”

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