Barry Hearn announces major change for PDC World Darts Championship with the move to 128

Hearn has announced that the main draw of the PDC World Darts Championship would be expanded to 128 players for the 2025/26 season.

And the veteran sports promotor is considering moving the darts’ showpiece event from Alexandra Palace in North London, where it has been since December 2007.

The former PDC chief and Matchroom chairman also stated that Alexandra Palace, where the tournament has been hosted since 2007, may be replaced with a larger facility to capitalise on the sport’s growing popularity. This is mainly due to the rise of teenage sensation Luke Littler, who has introduced a whole new audience to the sport of darts.

The PDC World Darts Championship will gain numerous matches and tournament days when the number of players is increased by 32. During an interview with Jeff Stelling on talkSPORT, Hearn said that 90,000 tickets for this year’s World Championship were purchased “in 15 minutes,” and that nearly double that amount might have been sold.

“For the world championship this year, 90,000 tickets sold out in 15 minutes.

“I asked my people in head office, ‘tell me, how many could I have sold?

“They said, somewhere over 300,000. Now that puts a different emphasis on it.

“Same as when we moved from the Circus Tavern all those years ago, now I’m looking at Alexandra Palace.

“And I’m saying, well, it only holds 3,500. I have to grow all the time. If you ever get complacent you go backwards.

“So, next year we will go from 96 to 128 players. We will add four more days, which is eight sessions, which is another 25,000 tickets.

“Sooner or later, I should be looking and saying: ‘Do you know, like with snooker, I need a bigger venue.’

“I mean I can sell out any arena in the world. But can I do it for 30 or 40 sessions?

“That’s the key issue because the atmosphere makes it a great night. We sold 1,500 tickets for the Premier League final this year.

“And we advertised it that you cannot see the stage from these seats. People bought the tickets. They wanted to be a part of the show.”