The PDC calendar rarely stands still for long, but this latest round of changes, confirmed by Chief Executive Matt Porter, is bigger than most. A first-ever French date, an expanded Grand Slam, and a World Championship moving into a bigger home at Alexandra Palace. Talking to Online Darts he had plenty to report on:
A new major for Europe
The new major, styled on the open-draw format of the UK Open, will be staged in Austria, giving every tour card holder and a number of amateur and semi-pro players from across Europe a route to the big stage rather than another straightforward knockout event.
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“We’re very conscious of the need to ensure that all tour card holders have an opportunity to play on the big stage,” porter said, speaking before a venue had been finalised. Asked whether it might be billed as a German Open given the German-speaking host country, he was quick to rule that out.
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That event has since taken shape as the European Open, confirmed for Salzburg from 18-20 June 2027, immediately following the World Cup of Darts in Frankfurt.
Crossing the Channel
France, meanwhile, joins the European Tour for the first time, part of an annual push to add new countries to the circuit after recent growth across Eastern Europe. Porter credited a strong broadcast partnership with L’Équipe and a solid local promoter for the timing, and expects fans to travel in from the UK, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany for the date.
He was clear, though, that the European Tour is close to its natural ceiling of 15 events a season, given the travel and rest-day demands on players and a stated preference for mid-size, three, to six-thousand seat venues over cavernous arenas with sparse crowds.
On player withdrawals from such events, a recurring gripe among fans, Porter defended the current approach of fines and respect for fellow professionals over harsher penalties.
“If somebody pulls out, they pull out,” he said, arguing that punitive fines would only encourage players to produce dubious medical evidence.
Grand Slam grows again
The Grand Slam of Darts’ expansion to 48 players has left extra places to fill, and Porter confirmed those will go through the qualifier rather than simply extending the automatic cutoff further down the ranking list.
“There has to be a cut-off by which you qualify automatically,” he said. “After that, everybody else will just have to go in the pot.”
Players who win an event or reach a TV final earn their place directly, but Porter was clear there’s a limit to how far back that net can be cast: “We can’t start saying, ‘Well done, you got to a semi-final three months ago, we’re going to put you in the Grand Slam.”
Ally Pally’s new era
The World Championship’s move into Alexandra Palace’s Great Hall also featured, with capacity rising to just over 5,000.
Porter described the new ballot ticketing system, introduced this year, as a marked improvement on the previous scramble, with more than three-quarters of members’ pot applicants receiving the tickets they wanted.
2027 and beyond
Next season brings more change. The Players Championship expands to 128 players drawn from the Players Championship Order of Merit, not tour card holders specifically, bringing more Minehead-style multi-board action, while the European Championship becomes a week-long event for the first time, its field rising to 48 players and prize money doubling to £1 million.
Porter pushed back on the suggestion that the 128-player Players Championship move is designed to persuade top players such as Luke Littler into playing more events, calling it a straightforward decision to give more players, tour card holders and otherwise, the opportunity to compete.
Premier League format still to come
The Premier League format for the coming season remains undecided, with Porter declining to be drawn further, though he confirmed a decision is coming as the year moves into its “business end.”
Taken together, it’s a calendar being reshaped from top to bottom. Whether everything can be squeezed in without diluting the product is the question Porter will face again next year, but for now, the direction of travel is unmistakably upward.
Interview: Online Darts
Images: PDC (unless labelled)
