This is a question toward the American darters who travel (or have travelled in the past) the tournament circuit here in the states.

I've noticed that there seems to be a group of big-name players that appears at most of the major (>$20,000) darts tournaments throughout the county (Butler, Young, Robbie, Sawyer, Donny Joe, etc..). I was curious of there was an actual "circuit" that is played here in the US?

In other words, let's say I'm a big-name American player who is sitting down at the beginning of the year to work out my tournament schedule. Is there a standard list of large tournaments that would make up my tournament schedule? What is the travel burden that one would be looking at if one wanted to play the American circuit? Are you a plane every couple of weeks? Once a month? How do would you balance what seems to be an extensive travel schedule with the other aspects of your life (work, family, etc..)?

I'm hoping that some of our American tournament players would be able to shed some light on this.

In general, I only fly to an event that is $15K or larger. I will drive up to 4-5 hours for $10K events. Rarely will I fly to a $10K event.

The ADO website has a list of events for the year. This is the US steel tip 'circuit'. I circle most of the $20K events and plan for them. Some of the $20K events I will never goto because of logistics or seasonal weather issues (i.e. White Mountain, Syracuse).

I also circle all of the North American PDC events. And most recently, I consider all of THE WORLD events.

Also, there are a few events that I favor for different reasons....Las Vegas Open, Music City Classic (Nashville), Virginia Beach, North Texas Shoot Out (Dallas), Houston Open, Freedom Tournament (Austin), Colorado Open (Denver), USA Classic (Stamford).

I lay everything into an online calendar (Google Calendar). This enables me to see the bigger picture. It also allows me to see tournament conflicts. Then I pick and choose which events to attend.

This averages out to about 1-2 tournaments a month. Occasionally I'll play 3 tournaments per month. Some months I won't play a tournament at all. To save on expenses, sometimes I'll share a room. I also try to book flights 4 weeks or more in advance.

Life balance is a personal thing. It is difficult to answer that question for others. You will eat up vacation time if you attend many events. You'll leave mid-day on a Friday and return on Monday morning...depending on flight schedules and how many time zones your are crossing. If you're lucky, you can find a flight on Sunday night. Living in a big city with a major airport is a big factor in this equation as you'll have more flight options and you'll often have non-stop flights to the other major cities.

The total burden ranges from ~$300 - ~$700 per tournament. The biggest variable cost is always the airfare. Some people will carpool with others and drive 7-9 hours instead of flying, just to save money. But doing that places a different kind of burden on you (fatigue). If you fly overseas, the total could be ~$1,600 - ~$2300. This burden includes entry fees, hotel, airfare, food/drink, taxi/rental car.

In the US, you're not going to make a lot of money, especially if you have the added burden of flight and hotel costs.

Winning an ADO regional will get your airfare paid and a modest expense stipend to a major tournament that hosts the ADO National.

It takes a great deal of both time and money to be in the ADO National top 5 and you get very little in return. I personally do not play to chase ADO points. IMO, it is not worth it. But some people do it. To get an idea of what it costs, goto the ADO site and look at the National rankings for the previous year. Click on a persons name in the Top 5, Top 10, or whatever and count the number of 'different and unique' tournaments they've attended. Multiply an average cost figure of say, $400, by that number of unique tournaments. FYI....you get ADO points only for Singles 501 and Singles Cricket events...which generally a tournament will have both events in a weekend....so if you see a person garnered points in 501 and Cricket in Virginia Beach, that is one unique tournament weekend and you multiply that by $400.

For those of us who travel, we place very little credence in our opponent's ADO rank. Most of the traveling players are capable of beating anybody on any given day, regardless of their opponent's or their own personal ranking. We all know who is on form, who is dangerous, etc. regardless of their ranking. In any given year, there are many players across the USA that could be in the top 10 if they traveled and played regularly.

The players who travel the circuit are like a big family. You'll find people that you enjoy socializing with at each event, having dinners with them, going out with them, etc. It is a great circle of people and it is really lots of fun. Now that I'm traveling more for THE WORLD events, I'm getting to know some of the overseas players too.

Whether your traveling nationally or overseas, you have a common bond with all of the players through a shared passion and you have mutual respect for each other.

PM me if you have more questions.

