Professional Darts Corporation (PDC) chief executive Matt Porter says history-making female darts player Fallon Sherrock can't wait to come to New Zealand, adding he's expecting a positive reaction from Kiwi supporters.
On Monday (NZ time), the PDC announced Sherrock had been rewarded for her historic achievements at the World Championship with a place in all of next year's World Series of Darts events, including in NZ Darts Masters at Claudelands Arena in Hamilton.
The 25-year-old from Milton Keynes became the first woman to win a match at the PDC World Championship by beating Ted Evetts at Alexandra Palace earlier this month.
She subsequently overcame world number 11 Mensur Suljovic before bowing out to Chris Dobey 4-2 in the third round, having led 2-1 during another impressive performance.
Looking to grow women's darts and capitalise on the popularity of Sherrock, a former hairdresser, the PDC included her in the World Series events in Denmark, Germany, New Zealand and the two in Australia next year.
"She's excited about coming down to New Zealand," Porter told Newshub. "She knows it's a long way away. I don't think she's been that far before.
"She's seen the events on TV and knows the crowds are great and hopefully she'll come down and put on a show.
"We know New Zealand is an advanced country when it comes to equality and diversity and we think Fallon is a brilliant example of that within the sporting environment.
"We're sure fans will take to it the same way the New Zealand public has with all our players over recent years.
"Fallon was a pretty unknown darts player two weeks ago but what she's done in the last two weeks is make history in darts and she's become a hero and pioneer in the women's game.
"We're proud of what she's done and hopefully she can inspire female darts players in the future."
Sherrock was the fifth woman to feature at the world championship, after Canadian Gayl King, Russian Anastasia Dobromyslova, England’s Lisa Ashton and current women’s champion Mikuru Suzuki of Japan.
Her success saw her earn £25,000 (NZ$49,259), while pioneering tennis player Billie Jean King, American actress Sarah Jessica Parker and British actor Stephen Fry were among the global superstars who publicly congratulated her.
"It's been unprecedented," Porter told Newshub on the worldwide reaction. "We've had female darts players in events before but none of them have beaten a man.
"To so on the biggest stage and follow it up with a win over against Mensuer was sensational so what she's done is rewrite the rulebook.
"Our events have always been open and inclusive for men and women to take part in, but Fallon is the first hopeful in a long line of female dart players that will go on and compete on an equal footing with men."
Female players have always had the same chance as men to qualify for the World Championship, with no boundaries set on qualification. But now at least two of the 96 spots are guaranteed to women, after the introduction of British and world qualifiers.
The same rules apply for the NZ Darts Masters where eight qualifiers from the Oceania region square off against eight of the PDC's best players.
While there has been lots of positive praise for Sherrock, Porter insists it's important they don't get carried away, saying it's important they focus on growing the women's game to try to encourage more females to participate.
"Every single qualifier event we have is open to men and women to play in. There are no restrictions, so women can play in all these events.
"We think what's important is to develop the game from the bottom up because we can put 10 guaranteed women's spot at the world champs, but if it doesn't encourage women to play the sport then there is not a lot of point.
"At the moment we haven't got a lot of female participation in darts at a semi-pro/professional level so we need to offer women reasons to get into the sport on a level that they can find achievable.
"We can put in two more spots in the worlds, but it won't do much for the hundreds and thousands of women that might want to take the game up at a realistic level to start with.
"We need to look at that and get participation numbers up and get women more engaged with the sport."
Porter has noticed an increase in women watching darts over the last decade, but Sherrock's success has seen a new level of interest in the male-dominated sport.
"The crowd split has gone from 90/10 male-female to 65/35 over the last decade," Porter added.
"Let's see if we can get the player ratio moving as well and the best way we can do that is by offering more opportunities at different levels for women players.
"All the women players here are proud of Fallon. She's a nice person, easy to get along with so they're proud of her, maybe jealous of her, but she's inspired them to want to go on and take their games to a new level."
Porter is hoping for a similar turnout in Aotearoa in eight months. Last year, more than 7500 fans attended the two-day event at Claudelands Arena.
"We were very welcomed into Hamilton and well looked after. It wouldn't make sense to leave the city after one year so we're happy to be back."
Sherrock's success at the world championships has dominated the headlines and has taken the spotlight off many of the other great storylines at this year's event.
"We started by losing some big seeds early on in Michael Smith and Rob Cross, we had the Fallon story, Raymond van Barneveld's retirement was overlooked amongst all these other stories.
"But the standard of darts has been incredible, the crowds have been fantastic and it's been a wonderful event to be involved."
Michael van Gerwen and Gerwyn Price remain on course for an eagerly anticipated final at the world champs, as they'll face Nathan Aspinall and Peter Wright respectively for a spot in the decider.
