Barry Hearn announces huge PDC World Championship change as he addresses Ally Pally future

Barry Hearn has announced a major change to the PDC World Darts Championship that will kick in next year and has hinted at another which involves Alexandra Palace

The PDC World Darts Championship will undergo a massive change next year, with Barry Hearn announcing that 128 players will take part in the 2025/26 edition.

The former PDC chief and Matchroom president, 76, also suggested that Alexandra Palace, which has been home to the tournament since 2007, could be bumped for a bigger venue in order to capitalise on the sport's skyrocketing popularity, particularly in the wake of Luke Littler's explosion onto the scene.

Increasing the number of players by 32 will mean an extra 32 matches and four additional days will be added to the competition in 13 months' time. Speaking to Jeff Stelling on talkSPORT, Hearn revealed that 90,000 tickets to this year's world championship were bought "in 15 minutes" and claimed that nearly quadruple that figure could have been sold.

"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," he said.

"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."

Just 24 players took part in the inaugural PDC World Championship back in 1993/94, which was held at the Circus Tavern in Essex. The winner, Dennis Priestley, pocketed £64,000 in prize money. By contrast, Luke Humphries made £2.5million for winning last year's edition, which had a field of 96 players.

It demonstrates the magnitude of the sport's explosion into the mainstream, and Hearn is understandably keen to continue capitalising on it amid a huge spike in popularity following teenage sensation Littler's emergence. A record 4.8m people tuned in to watch Humphries pip Littler in the final in January, with a peak audience of 3.7m.

The figure represents a 143 per cent increase on the 2023 final, in which Michael Smith beat Michael van Gerwen in a thrilling contest which featured Wayne Mardle's iconic "I can't spake" commentary after Smith landed an incredible nine-darter seconds after Van Gerwen had missed the chance to do the same thing.

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