By Darts Weekly Staff
28 JANUARY 2017 •9:26PM
The Shownights European Open and European Classic were both removed from the BDO calendar for 2017 yesterday, with the organisation citing ‘contractual issues’ for their omissions.
A statement on the BDO website yesterday read: ‘It is regrettable that owing to contractual issues the British Darts Organisation has to announce today the removal of the following two events from the 2017 BDO calendar.
‘(1) BDO Shownights European Open;
‘(2) BDO Shownights European Classic.
‘These events were scheduled to be held on the weekend of July 28th – 30th 2017.
‘We apologise to our members if the removal of these tournaments from the calendar cause any inconvenience.’
The double header was held in Blackpool last summer for the first time, with Scott Waites scooping the £2,000 top prize for winning the European Classic.
While, BDO number one Glen Durrant (pictured) walked away with the £3,000 winner’s cheque for lifting the European Open trophy that weekend.
Wayne Dobinson, promoter at Shownights, took to social media to vent his frustration at the BDO’s decision.
He wrote on Facebook yesterday: “I’m absolutely gutted to say after all the hard work, financial burden and heartache I went through standing by the board and doing what I thought was best for BDO darts.
“After being begged in many phone calls from Sue and Wayne Williams to keep the European Darts Weekend last year going because they thought if I pulled it last year after the Deluxe Fiasco, it would be the final nail in the BDO’s Coffin.
“I had many a phone call with Wayne Williams with me questioning to cancel last year’s event due to the lack of confidence in the BDO system, but he said it wasn’t an option to cancel.
“Wayne Williams told me the BDO would pay any shortfall, and it had to go ahead.
“There was also massive losses due to aggressive social media promotion and signage costs etc, that I was hit with due to Deluxe Billingsgate Fiasco, but I personally covered this and also paid back all tickets that was sold via the Shownights platform back in February.
“I feel they have used me for their own personal Benefit, It was in the diary for over a year, with £17k worth of sponsorship so far. So the event was in a far better place than before.
“But in the last 4 weeks they added an additional burden of £10,000 sanction fee and £12,180.00 set up costs, insisted on the prize fund to be paid up front and all income from entry fees to go direct to the BDO.
“And they wouldn’t answer my questions to how and when the new sanction came in to play and if other promoters or organisations would be also getting this ridiculous sanction fee added to their events.
“I asked for a breakdown of the additional £12,180 but that never even came across even though the figure was very specific.”
In brief
Chaney breaks into top 50 after Las Vegas Open win
Joe Chaney climbed into the top 50 of the BDO Men’s Rolling Invitational table after winning the NODOR Fleetwood Las Vegas Open at the weekend.
The American, who won the Charlotte Open and Colorado Open last year, defeated Joe Huffman 6-3 in the final.
Yorkshire go further clear
Yorkshire opened up a 30-point lead at the top of the British Inter-County Championships Premier Division, following a crushing 28-8 win against Nottinghamshire.
The defending champions held a 13-5 lead over the team, who were in third place heading into the weekend, before winning the Men’s A 10-2 and Women’s A 5-1.
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