Darts competition at Etihad Stadium erupts into violence

Date January 11, 2015 - 11:23AM

Lily Partland

Riot police quell crowd at darts tournament

An international darts tournament at Etihad Stadium erupted into chaos on Saturday evening when crowd members began throwing plastic chairs and tables.

One eyewitness said he travelled to Melbourne from Sydney especially to attend the Darts Invitational Challenge and was shocked and disgusted at the rowdy behaviour.

"It was an absolute mess, drunken idiots that were getting bored and looking for a bit of excitement."

He said people were jumping on the tables until they broke in half and some were body slamming other crowd members.

Security guards tried and failed to defuse the situation, before dozens of riot police entered the stadium.

"It was like a proper riot mentality. The security guards couldn't get a handle on it, it was a real uphill battle for them."

The final of the tournament was temporarily delayed due to the situation.

The eyewitness said when it eventually concluded, the winner - the world number one Michael van Gerwen - seemed unimpressed.

"The look on his face after he won, it was a look not of victory, but one of pure disgust," he said.

"I've never seen anything like it. It wasn't good for the sport, it wasn't good for the city's image. I thought it was terrible."

Etihad Stadium communications manager Bill Lane said about 40 fans were ejected from the stadium after the violence erupted about 9pm and three people were treated by paramedics for minor injuries.

He said 70 security guards were on duty on Saturday night.

"The night started really well but unfortunately a small minority did behave poorly," he said.

"There'll be a major debrief and we are talking with police and our own security contractor. We won't shy away from what happened and invariably we learn something from every event."

Mr Lane said the venue had an alcohol-management plan in place and was only serving mid-strength beer.

The bar was closed down at the first sign of trouble, he said.

About 40 police were brought in to help restore order.

Crowd member Tim Berzins said there was definitely not enough security at the event.

"Etihad management certainly need to learn from that. It didn't reflect well on the general public of Australia."

Twitter users in the crowd expressed their disappointment.

http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/darts-competition-at-etihad-stadium-erupts-into-violence-20150111-12lpsj.html