Stepping up to toe line

They're bringing their darts and their wallets, and the Town of Gander is welcoming them with open arms.

The country's top adult and youth dart players will land in Gander in 2010 to compete in adult nationals (June 15-18), youth nationals (May 21-24) and the Canadian Open (June 19-21).

The official announcement was made at the Albatross Hotel in Gander on Sept. 16, and councillor Rob Anstey made it quite clear that Gander is ready and waiting.

"The town is open to you guys," Anstey said. "Gander has always been a dart town, and we love to see you guys come here."

The town will indeed be open, and so will its businesses. In total, Anstey is anticipating roughly $1 million will be spent in Gander between May 21 and June 21.

"That's big business. It's what we like to see," he said, "We work hard to get events like this here."

And what an event it should be. John Part, two-time Professional Darts Corporation world champion, 1994 British Darts Organization world champion, five-time Canadian singles champion, and the fourth-ranked dart player in the world, may also be throwing darts on The Rock in 2010. The event, according to Anstey, will bring a lot of attention Gander's way.

"The best youth dart players in Canada will spend a week here, and the best adults in the country will be here for two weeks, so a lot of people will want to be here to watch these people play," said Anstey. "Nationally, this is a huge event, and the town will be getting a lot of exposure. Of course, the more exposure you can get, the better."

Bob Gulliver, Newfoundland director on the National Dart Federation of Canada's executive board, said both adult and youth provincials are held in Gander every year, and the location of the town has a lot to do with why they keep coming back.

"It's centrally located, and it's easy access for everybody across Newfoundland and Labrador," said Gulliver. "We've heard nothing but good things about Gander from our sponsors, as well as our participants that play on a yearly basis."

This isn't the first time Gander has hosted a national darts event. Adult nationals, as well as the Canadian Open, were held here in 2000.

"We had a great run in 2000," he said. "It was a new venue at the time, but everybody is comfortable with it now. The good thing about Gander is that you can get off a plane and five minutes later you're settled away in your hotel room. We pick them up in the bus the following morning and they're at the community centre in less than five minutes. You don't have to worry about a two-hour drive to town in congested traffic or anything like that. It's a prime location."

Although Gander hosts numerous provincial events, and hosted past national events, there aren't many local players that compete, which is something Gulliver wants to address.

"We would love to get more people from Gander involved with darts. We might only get one or two that come out to play on St. Patrick's Day weekend (provincials). But with a renewed marketing, communications and public relations plan, we're going to make sure that every store, club and agency receives information to let people know exactly what's going on in Gander," said Gulliver. "We're going to do a better job of letting people know how they can get involved and how they can participate. If they want to play, great, and we're also looking for volunteers if they want to do that."

A town in Alberta was also fighting to host these national events, but Gander won out in the end. Gulliver credits Newfoundland dart players living across Canada for that, as they apparently put pressure on the National Dart Federation of Canada to hold events here.

"They put a lot of pressure on the executive to return to Newfoundland because not only do they come back here to play darts, but they also have family and friends here," said Gulliver. "I'm expecting more than 400 Newfoundlanders living across Canada will come to Gander for this."