If there are no more postponements, The O2 will host Judgement Night in August and Sheffield will hold Finals Night in October
Thursday 9 April 2020 15:15, UK
The three Premier League Darts nights for May, including the originally scheduled Play-Offs at The O2, have all been postponed, with Finals Night now set for Sheffield in October.
The last round of postponements two weeks ago ensured that there would be no darts in April, and now the PDC has confirmed that the remaining three dates in May have also been called off.
As the country continues to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, planned nights at Glasgow's SSE Hydro, the First Direct Arena in Leeds and London's O2 on May 7, 14 and 21 respectively, have all now been rescheduled.
It means the Premier League has effectively been suspended since mid-March after Night Six in Liverpool following restrictions imposed to deal with the threat of COVID-19.
Sheffield's FlyDSA Arena was due to host the resumption on July 2 but that has been moved and will now host the conclusion on Thursday October 15.
PDC chief executive Matt Porter told the Darts Show podcast last month that he expected May and June to join most of March and all of April's calendar in being postponed, and Thursday's announcement confirmed those fears.
Should no further changes be enforced, the Premier League will resume for Night Seven in Birmingham on Thursday July 30, while The O2 will now host Judgement Night on August 20 when one player will be eliminated and miss out on the second stage of the competition.
Leeds will now feature Night Seven and moves to August 27, with Glasgow hosting Night 14 on September 17, while details have also been finalised for the rescheduled visit to The SSE Arena in Belfast, which will now host the Premier League on Thursday August 13.
Porter admitted earlier this week that the prospect of a Premier League behind closed doors was "pointless" while in his conversation with The Darts Show podcast, he admitted October was a likely cut-off for the event.
"Things are looking very different and we can't afford to be too precious about which nights or which cities we get in before Judgement Night, or when there might be a break or where the Finals will be.
"It is a case of fitting things in where we can. So far we have been fortunate in being able to reschedule everything for a Thursday and that's great because I think people still associate Thursday with Premier League Darts.
"We don't want to go much later than October, we have the Grand Prix, the Grand Slam, the European Championship, Players Championship, and the World Championships.
The news follows Thursday's announcement that the World Series of Darts treble-header planned for Australia and New Zealand in August 2020 has been postponed by 12 months until August 2021.
Wollongong and Townsville were due to host events for the first time, while Hamilton was on the calendar again, but all three will now take place in 2021 - as is the case with New York in June which was announced earlier this month, pushing back a first date in Madison Square by 12 months.
The only remaining event of the World Series circuit this year was the Nordic Darts Masters, which was due to take place in Copenhagen, has now been pushed back four months to October 23-24.
