Why host worlds?

[JTacoma03]

Right... along those lines why volunteer for anything really? School Board, youth sports, any other amateur sport. Thankless jobs and long hours and hard work. Why do anything you are not getting paid for right?

I"m going to submit a bill to the club next time i'm running a weed eater at my local course.

I think you're taking his argument to the extreme. The OP is talking about worlds, which is more involved than the average event, and I confess I've wondered the same thing, for many of the same reasons.

I think splitting the Open and Age Protected Worlds was a great move by the PDGA for this reason. I predict they'll see more bids now that the requirements and challenges are more normalized. Those two groups have different needs, especially when it comes to courses. I hope that makes more clubs ready to opt in.

On the other hand, try to get in on the bidding war for Am Worlds. That's much harder to get because Ams spend money where pros don't, there's a boost to the economy with the big Am events.

 

[Stardoggy]

For what its worth... look at how popular and iconic Maple Hill has become due to the Vibram NT being hosted there. Do you think people would be planning road trips to come out to Maple Hill and discussing it nationwide if the Vibram wasn't there? No. It would be just a course on a Christmas tree farm.

I disagree with this completely. I knew about Maple Hill long before I ever watched DG videos.

 

[Putt for D'oh]

I think you're taking his argument to the extreme.

I think it is an extreme viewpoint. Just because one event in harder or bigger it makes the job of the volunteer more what? Volunteery? More thankless?

Disc Golf is in a strange spot in this country with its semi-pro status, but other countries don't have the same level of pro-athlete we do here in such a variety of sports. There are many many examples in other countries where the top athletes make less money than they would at a regular job, and their events simply wouldn't exist without tons of volunteer time. Granted there is a also a lot of those organizers that do get paid but by and large so many events and activities are not money making, and those that get paid end up with a pay rate for the time they've put in being on the order of $5/hr or less.

I'm sure there are many on this board who have run a fundraiser event and looked back at the total income for the club and number of man hours spent and thought "would have been easier just to ask everyone to donate $20-$50 we would have made the same money without the headache"

Pro-worlds is very much a unique beast in a lot of ways but it still is run on the back of volunteer time, and thank god there are people out there who continue to want to be those people, and not just for DG.

 

[eric40817]

I disagree with this completely. I knew about Maple Hill long before I ever watched DG videos.

I never said Maple Hill wasn't well known or popular before Vibram came to the course. My point is that the fact that the Vibram Open is held there has certainly played a role in increasing its popularity. Its an added benefit of hosting a major event. It draws players/spectators to the course to otherwise may have never been there before.

 

[ToddL]

You could probably say that about any TD for any event.

I semi-sarcastically don't really care about TDing pro events any more. Pros drive in from out of state, complain about the courses, take your money, and leave. Now, that's a pretty pessimistic view, and I don't really believe it, but it's also slightly true. At least with the Ams, the club can make some profit from merch sales.

But really, I'm good friends with a lot of the pros in the area, I enjoy seeing them, I like watching them play, and most of them truly are appreciative and grateful. But at the end of the day, it's still show up, play, get money, leave. I TD events because someone has to do it, and I think I do a good job at it, but I would never dream of hosting a Pro Worlds. Ugh.

 

[DavidSauls]

I semi-sarcastically don't really care about TDing pro events any more. Pros drive in from out of state, complain about the courses, take your money, and leave. Now, that's a pretty pessimistic view, and I don't really believe it, but it's also slightly true. At least with the Ams, the club can make some profit from merch sales.

But really, I'm good friends with a lot of the pros in the area, I enjoy seeing them, I like watching them play, and most of them truly are appreciative and grateful. But at the end of the day, it's still show up, play, get money, leave. I TD events because someone has to do it, and I think I do a good job at it, but I would never dream of hosting a Pro Worlds. Ugh.

I just draw the line at feeling obligated to dig up a bunch of cash sponsors for them.

When I see the scale of Worlds, I'm glad someone is willing to do it.....and that I live where there's no danger of it coming to my hometown.

 

[1978]

In several cases in the past, the bid was driven by the local club, not necessarily an individual, as a way to inspire Park Depts to upgrade existing courses and sometimes get new ones in their area from manufacturer sponsorship. In older days, running Worlds was considered a duty tto the wider disc golf community to share your wealth of courses in your town with the understanding other communities would take their turn when they could, sort of how settlers took turns helping others raise their barns so they would get help when needed. In the case of Highbridge in 2007, if my host team didn't do it, many would never get to hear about or make the effort to visit the amazing complex we built near the edge of U.S. civilization.

This,
If you are moving and grooving it shows the community that their support is paying off, yeilds greater dividends. So yea a PITA. Would be so much easier to not have the event...but towns can puff up a bit when a major is hosted then that warms them to the sport even more.

 

[GMcAtee]

Am Worlds still has 101 openings as of this morning.

 

[1978]

Am Worlds still has 101 openings as of this morning.

Thats crazy.

 

[Cgkdisc]

Am Worlds still has 101 openings as of this morning.

That's a little misleading because there are already 70 more entered than last year. The max capacity just happens to be about 175 higher in the Quad Cities this year than last year's field.

