The list keeps shrinking.
Luke Littler pulled out of Players Championship 29 and 30 in Den Bosch first. Then Gerwyn Price and James Wade followed him out the door. Three of the biggest names in the game will not be at the Maaspoort this week.
That is not a coincidence of diaries. It is a pattern.
The floor events in the Netherlands were supposed to be the next stop after a loud, messy World Series of Darts Finals in Amsterdam. Instead the entry list has been rewritten again. The players who just filled a major arena are choosing not to fill a Pro Tour hall two days later.
A Weekend That Emptied the Next One
Littler’s withdrawal was the headline everyone saw coming. He lost 10-4 to Jonny Clayton in the quarter-finals, his clean-sweep bid dead. Before that he had already been whistled and booed through wins over Danny Noppert and Nathan Aspinall. Referee Charlie Corstorphine had to stop play.
He said afterwards: “If the Dutch stay like this, then I’m not going to do any Euro Tours over there. There’s just no point in me travelling, wasting my time whilst I’m getting booed. I just want to play my darts, obviously sign autographs. The past two nights, I’ve done nothing, I’ve just walked off stage without thanking anybody. There’s no point thanking everyone when they are booing me.”
Those words sit next to the withdrawals. Whether every pull-out is about the crowd is another question. Players Championship nights are behind closed doors. There is no whistling section in Den Bosch. So Price and Wade are not ducking the same noise Littler described.
They are ducking the calendar.
Price reached the World Series final and lost 11-5 to Ross Smith. He had beaten Wade 10-7 in the last eight on the same Sunday. That is a full weekend of high-level darts, travel, and recovery. Wade has been managing a heavy schedule for years. Price has a long history of skipping European Tour and floor events when the body or the mind says enough.
Gary Anderson and Josh Rock were already among the notable absentees. Anderson, Stephen Bunting, Clayton, Luke Humphries and Ryan Searle were missing from the original picture too. The top of the game is picking its spots.
Why This Week Matters on the Floor
Players Championship events still pay and still count. The top 64 on that order of merit go to Minehead at the end of November. Littler sits 125th and is about £16,750 short of the cut. Pulling out of 29 and 30 all but ends that chase for him. He had already skipped the first 26 floor events of the year.
Price and Wade are in a different place. They play these events when they need them. They skip them when a major has just emptied the tank. That is their right. It is also a problem if the same names keep disappearing from the same midweek cards.
Wessel Nijman has been hoovering up the floor titles and prize money. The players who treat every Tuesday and Wednesday as optional leave space for that. The product on the Pro Tour becomes thinner at the top even as the standard in the middle rises.
You can argue that is healthy. More opportunities for the next tier. You can also argue a Tuesday in Den Bosch without Littler, Price and Wade feels like a undercard after the main event has already left town.
The Crowd Story and the Schedule Story Are Not the Same
Do not mash them together. Littler’s boycott talk is about treatment in front of fans. He has already been skipping German Euro Tours. Maastricht in October is now off his list as well. That is a statement.
Price and Wade walking away from two closed-door events looks more like load management. The PDC calendar is packed. Majors, Premier League nights, European Tour weekends, then a double-header on the floor. Something has to give. For a lot of the established names, the floor is what gives.
That is not new. Anderson has been doing it for seasons. Price has multiple withdrawals already in 2026. Wade has pulled out of similar double-headers after deep runs before. What is new is the cluster right after a hostile major on Dutch soil. The timing makes it look coordinated even if the reasons are different.
The PDC has been experimenting with crowd control after the Amsterdam whistling. That is a separate job. Getting the stars to show up on a Tuesday is another one.
What Comes Next
The World Grand Prix in Leicester starts at the end of the month. Then Dortmund for the European Championship. Then more floor events back in Den Bosch at the end of October. Every one of those dates will now be read through the same lens. Who turns up. Who does not. Who cites rest. Who cites the room.
Littler has left the door open on Germany. He said he would see whether Dortmund felt different. The Netherlands looks closed for now. Price and Wade will pick their spots as they always have.
Fans who buy tickets for the next European nights will want an answer that is clearer than “the list changed again.” Players who grind the Pro Tour every week will take the extra prize money and the extra ranking points. Both groups have a point.
Three big names out of Den Bosch does not wreck the sport. It does tell you how the elite now treat the middle of the week. The majors get the body and the headline. The floor gets whoever has something left.
That trade-off will keep happening until the calendar changes or the incentives do.
So what do you think? Are Price and Wade just being sensible after a long weekend, or is the top of the game drifting too far from the events that built it? Have your say.