2015 European Open coverage thread/split from Tournament thread

[Aim For The Chains]

34,513?
In reality, the slice of people that watch DG on YT is so small that it barely registers.
For example, I see old military documentaries that have been VCR'd and transferred to YT and the quality is horrible, and it has over a million views.
The link provided for Simon's cat got like 28 million views? Unbelievable...

That was my entire point. To put DG on TV is stupid.

We hardly get any views (although way more than the guy who thinks it was only 5-10k) per item which is produced. The amount of viewers on that platform which is possible really is endless though so to think you are reinventing the wheel by tryng to do some crazy TV coverage like this is the xgames is just a waste of time and money IMO.

This **** is still just disc golf Jussi and the like must have a whole different idea. The people here in the US will never care to watch disc golf on TV, ever.

 

[Dana]

I liked the "Insider Show" and trust in Jussi. Sometimes you have to make decisions that will be unpopular at present, but lead to bigger and better things in the future. Time will tell.

I also thought it was an interesting call to not show Ricky play hole 16 on the final "Insider Show". Or did I miss it?

 

[DiscJunkie]

I liked the "Insider Show" and trust in Jussi. Sometimes you have to make decisions that will be unpopular at present, but lead to bigger and better things in the future. Time will tell.

I also thought it was an interesting call to not show Ricky play hole 16 on the final "Insider Show". Or did I miss it?

Mostly agree.
As I've said before, Jussi has the vision and he is putting in the time and $$ to make his vision come true.
Based on what I see, I can't say that understand or agree with his strategy. However, I acknowledge that it is his call to make.
Based on my cost, I certainly can't complain.

 

[TheOtherBill]

Based on my cost, I certainly can't complain.

Honestly I'd rather pay and complain than not be given a choice and told to shut up.

 

[OJnBasquits]

gentlemens game?

http://areena.yle.fi/1-2737768?autoplay=true

min 36 - Ricky's OB shots

Ricky was out, Paul threw first? Clearly Paul was middle fairway on the green side, Ricky was bordering OB on the away side. Ricky looked rushed on his first forehand. IDK how to say this...been in tourneys before and in a situation like that...IDK someone else say it.

edit min 36*

 

[TheOtherBill]

http://areena.yle.fi/1-2737768?autoplay=true

min 36 - Ricky's OB shots

Ricky was out, Paul threw first? Clearly Paul was middle fairway on the green side, Ricky was bordering OB on the away side. Ricky looked rushed on his first forehand. IDK how to say this...been in tourneys before and in a situation like that...IDK someone else say it.

edit min 36*

Paul said on the wrap-up show it looked like they were the same distance and Paul agreed to go first...in order to put the pressure back on Ricky (since he knew his glow sexchicken was gonna stay on the island of course)
Ricky does rush his shots sometimes, and in situations like the rainy Japan Open that might work to his advantage but it doesn't appear to have done so here.

 

[syanjd]

Rickys third shot on the island hole 16 which is not shown on the video, landed inside the island but skipped over the hay bales to OB. Such a bad luck considering that he lost to Paul with one throw!
Also not seen in the video but when Koling had finished hole 16, he approached some kids (observers) sitting on the slope behind the basked and went ahead and jumped over one of the kids! Afterwards that kid had such a what-is-going-on priceless wide smile on his face that I couldn't help laughing. Likely a moment the kid (and myself) wont soon forget.
That's why this sport of disc golf is so great, great characters like Jerm doing stunts like that and the amazing down to earth attitude that most of the pros have, it's just unbelievable. Also I must say that after hearing what Ricky had to say in the short price ceremony speech and how he was smiling endlessly with the kids going after his autographs, it just amazes me what a great guy he actually is. I'll be keeping my thumbs up for him to win the worlds this year!
Also his name should be pronounced Wy-sots-ki

 

[jannne]

Big Jerm also chased some ducks on the 16th on saturday to keep the spectators amused :clap:

 

[Ocelotl]

Nice to get to watch the last few holes, cant believe that camera man was set-up in bounds on ricky's shot, get the hell out of there dude! Hopefully pauls back will be ready to go 100% for worlds, I would love to see him ricky and will duke it out for the title.

 

[sjberry2017]

That was my entire point. To put DG on TV is stupid.

We hardly get any views (although way more than the guy who thinks it was only 5-10k) per item which is produced. The amount of viewers on that platform which is possible really is endless though so to think you are reinventing the wheel by tryng to do some crazy TV coverage like this is the xgames is just a waste of time and money IMO.

This **** is still just disc golf Jussi and the like must have a whole different idea. The people here in the US will never care to watch disc golf on TV, ever.

Except the TV money was for the citizens of Finland, and all the investment on the US side appears to be is JT and Avery providing English commentary. They didn't even mute the Finnish commentator on the live feed for the US.