Must be expensive for you guys in U.S. and Canada with the big distances involved

Wow! That is a great reply, Donny. Thanks!

It's interesting you comment about chasing ADO points. I've been curious as to the benefits one gets with a high ADO ranking. It seems like (as you say), the amount of time and money required to achieve and maintain an ADO top 10 ranking would be overwhelming for most people, and I have loads of respect for the people that can do this (Robbie, for instance).

I've been thinking that if one only has the time or the money to travel to only a few events per year, maybe the "newer" events, such as the NWDS may be the way to go, since the prize funds are larger and you get to play the longer formats.

And I do have an ulterior motive for bringing this topic up... I'm starting to think about travelling a bit myself. I'm nowhere near good enough to really have a chance to win at a major tournament, but I'd really like to start getting the experience. Unfortunately, my work and family demands (2 year old at home) would make it difficult to make more than 2 or 3 trips this year, so I'm trying to figure out where to start.

And you just may get a PM from me as I think about it more!

since i just noticed you live in the same town as me I can give you first hand experience for what youre about to get into.

donny explained most of it to perfection, so heres what youre looking at from a regional perspective. his point of not travelling for events under 10k should be step one, remember flying anywhere is going to cost you $200+, hotel is going to be around $200 for a weekend, then factor in food/drinks. youre already in the hole and you havnt thrown a dart. if youre just starting out look into some kind of sponsorship...ill get into that later

since allegient stopped flying to vegas and phoenix from FTC this past october travelling has become more of a pain and expensive. so start off small:

obviously colorado open should always be on your calendar, the weather can be crappy that time of year but its a short drive, 3 days of events, and youre playing a ranked tournament with good payout against "the top players" in the country.

look into events in wyoming as colorado is somewhat dry for events throughout the year bar the big ones, wyoming seems to have something going on every month. casper and cheyenne have good payouts for short events, but again youre going to want to hotel it.

once youre comfortable with spending the majority of your vacation time for events (this is the biggest commitment and strain on personal life in my opinion) sit down at the start of the year, check the well known events for dates etc then start to budget. make sure all costs are covered up front so you dont put a financial hardship on yourself.

sponsorship. start locally, dont expect to have a dart manufacturer or supplier sponsor you unless youre lucky. start with the bar you play at, ask for them to pay for a shirt with their logo on it. take pictures of yourself wearing that shirt at events, write them thank you letters, buy the owner a drink when you see him etc etc.from there maybe the company you work for will sponsor you. ask for things like half air fare or half hotel. or maybe an entry fee or two. pick up a couple of these and youre starting to pay for your trip without paying...sounds great right? always always always remember to thank and go above and beyond to be respectable while playing, youre wearing their name and representing them after all. obviously once youre racking up the tournament wins and your name is out there you can aim higher.

its all a level of how much are you willing to commit at first and maintain. start small...think big...but most of all never give up.

The top USA players are sponsored. I saw Butler's wife mention something about L Style paying him to go to these events.

What do the top American pro's have to shell out for these tourney's? I know it would vary from player to player but what part of the tab do their sponsors pick up?

Depends on the level of sponsorship, the event and of course if they win.

I was talking to someone at a tourney a couple of months ago about Darin Young. I was told that he makes a comfortable living playing darts (not sure how much, but at least 6 figures). Now I have no idea whether or not to actually believe this person - and my gut tells me that this guy was just talking out of his @$$.

But if what he says was true, then it definitely ain't through prize money, since the payouts are crap here in the States, even for "major" events. This must all be through sponsership then?

(Of course, Darin is arguably the best dart player in the US, so it's a bit of a skewed data sample)!

nnj wrote:

Depends on the level of sponsorship, the event and of course if they win.

I was trying to use Larry or Darin as an example.

This weekend at Syracuse Darin won the pro singles, both doubles events, and the cricket singles.

Hotel was $102 per night for 3 nights, entry fees must of been close to $200. Travel, food, etc...

Adding up the event payouts isn't accurate as i'm sure he split one or more of those wins.

I'm just trying to get a slight idea of what a top player like Darin might get from sponsors.

Almost all have normal jobs. The sponsorship mainly just helps with travel and entries, and the occasional bonus. Plus they get a % of any signature flight/barrel sales