Uh, are you now at the point where you're well and truly beyond being completely dependent on just three or four players?

Yeah, I think that's a good point and, and a l- you know, a lot of sports go through that, that evolution and that transition.

Obviously, you want to bring, you know, your strongest lineup.

But realistically, for the players to be on the road 52 weeks a year, which is what our calendar pretty much dictates, is very difficult for them.

And I, and I don't blame players for taking a break.

Both the Lukes have been down here before.

Both enjoyed it, and both have said they'll be back again i, i- in the future.

Uh, how do you make sure that you capitalize on the phenomenon that is Luke Littler without becoming overly dependent on one young guy or, as you've just alluded to, burning him out?

... yeah, bro, like it's, it's, it, it's not, it's not even gonna be close, bro.

'Cause, 'cause, 'cause you know what it does look like? I feel like you like me.

I, like, like I said, I'm, I'm with you.

He, he, he been the GOAT before, like, shit, when he came into the league.

I'm, I'm a blind witness, bro.

[laughs] I'm not-- [laughs] I mean, you know, it was about it, brother.

Like, [laughs] I'm a blind witness, bro.

Hell no.

the ensuing problems and the fact that your advice was ignored and in the end you were out of the building um and you stayed away for a bit and you did come back for a game and i remember the staff coming out to to hug you one by one and i thought i was standing there watching i thought you know what he must have been a great boss to work for because you know there's a lot of affection there for you and that must have been a nice feeling

It was really nice and there was a lot of really good people and still are a lot of really good people who work there.

Do you know what the thing was I found Andy was because I didn't have the experience or you know the qualifications or whatever to back up the job title I had to make people I had to get people on my side so I had to make people know that I was going to put a shift in and I was going to expect them to do the same or ask them to do a job but I wouldn't do it myself I treated them honestly I treated them fairly treated them with respect As a team, one of the biggest things I've learned in my time working in football is that you get a lot further if you work together.

When people start working against each other, the club won't be successful.

We tried to pull that mentality together to get everybody pushing in the same direction and everybody on the same page.

I think I could lead that by some management skills.

I think I had the right personality to be around people and just talk to them honestly.

And how much, you know, credit do you get, feel inside yourself for the way you've built that and you've over-doubled things and it's grown so much? I mean, how much credit do you get out of that?

Didn't wash it, just cut 'er on open.

So that was the...

I just wanted to play with those different mash bill, or different distillate, and then just try to make something that was super well-rounded, gentle, but had a more, uh, I guess a more fun flav-flavor profile than, like, the 12 Summer.

So-

Yeah.

Yeah, he goes to the border cr- and then, like, "What are you, what are you doing here in Canada?" [laughs] And he's like, "I'm a licensed pharmacist in 46 states," [laughs] or, "I'm a licensed pharmacist in four states.

I'm here, I'm here to look at some Canadian pharmacies." [laughs] And she's like, "What?" And he's like, "Yeah." [laughs] She's like, "You're doing what with pharmacies?" They...

It's the best.

We've had

players over the years who've gone and won one big event.

But that's never enough.

You have to be consistent.

There's a lot of players who've been one-hit wonders.

The Premier League's a tough school.

You're going up there week in, week out, baying crowds, a lot of travel, a lot of media commitments, a lot of nights in hotels, a lot of flights, all of that sort of stuff.

Well, it is detrimental, but does that mean the chances of him having another Premier League season very slim?

What do you think's going on there?

Yeah, LIV's a really interesting one, isn't it? Because in many ways you can y- you know, I look back at the origins of the PDC before my time.

That was a breakaway organization from players who were dissatisfied with what the governing body at the time was doing for them.

Um, but at the time, darts was really on its knees, and whether you could argue that golf needed LIV, I don't know.

Because if you look at some of the things that it's done now, it's moved back to a 72-hole format from a 54-hole format.

Um, you know, they, they tried to introduce these teams.

You know, when I talk about darts being authentic and people having a connection with it, I'm not sure how anybody is ever gonna say that they're a supporter of a specific team in, in LIV.

How big can darts become, do you think?

Man, that's crazy

... and calls Grandpa the whole time, trash.

And I don't know why they decided that the martial arts show should now switch to being predominantly about ki blasts, but niggas stopped fighting.

They stopped throwing hands and feet in GT and just kept spamming energy beams the whole fucking show.

The whole fight against all the Dark Star Dragons, energy beams.

Super Android 17, energy beams.

Omega Shenron, energy beams.

He stuck with us.

But then in terms of what they've done from a production standpoint, I think it's played a massive role in how darts presented has made it in view very seriously it's huge and of course you're just in a new new contract with with sky yeah it's a significant financial increase how did you go about negotiating that that new contract i mean obviously sky been a very long-term partner but darts has grown and you see me feel like you know needs to be recognized for that how those negotiations go were there other parties what was the process for that

Yeah, I mean, first and foremost, Sky has been this country's premier sports broadcaster for three decades or so now, probably longer.

And their commitment to the PDC, as you referenced, in the early days was what helped get the organisation off the ground.

And for those listening who aren't aware, the early days were the early 90s, which coincided with the launch of Sky in the UK.

So it was ideal timing for the PDC and probably for Sky as well when they needed extra content.

But the point is that the two organisations grew together And Sky's creativity, their editorial standards, their production values, they help to elevate the sport and present it to people's living rooms in a way that made it compelling viewing, which was obviously important because essentially the sport is quite repetitive and is a relatively static sport.

So if you don't present it in an engaging way, people could get quite bored of it quite soon.

I guess it's not as simple as that.