Darts supremo Barry Hearn has warned Alexandra Palace that the World Championship could lose its coveted spot.
And this is because of the rising popularity of Luke Littler.
According to Hearn the 17-year-old is “the gift that keeps on giving” and it has opened the doors to many opportunities.
“Do we need to move to a bigger place? The big hall at Ely Pally needs a lot of work but it can handle 6,000 people per session,” Hearn told PA.
“So there is a possibility. But the flip side of that is that the game of darts is getting so big around the world that I really need to make the World Championships longer.
“If I got eight extra sessions I got 25,000 more tickets to sell. But inevitably in the end we’ll see what we’re going to do.
“It’s one step at a time, I’m not a gambler, but sometimes you get a curveball like Luke Littler and you have to rethink your strategy.
“We think we could sell 250,000 tickets for the World Championships and they wouldn’t fit in Ally Pally.
“It is one step at a time, we are looking at bigger halls but it needs a lot of work. We’re keeping our options open because we’ve learned from Luke Littler that sometimes you can’t see what’s going to happen.
“This is under discussion with everyone.”
