RL at the Darts

[unapologetic pedant]

The disparity in viewing experience at the ground and on TV is wider for RL than other football codes.

Must be a chasm at the Darts. Hard to see anything with the naked eye. People will just go for a drink and a sing-song.

As with RL in Oz, TV ratings are a better measure of popularity.

[Dunbar]

18 minutes ago, unapologetic pedant said:

The disparity in viewing experience at the ground and on TV is wider for RL than other football codes.

Must be a chasm at the Darts. Hard to see anything with the naked eye. People will just go for a drink and a sing-song.

As with RL in Oz, TV ratings are a better measure of popularity.

To a degree yes.  I have never been to a big darts night but I can imagine that while the drinking and singing ramps up the atmosphere, the tension in a big match is pretty electric too.  And you don't have to necessarily see every dart land for that tension to be built up.

[Dave T]

5 hours ago, The Masked Poster said:

Pretty much every pub and bar in the world has a dart board in it and many of those have darts teams. 

 

This is just not true at any level, and I'm surprised you are then annoyed that people are disagreeing with you. 

A certain type of pub may have a dartboard, but I'd suggest that for the vast majority of times they hang unused and when you look at pubs and bars in the round, with food pubs and modern bars, they just don't have dart boards. 

I'm interested why you were so bold in this claim, because it is very easy to disprove it pretty much instantly. 

[gingerjon]

24 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I’m surprised to hear you say that because round here darts boards always seem to be in use. Maybe something to do with regional culture, like when you go to Bristol and plenty of people are playing skittles in the pub. 

It probably is that.

[unapologetic pedant]

26 minutes ago, JM2010 said:

Typical RL fans strike again!! This started as a positive thread about SL getting some media coverage and I’ve just come back on and that’s now forgotten and a few are just having a personal argument about which is the biggest sport

Yep, typical RL. 

Next up, some brave soul will be whining about negativity.

[Griff]

2 hours ago, Dunbar said:

According to the latest data from the Active Lives participation survey, which measures sports adults (aged 16+) who have taken part in sport and physical activity at least twice in the last 28 days, darts had 11,300 participants while Rugby League had 55,800.

Darts?   Active Lives?

For heaven's sake, get a grip.

[Dunbar]

3 minutes ago, Griff said:

Darts?   Active Lives?

For heaven's sake, get a grip.

Yes, that is the name of the survey.

If you want them to change it then you can Google 'active lives survey get in touch' and there are a few options.

Let us know how you get on.

[Dave T]

Darts and RL conversations are always interesting, as on many metrics, RL is clearly the bigger sport, including live audiences, participation and commercial value. Darts does very well on major events with some good peaks, as we see at the Worlds.

Perception is key here - the amount of times people claim we can learn plenty from darts is interesting. I enjoy darts, and it lends itself very well to being on TV, creating viral events on social media, and creating stars. It is also easy to make the events look quite good on TV, with some modest crowds and empty seats hidden.

If we look at the 4.8m figure for the 2024 final though, there are a few things to remember. This was an outcome of the Luke Littler effect. the figure the year before was c2m, which is also very very impressive, but it does support the point that this is a bit of a phenomenon. 

It should also be pointed out that the 4.8m number is the largest peak ever on Sky Sports for any sport other than football. But we wouldn't claim that darts is bigger than Golf, Tennis, Formula One etc - so that probably shouldn't be used in the context of an RL discussion.

Darts is doing very well, it has a great story at the moment, I'm enjoying it, people should continue to do so, but I don't think a sport that has five times more people playing it than the other should be so negative about ourselves, particularly when we also bring in five or six times more fans every week than that sport.  

[The Masked Poster]

14 minutes ago, Dave T said:

This is just not true at any level, and I'm surprised you are then annoyed that people are disagreeing with you. 

A certain type of pub may have a dartboard, but I'd suggest that for the vast majority of times they hang unused and when you look at pubs and bars in the round, with food pubs and modern bars, they just don't have dart boards. 

I'm interested why you were so bold in this claim, because it is very easy to disprove it pretty much instantly. 

Because I've been in a lot of pubs in my life, all over the country and cannot recall one without a dartboard. They are often in the tap room too, so out of sight from the main room. But even if they were as rare as you seem to be suggesting, it still doesn't alter the fact that darts is played in pretty much most countries on earth, certainly the US where it's common.
 

So yeah, go ahead and prove that most pubs or bars don't have dartboards. Unless of course, you mainly drink in hipster craft ale bars. 

Edited December 23, 2024 by The Masked Poster

[The Masked Poster]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

I’m amazed if there are only 11,300 people who’ve played darts twice in the last 28 days. In every boozer in the country where there’s a board there are people playing, maybe that figure is just organised competitions. 

Apparently not mate, it's a few random pubs now according to the great and good of this forum. 

[The Masked Poster]

1 hour ago, unapologetic pedant said:

Who are these much less important forum members?

Me for one, he feels like he can - and does - make nasty personal comments about me. 

[Dunbar]

9 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

Apparently not mate, it's a few random pubs now according to the great and good of this forum. 

I think it was probably just how bullish you were with your initial comment that pretty much every pub and bar in the world has a dart board.  There are about 8 pubs I go to in my part of London and none have a dart board.

But, for what it is worth, I do agree with your point that some posts can start to feel personal and patronizing.  But, compared to the rest of the internet, it is nothing in the grand scheme of things.

[HawkMan]

You can prove any bo***x using stats and twist them and select what metrics you want to use.

We know what geographical area counts as RL heartlands. What about soccer's heartland? The whole country right? That's fair methinks.