Also, we don't really know if the general public would want to watch disc golf or not, considering that the videos which go on YouTube don't really get marketed to the general public that well. I mean, look at Ken Block's Gymkhana videos; they were more just a general blip on the radar at first, but then GoPro and Top Gear started promoting him, along with his DC Shoes connection/cross-promotion, and now you get things like the Hoonicorn which gets featured in so many car website and magazine write-ups. Same with the X-games, if you go back and watch "The Birth of Big Air" 30 for 30 documentary, things like the big air jump and skateboarding etc in general weren't part of our society really until ESPN picked up the X-games and started promoting it. Then, when the general population was exposed to it, more and more people realized there was something there, and then you get the personalities of guys like Tony Hawk, Shaun White, and so on, and now X-games has several events a year.

Or take NASCAR. Until the 1979 Daytona 500, no one really cared about it unless your state had been part of the Confederacy. Then in 1979 the entire Daytona 500 was broadcasted live for the first time and essentially everyone north of the Mason-Dixon line was snowed in, and everyone pretty much watched the race out of sheer boredom. And what a race they saw; Cale Yarborough and Donny Allison kept going back and forth for the win, and wound up wrecking each other on the last lap, and then getting into a fight, with Bobby Allison coming and joining the fight. After that, everyone really enjoyed what they saw and the rest is history.

So to say that no one in the US would want to watch disc golf on TV is pretty ludicrous at this point in time right now. We have the product and the personalities for people to enjoy watching and following. The problem is that no one really knows what they're missing. Sure, there's many thousands of us who do, but the general population just hasn't been exposed to the sport yet. I think people would enjoy watching disc golf live on TV, but no one has given us a shot yet.

 

[hook_nuts]

I don't care for holes like 16. You can have almost a perfect shot, and bad luck can penalize you more than any other shot on the course. Everyone has to play it so you could argue it's still fair. I say on tiny island greens like that either let them take the ob stroke and putt from where it crossed or if you want to make it slightly harder have them take the ob stroke and put a drop zone from about 50 ft out. I feel that the potential consequences for a shot that might only be inches off are too much.

 

[onemilemore]

So to say that no one in the US would want to watch disc golf on TV is pretty ludicrous at this point in time right now. We have the product and the personalities for people to enjoy watching and following. The problem is that no one really knows what they're missing. Sure, there's many thousands of us who do, but the general population just hasn't been exposed to the sport yet. I think people would enjoy watching disc golf live on TV, but no one has given us a shot yet.

I yo-yo on this idea constantly. I think, if disc golf is to be successful on television, it's going to come down to how it is covered. There's going to need to be a lot more extra packaging around it in order to fill in for all of the down time.

Great example: I'm a HUGE Tour de France nerd, and watch it religiously every summer. And every summer, NBC Sports is adding more and more pre-packaged coverage - features on pros, features on fans that have made the trip to the event, "Inside the Race"-type features - while also tacking on more Americanized terminology and analogies with the commentary. This is what is going to need to be done with disc golf in order to fill the space and make it more watchable, in my opinion, and it takes a lot of extra resources and a lot of extra work. Can it happen? Sure. But it's going to take a partnership with a network that can throw some coin at it, as well as partnering with some people outside of disc golf who are given free reign to make their opinions known about how it will show best.

 

[OJnBasquits]

Paul said on the wrap-up show it looked like they were the same distance and Paul agreed to go first...in order to put the pressure back on Ricky (since he knew his glow sexchicken was gonna stay on the island of course)
Ricky does rush his shots sometimes, and in situations like the rainy Japan Open that might work to his advantage but it doesn't appear to have done so here.

Yep I watched Paul's spinTV spot before I saw the footage. Didn't think anything of it until the footage. Ricky should've thrown, ICED.

 

[hook_nuts]

Finland is an awesome disc golf community, but national television there is like if one of our medium populated states televised an event, which kind of makes it local coverage. It didn't reach very many television sets which makes it a huge waste of money.

I still think they need to concentrate on showing the flight of a disc so people realize how legit it is including ESPN, etc. The best publicity to the rest of society and the most television sets reached has been through round coverage and really trying to capture all the great moments and shots. If they would've got multiple good angles on some of those aces SC top 10 would be a safe assumption. Most people just think of disc golf as throwing a catch frisbee in a park so the more exposure to showing it's advancements, the sooner that perception will change. I don't think the European Open sets the process backwards because we have great crews working to accomplish the goal, but I don't think the EO really helped either. They should've increased the payouts and round coverage. They could've lessened their budget or just had tons of resources to accomplish this. I'm not sure what they accomplished honestly.

 

[ToddL]

I don't care for holes like 16. You can have almost a perfect shot, and bad luck can penalize you more than any other shot on the course. Everyone has to play it so you could argue it's still fair. I say on tiny island greens like that either let them take the ob stroke and putt from where it crossed or if you want to make it slightly harder have them take the ob stroke and put a drop zone from about 50 ft out. I feel that the potential consequences for a shot that might only be inches off are too much.

I can go either way. Island holes for your local C-Tier? Drop zone all day. Island holes for the best players in the world at a Major? Well, prove that you're the best. And feel free to lay up - no one's forcing you to hit the island from 300'.

