Flashback - back in a league

I posted this a while back, but the conversation has come up again about Insurance Rates and Darts....

Over the past several years I have noted the decline of dart league membership in the Southern California area. I think what has impacted this area is the increased enforcement of the driving under the influence of alcohol, as well as onslaught of soft-tip darts.

While I was in a league in the San Diego area a major darts vendor became the area distributor of soft-tip dart machines. As part of the introductions of soft-tip darts the vendor promoted to the bar owners the increased revenue stream that could be had from the machines. The clincher was the sham argument that insurance rates would increase for establishments that had steel tip darts. They were told that as several large judgments had been won against "dart bars back east" and the insurance rates were sure to increase. Several bars that sponsored teams held out and had both soft-tip and steel, but the soft-tip promoters came in and organized tournaments, leagues, promotions with lots of prizes and cash. Most of the bar owners gave more time and space to soft-tips and put in more pool tables. Steel tip dart boards were squeezed out, by arcade style darts (anyone got a quarter?). Several bars held out and keep steel darts sponsored teams in the steel-tip dart leagues, had cash tournaments, and recruited new players. But over time they did not compete well with soft-tip darts, and the number steel-tip teams / players decreased.

When some of the sympathetic bar owners in my area sold their bars I found myself at minimum 35 min away from the nearest steel tip bar in any direction. I was out of league darts..... I had gone from playing 3 nights a week league, and 2 nights a week "blind draw doubles" to nothing but the occasional "weekend tourney". This by no means says that steel-tip darts in the area are dead, but I must say that league membership is down and fewer bars have dartboards / league teams.

It's good to be back in a league.....

Now for a few more words on the topic of insurance.....

There is a venue in our league that does not allow anyone but league members to play darts. We "check out the boards" for league events then turn them in at the end of the event. A few months I asked why this was the case and the manager said; "If we leave them up for the general public or rates will go up." I tried to have a logical discussion about issue, but got no further than; "We can't afford the higher rates." I knew that this was not the case, but I had no proof to prove my point.

On the way home (we carpool and have a designated driver) I ranted to my teammates about how stupid "Insurance rate excuse" was, and how could they accept such rubbish as truth! Someone, who must of been tired of my rant, said prove it! My rant ended.

A couple days later I went into our home pub and asked the owner about his insurance rates and if they were affected by having dart boards. He responded that; "Insurance rates always go up!" But I wanted to know if it had anything to do with dartboards.

He said that he was with the same agent for the entire time that he had owned the bar, and his rates were lower than most other bars in the area. He also mentioned that his agent was more interested in having him install non-slip mats, and improving his storage area as employee injury claims in bars were on the rise.

So armed with the name and phone number of the agent I called the offending venue, and chatted with the manager sharing my research. A few weeks ago I spoke to the insurance agent, and the manager has yet to call.