Play Meter

(Continued from page 26)
With darts, women can compete
on equal footing with men.
newer players who are just beginning
and doesn't discourage novices who
know they just can't beat certain
teams because they have top-flight
shooters.
Waldron, seeing the player demand
for solidly structured competition like
a dart league , said he's now consider-
ing running double shifts- in other
words, having one league play at an
earlier hour and another league play at
a later hour. The reason? He's run out
of days of the week . He's already
running leagues six nights a week!
Short seasons are better than long seasons,
it keeps player interest at a peak.
"Anything is possible ," he said ,
"with good organization , good pro-
duct , and good promotion ."
Celenza talked about the frenzy
that accompanies electronic dart
leagues in his area . He said that large
numbers of people at some of the bars
would travel with their team from bar
to bar to cheer them on.
McKennon summed up the trend
toward operator-run leagues. Said he ,
"The operator has always been his
own worst enemy. With the technol -
ogical revolution of ten years ago ," he
said, "the operator finally gave way to
hiring someone who had the technica l
expertise. Now , ten years later , he
wonders why he had any resistance to
it in the first place .
"Operators who understand this
today are people who are hiring pro-
motional help because, ten years from
now , they are going to look bac k on
this period and wonder again why they
were so hesitant to do this."
Or as Mark Blum put it: "We
should have done this a long time
ago."
•
Dart league play generates a frenzy .
58
PLAY METER. September 1. 1985