Beardhidesboy64 wrote:
Theres a reason sky have the rights to darts and eurosport have the rights to tennis. Noone watches tennis sll year round untill wimbledon. Darts draws audiences all year round and is growing big time in the 18-24’s who sporeciate both the skill and the social aspect and the fact that it is so easily accessible to play for anyone in that age range. Good luck getting on a local tennis court if tennis had any kind of popularity outside of wimbledon. Its just not accessible or interesting to most young adults.
Darrs has seen a boom in the wake of the premier league and id argue its a far more growing sport than tennis.
And radecanu is fucking dogshit and a flash in the pan.
This country produces once in a blue moon tennis players of any real world level quality. 2 in my lifetime and only 1 of them actually had any real success the other was a nearly man all of his career.
How many people are honestly talking about tennis today? Tomorrow? Last week? In 2 weeks time? Darts is on the lips of people i work with that dont even have an interest in it thanks to a 16 year old sensation story. Who is talking about radecanu or even gives a shit about her?
I mean, it depends on your circle, I guess?
Because my circle, I can have long pub long conversations with people I know about the tennis - it interests me, and others I know. I have little to no interest in darts, so I could generally give as much a shit about it as you do tennis. But generally, I find there are more tennis fans outside of Wimbledon than is given credit. Nobody listens for it if they don't give a shit. I don't care for darts but I know if I keep an ear out for it I'll hear it daily. Same with boxing. I love boxing, my second favourite sport. A lot of people say it is only relevant when the next big Heavyweight fight is 2 weeks away. That isn't true. It is daily news.
To me, Raducanu winning the American Open was one of, if not the most unbelievable individual sporting moments of my lifetime. Whatever her career turned out to be (she's literally only 21, years away from what could be anyone's peak) it doesn't take away from the achievement. I was in awe, and couldn't stop talking about it for weeks.
Littler, with the darts, has been the talk of the town, if not the world for a about 10-15 days. It had little interest for me until tonight when I watched it. And enjoyed it, might I say. He might turn out to be an absolute bum, a flash in the pan and yesterdays man. "Remember Luke Littler?" Etc. His achievement isn't worth downplaying, but people seem to take joy out of downplaying tennis achievements for some reason and its always, and always will baffle me.
One of the most mentally, physically and emotionally draining individual sports you can get. It's a shame that the last few years I've lost a bit of touch with it because of accessibility to viewing it, but I keep tabs on it and adore the sport. I agree it's not easy for children to get into, it costs a lot (I should know because I wasn't able to play it as a kid because it cost too much to join a club as a kid), and it's not really a sport you can do alone. And darts, quite literally can be self taught. I could enter a pub tomorrow, throw arrows from open to close every day for the next 5 years and get into tournaments if I worked hard at it, which doesn't downplay its talent, it just makes it more accessible.
People relate to darts because they've played it, have been around it etc. People don't relate to tennis because, well, they don't relate to it.
As a sport, tennis will always be a more enjoyable, emotionally gripping and entertaining overall to me. But having watched darts tonight and "getting it" for the first time I see it'd appeal now... but a few years ago, Emma Raducanu was Luke Littler. And don't you dare pretend she wasn't. She was on Fox News. She was on a billboard in Times Square for weeks. She was in vogue. The face of adverts. Her achievement was absolutely fucking sensational and still is. If she retired there and then it was still a monumental triumph. Just because people have stopped talking about it doesn't make it any less gigantic. I hope Littler keeps up his rate of success - I really do. Because it helped me enjoy darts. But if he stops now he has a story for a lifetime, the same as she does.
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