Barry Hearn reveals huge darts tournament moving to iconic 19,500-capacity venue after record sales

Barry Hearn Reveals Huge Darts Tournament Moving to Iconic 19,500-Capacity Venue After Record Sales

The numbers have made the decision for them. When tickets for this year’s US Darts Masters went on sale, 6,000 of them were gone on the very first day — snapped up before most of New York had finished their morning coffee. That single statistic, more than anything else, has forced the hand of PDC president Barry Hearn and accelerated a vision that has been building for years. From 2027, the US Darts Masters will leave the intimate confines of the Theater at Madison Square Garden and move into the main arena itself — a colossus that can house approximately 19,500 people.

For those who remember the sport’s American journey from the beginning, the trajectory is almost difficult to comprehend. When the US Darts Masters first took up residence at Madison Square Garden in 2022, it did so in the Theater — a handsome, atmospheric room that holds somewhere between 2,000 and 5,600 spectators depending on configuration. It was a significant statement of intent even then. The Garden, after all, is not just any venue. It is the arena where Ali fought Frazier, where the Knicks and Rangers call home, where the most storied nights in American sport and entertainment have played out across more than a century. Getting darts through the door in any capacity was an achievement worth marking.

What the PDC have managed since is to turn that foothold into a mandate. The event has sold out consistently, with audience numbers and media interest growing year on year. The 2025 edition drew record attention. And now, before the 2026 event has even been played — it takes place at The Theater on June 26 and 27 — the decision has already been taken to outgrow it entirely.

The leap from The Theater to the main Garden arena is not a modest upgrade. It is a multiplication. Where the current venue holds a few thousand in its best configuration, the full Garden stretches to roughly 19,500 — the same floor that hosts concerts by the world’s biggest artists and NBA playoff games. Filling it with darts fans is an ambition that would have seemed fanciful even five years ago. Today, given that 6,000 seats vanished on a single morning before a single dart had been thrown, it does not seem fanciful at all. It seems like a plan.

Hearn has long spoken about America as a market that demands patience — a place of enormous potential that has tested the PDC’s resolve with its size and complexity. “America is a difficult, tough market to break into properly because it’s like dealing with 50 different countries. It’s expensive, but it could be something special,” Dartsnews he has said previously. The ticket sales for this year’s event represent the clearest signal yet that the patience is paying off.

The move also fits within a broader pattern of escalation across the sport. The World Darts Championship, which remains at Alexandra Palace until at least 2031, will itself shift from the West Hall to the Great Hall from the 2027 edition — a capacity expansion driven by the same logic: demand for tickets has outpaced what the current configuration can offer. In New York, the calculus is identical. The Theater was the right home for a growing event. The main arena is the home for one that has arrived.

What it means in practice is that darts will stage one of its flagship World Series events in front of a crowd that would not look out of place at a heavyweight title fight or a Stanley Cup playoff. The sport has spent the better part of two decades building the argument that it belongs in rooms of that size. In Madison Square Garden’s main bowl, from 2027, it will finally have the chance to make that case in the most famous arena on earth.