 

[Stardoggy]

That's a little misleading because there are already 70 more entered than last year. The max capacity just happens to be about 175 higher in the Quad Cities this year than last year's field.

The waiting lists were large last year. Adv Masters (72 openings, I believe) filled in 10 minutes. This year it's at 77 total.

 

[gradus]

2012 Worlds in Charlotte resulted in several new courses built for the event.

 

[JC17393]

I never said Maple Hill wasn't well known or popular before Vibram came to the course. My point is that the fact that the Vibram Open is held there has certainly played a role in increasing its popularity. Its an added benefit of hosting a major event. It draws players/spectators to the course to otherwise may have never been there before.

For what it's worth, Maple Hill didn't really exist as a course before MSDGC/Vibram Open. It was originally set up in 2002-2003 with homemade targets, fairly minimal cutting/maintenance, in a much shorter layout that didn't really resemble anything that's there now. Then Steve moved up to the area and had the grand idea to put together a big tournament (in conjunction with his cousin's course at Pyramids). Maple Hill was re-designed for that purpose and effectively debuted at the first MSDGC.

Much of the expansion and changes over the years, particularly the evolution of the Gold course, was fueled by feedback from participants in first the MSDGC then the Vibram. You're not really wrong to suggest that its renown is owed largely to the big tournament it hosts, since without that event, the course might not exist at all.

 

[JTacoma03]

I think it is an extreme viewpoint. Just because one event in harder or bigger it makes the job of the volunteer more what? Volunteery? More thankless?

More involved (hours, complexity of logistics, etc.) - and that does make all the difference.

 

[DavidSauls]

And more satisfying, when you pull it off.

 

[New013]

This isn't a disc golf question.

The question is essentially 'why do anything that doesn't benefit you in a monetary or tangible material way?'

I'd say try it out and you'll probably get your answer

 

[rhatton1]

I just draw the line at feeling obligated to dig up a bunch of cash sponsors for them.

.

That's the part I've never quite got my head around. I love running tournaments, throwing a party as you so beautifully put it earlier.

That is involved enough, the idea of chasing round digging up money for "pros" to come and play just doesn't sit well. If it was big enough that I could do that as a job, then great, but to find cash for someone not local to the area on a voluntary basis,seems a waste of resource. I would prefer to put that energy into finding funding for new courses or improving existing.

That should maybe be a role in the future due for creation at the PDGA as it expands further. Someone working on behalf of the major and NT tournaments based from the PDGA to go out and try to source sponsorship from national and local partners. Take that element away from the TD's (unless they want it) and let them get on with running a great tournament. By having a national/international body representative approaching big companies with some very compelling numbers would probably have more sway than an individual on behalf of a single tournament.

 

[davetherocketguy]

This isn't a disc golf question.

The question is essentially 'why do anything that doesn't benefit you in a monetary or tangible material way?'

I'd say try it out and you'll probably get your answer

Ummm...no. It's intended to be a DG specific question. I do a lot of things that have no real benefit - not to me anyways. Try having kids lol. There are oodles and oodles of things that are done only for their benefit. I think just being a reasonable human being means doing things now and again that have no benefit. Maybe another way to put it is why put on an event that financially benefits a lot of people (manufacturers, PDGA, pros) who are seemingly ungrateful for the effort - at least that's how it appears to me anyways so I could be way off base there.

I get running a tourney that's just a benefit for the local DG scene because it's a party - heck even I'd volunteer for that. I can also see how it might be worth all the heartache to host worlds if it means getting several new courses installed...

 

[DavidSauls]

That's the part I've never quite got my head around. I love running tournaments, throwing a party as you so beautifully put it earlier.

That is involved enough, the idea of chasing round digging up money for "pros" to come and play just doesn't sit well. If it was big enough that I could do that as a job, then great, but to find cash for someone not local to the area on a voluntary basis,seems a waste of resource. I would prefer to put that energy into finding funding for new courses or improving existing.

That should maybe be a role in the future due for creation at the PDGA as it expands further. Someone working on behalf of the major and NT tournaments based from the PDGA to go out and try to source sponsorship from national and local partners. Take that element away from the TD's (unless they want it) and let them get on with running a great tournament. By having a national/international body representative approaching big companies with some very compelling numbers would probably have more sway than an individual on behalf of a single tournament.

I don't begrudge the TDs who are willing to scrape up money, and essentially bribe pros to come to their events, if that's what they want to do. I just don't like the implied obligation. Or, at higher tiers, the actual obligation.

The PDGA did have a paid position, a few years back, trying to get national sponsors. I feel certain someone there is doing it now. But it's got to be tough, since sponsorship has no real value for those companies. It had very little value for the local companies that sponsor lower-tier tournaments, either; they do it as a favor to whoever asks, or community support.

 

[bnbanbury]

I have felt exactly the same way, particularly after I had some interactions with touring guys that turned me off to the whole thing and made me wonder how these events are worth the effort. Played in a pro-only A tier for which the organizer has been raising money slowly over the course of a year and then watched a guy bitch the whole time he played before walking away with a big chunk of the added cash and heading back out of town.

At the same time I can see it being like anything else that gives people a sense of accomplishment. Being a good TD and having a well run event is something to be proud of and I imagine that feeling only increases as the complexity and prestige of the you're running.