The percentage of the populace in RL heartland that has an interest in RL , casual or serious, versus the percentage of the populace in soccer's heartland ( the whole country), that has an interest casual  or serious in soccer? Bet you the percentage for RL is higher. RL is the more popular sport QED!

Edited December 23, 2024 by HawkMan

[Dullish Mood]

3 hours ago, The Masked Poster said:

I'm saying Darts is, sadly, way bigger than RL. Both in terms of participation and viewing figures etc 

Which it is…..absolutely without doubt.

[Dunbar]

4 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

The percentage of the populace in RL heartland that has an interest in RL , casual or serious, versus the percentage of the populace in soccer's heartland ( the whole country), that has an interest casual  or serious in soccer? Bet you the percentage for RL is higher. RL is the more popular sport QED!

I would take that bet.  I would even say that there is probably a higher percentage in the Rugby League heartlands who have a casual or serious interest in soccer than Rugby League, never  mind the rest of the country.

[Dave T]

30 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

Because I've been in a lot of pubs in my life, all over the country and cannot recall one without a dartboard. They are often in the tap room too, so out of sight from the main room. But even if they were as rare as you seem to be suggesting, it still doesn't alter the fact that darts is played in pretty much most countries on earth, certainly the US where it's common.
 

So yeah, go ahead and prove that most pubs or bars don't have dartboards. Unless of course, you mainly drink in hipster craft ale bars. 

Well no. You claimed that pretty much every pub and bar in the world has a dart board. You're just blatantly wrong and are now stroppy. 

In reality, you mean one kind of pub.

[HawkMan]

12 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

I would take that bet.  I would even say that there is probably a higher percentage in the Rugby League heartlands who have a casual or serious interest in soccer than Rugby League, never  mind the rest of the country.

Well I did say it was bo***x. But if 15% of the RL heartlands have some interest in RL, does 15% of the entire country have a soccer interest? Don't know 

The pertinent point is take any geographical area outside the heartlands and ask is there a higher casual interest in RL or darts, the answer must be darts.

Edited December 23, 2024 by HawkMan

[Dunbar]

6 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

Well I did say it was bo***x. But if 15% of the RL heartlands have some interest in RL, does 15% of the entire country have a soccer interest? Don't know 

Have to say I have absolutely no idea whether the percentage of the entire country who have an interest in soccer is higher or lower than the number you just made up.

[Dave T]

2 hours ago, Eddie said:

I’m amazed if there are only 11,300 people who’ve played darts twice in the last 28 days. In every boozer in the country where there’s a board there are people playing, maybe that figure is just organised competitions. 

I expect it is where there is an element of formality i.e part of the pub team. In the same way we don't really just count people who pass a rugby ball around on the car park as RL participants. 

I do always think we need to be careful not to let our own personal experiences to cloud our judgement too much on stuff like this, which is easier said than done. The original post that sparked debate here was based on one poster claiming that pretty much all pubs and bars have dart boards - which is demonstrably untrue, but because the pubs they frequent have dartboards, then it's a claim made with vigour. But it's wrong. Just like you saying that there are people playing - in reality that could be no more than 6 or 7 people a week, maximum, and they go to the pub once a month. 

I do personally enjoy pub games, and really like the emergence of the games bars, including The Flight Club darts bars.

[graveyard johnny]

ask every member of the public to name a current English darts player then ask them to also name a current English RL player - the answer ? 1 Luke Littler and 2 erm?- theres your quick end to the argument about which is the most popular 

[HawkMan]

2 minutes ago, Dunbar said:

Have to say I have absolutely no idea whether the percentage of the entire country who have an interest in soccer is higher or lower than the number you just made up.

Ha, course I just made it up! Stats mean nothing without context. Darts or RL bigger? Depends on what stats you use and who you ask. I just asked an AI bot , and it said RL has bigger structure and organisation,  but Darts has peaks of popularity,  which we all knew anyway.

[Dave T]

5 minutes ago, graveyard johnny said:

ask every member of the public to name a current English darts player then ask them to also name a current English RL player - the answer ? 1 Luke Littler and 2 erm?- theres your quick end to the argument about which is the most popular 

That wouldn't be a great test. Ask the same question for darts, but ask them to name an RL team and it would be more comparable, as one is a team sport and one an individual sport.

Littler is absolutely a breakthrough star, but 12m ago, since the retirement of Phil Taylor I'd day it was very different in the darts world.

 

[graveyard johnny]

2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

That wouldn't be a great test. Ask the same question for darts, but ask them to name an RL team and it would be more comparable, as one is a team sport and one an individual sport.

Littler is absolutely a breakthrough star, but 12m ago, since the retirement of Phil Taylor I'd day it was very different in the darts world.

 

the individuals create the popularity -they could say littler for darts and harry kane for football for instance

[Dunbar]

8 minutes ago, HawkMan said:

Ha, course I just made it up! Stats mean nothing without context. Darts or RL bigger? Depends on what stats you use and who you ask. I just asked an AI bot , and it said RL has bigger structure and organisation,  but Darts has peaks of popularity,  which we all knew anyway.

We have a context. 

Someone said that darts had higher participation than Rugby League.  I checked the largest national survey and it showed that Rugby League had a higher participation number.

If the darts number was higher I would have posted that.

[unapologetic pedant]

33 minutes ago, The Masked Poster said:

Me for one, he feels like he can - and does - make nasty personal comments about me. 

Hostage to outrageous fortune, if you are easily bruised.

Few years ago, after making the mistake of venturing into the politics section, our ginger friend said I supported the IRA murdering children in Warrington.

Hard to beat that one. Hence, by your reasoning, I must be the least important member of the forum.