 

[AndyJB]

Why does everyone on these forums think disc golf magically appeared 5 years ago? Disc golf HAS been on TV. It was on Wide World of Sports multiple times. That show, for those of you too young to know, was all about fringe sports. They were experts at editing out all the boring stuff and making even something super boring like freaking Aquajogging look exciting.

We aren't in a disc golf golden age. That already happened. There was outside money. There was outside media. But Iit wasn't sustainable. Why? Because disc golf isn't a team sport. Most (not all) individual sports suffer from lack of viewership/interest simply because they lack a built-in fanbase.

Disc golf can get there again. But not within the next year or even two. The steady growth needs to continue. There needs to be much more interest in the tournament side. I promise you it can be done, because it's been done before.

 

[discguy42]

I can go either way. Island holes for your local C-Tier? Drop zone all day. Island holes for the best players in the world at a Major? Well, prove that you're the best. And feel free to lay up - no one's forcing you to hit the island from 300'.

How can you lay up? The hole is surrounded by OB all the way around...you HAVE to put it in there.

Or am I missing something where the OB starts up to the Island?

I just watched the hole preview and cant tell exactly where the lines are?

Watch this vid and see Avery and Simon play it! :clap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6hB5DQRJtc

Found a hole map here:

http://www.opendiscgolf.com/2015/07/10/photo-gallery-illustrated-hole-maps/

 

[discguy42]

How can you lay up? The hole is surrounded by OB all the way around...you HAVE to put it in there.

Or am I missing something where the OB starts up to the Island?

I just watched the hole preview and cant tell exactly where the lines are?

Watch this vid and see Avery and Simon play it! :clap:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6hB5DQRJtc

Found a hole map here:

http://www.opendiscgolf.com/2015/07/10/photo-gallery-illustrated-hole-maps/

Ran out of edit time...

The hole plays as a peninsula shape and is surrounded by OB or BH (Bunker Hazard) on the hole map. The only option is to throw to the island.

The big break on this hole is that you only count strokes/throws to get in there, no Penalty strokes are incurred, you just keep tacking on one at a time until you get there.

 

[hook_nuts]

Why does everyone on these forums think disc golf magically appeared 5 years ago? Disc golf HAS been on TV. It was on Wide World of Sports multiple times. That show, for those of you too young to know, was all about fringe sports. They were experts at editing out all the boring stuff and making even something super boring like freaking Aquajogging look exciting.

We aren't in a disc golf golden age. That already happened. There was outside money. There was outside media. But Iit wasn't sustainable. Why? Because disc golf isn't a team sport. Most (not all) individual sports suffer from lack of viewership/interest simply because they lack a built-in fanbase.

Disc golf can get there again. But not within the next year or even two. The steady growth needs to continue. There needs to be much more interest in the tournament side. I promise you it can be done, because it's been done before.

Maybe it wasn't sustainable because pros couldn't make it their career? There wasn't very much outside money I guarantee that.

I agree with the steady growth and feel it's happening. Pros are able to make disc golf their career more so (still needs to get better), rivalries have been formed, people are diehard fans of players. Exposure is key now imo, but doesn't happen overnight. Showcase the pros battling it out, get aces on SC, increase payouts so more pros can tour fulltime. EO missed the mark, but o well.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Except the TV money was for the citizens of Finland, and all the investment on the US side appears to be is JT and Avery providing English commentary. They didn't even mute the Finnish commentator on the live feed for the US.

Also, we don't really know if the general public would want to watch disc golf or not, considering that the videos which go on YouTube don't really get marketed to the general public that well. I mean, look at Ken Block's Gymkhana videos; they were more just a general blip on the radar at first, but then GoPro and Top Gear started promoting him, along with his DC Shoes connection/cross-promotion, and now you get things like the Hoonicorn which gets featured in so many car website and magazine write-ups. Same with the X-games, if you go back and watch "The Birth of Big Air" 30 for 30 documentary, things like the big air jump and skateboarding etc in general weren't part of our society really until ESPN picked up the X-games and started promoting it. Then, when the general population was exposed to it, more and more people realized there was something there, and then you get the personalities of guys like Tony Hawk, Shaun White, and so on, and now X-games has several events a year.

Or take NASCAR. Until the 1979 Daytona 500, no one really cared about it unless your state had been part of the Confederacy. Then in 1979 the entire Daytona 500 was broadcasted live for the first time and essentially everyone north of the Mason-Dixon line was snowed in, and everyone pretty much watched the race out of sheer boredom. And what a race they saw; Cale Yarborough and Donny Allison kept going back and forth for the win, and wound up wrecking each other on the last lap, and then getting into a fight, with Bobby Allison coming and joining the fight. After that, everyone really enjoyed what they saw and the rest is history.

So to say that no one in the US would want to watch disc golf on TV is pretty ludicrous at this point in time right now. We have the product and the personalities for people to enjoy watching and following. The problem is that no one really knows what they're missing. Sure, there's many thousands of us who do, but the general population just hasn't been exposed to the sport yet. I think people would enjoy watching disc golf live on TV, but no one has given us a shot yet.

There will never be coverage of DG like ball golf or any of those situations you mention. Its boring really which is why no one will give us a serious shot. We just love DG here.....