lyleoross
* Ace Member *
No no no, it's a conspiracy. There's at least 501 people and they're all making seven figures.
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Can we cut the #growthesport thing already?
- Thread starter numbernine
- Start date
No no no, it's a conspiracy. There's at least 501 people and they're all making seven figures.
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2009
- Messages
- 590
It probably means a little bit of both. As OP says, it also serves as self-justification that CANNOT be questioned or critique.
Grow the sport and yer off the hook, no justification necessary
This is a very valid point. I think a lot of us disc golf enthusiasts want to see it become big for selfish reasons. More money, better courses, bigger tournaments, etc. I can remember the first big disc golf explosion and how my dad and all his friends who were serious and/or sponsored players were positive that they were going to strike it rich.
But....it didnt happen then. Will it happen now? Perhaps. Changing times and all that.
I tried like three years ago to get people to switch to #growthegame i.e. bringing in more first time players and just focusing on the fun of disc golf and why we all loved it at first.
It didnt catch on.
- Joined
- Sep 10, 2009
- Messages
- 590
Grow the fun!
I've caught on
I've caught on
Ironically I'm an advocate of a pro-mole organization and our slogan is #sportthegrowths :|
frasnow
Eagle Member
- Joined
- Nov 23, 2009
- Messages
- 701
This is the exact feeling I get from DGWT. I can see why the pros like the possibility of big-name sponsors bringing more money into the sport, but the way it's been done just rubs me the wrong way. No women's division the first year. No live stream because big sponsors don't like the quality we get, but let's stream it from a cell phone on Facebook. Stop live streaming the USDGC awards on Facebook, because we'll lose SpinTV views.
F. Howl
* Ace Member *
Ha! I'm using this, but on the libertine-tip. Pun intended.
Am I sensing that some of you think that it is a problem that we are trying to make dg big, just because it is a "hobby"? I assume we don't have to argue that dg IS a sport, so what's wrong with our "hobby" getting big/legit? I'm sure golf/baseball/bowling etc. was a hobby for everyone who went pro...
I always thought the phrase 'grow the sport' came across as desperate. Using the word 'sport' feels like we're trying too hard to legitimize disc golf in the eyes of the mainstream. Whenever anyone asks me to describe disc golf I call it a 'skill game'. Then I go on to describe how fun and approachable it is for new players while explaining how difficult it can be to compete in tournaments. Let's find a new catchphrase without the word sport in it.
I don't think it's so much the problem of it getting big, per se, but fears that the growing big will benefit a few, possibly at the expense of the many.
They may also be bothered by the notion that the "grow the sport" crowd seems to have an inferiority complex because our top pros perhaps make less than they do at their day job, and they won't be satisfied until they do, and disc golf becomes as corporate and homogenized as ball golf has.
Can't say that I blame these folks, or that I don't laugh with them when the reality of things rains down on the latest effort to "blow it up big time" just so some grow the sport advocate can fulfill his vision and make fat stacks of cash doing it.
Orioles_Lefty
Eagle Member
- Joined
- Mar 22, 2017
- Messages
- 597
I can see an argument for growing disc golf as an activity: hey, let's do this thing (play disc golf). I just can't understand arguments about making disc golf a more "legitimate" sport. I guess you can do things that make disc golf look legit -- dress code, TV broadcasts -- but looking legit isn't the same as being legit. Legit professional sports have both firm TV status and a critical mass of fans/viewers. Some legit sports are huge, such as football, and others mostly niche, such as pro cycling. But I would think it's really hard to get others to see you as legit, which happens when they commit to following and watching. Most sports that have at least partially made the leap recently involve engines and/or danger. And that's not to mention "new fangled" stuff like drone racing and E-games. I don't think there are many people there who are itching to have another "legit" sport in their lives, but this is probably some people out there who might want to take up a new "physical activity."
Adult kickball -- an activity -- is fairly popular. Please tell me no one has legitimized it into a "real" sport.
Adult kickball -- an activity -- is fairly popular. Please tell me no one has legitimized it into a "real" sport.
John M. Fretz
Par Member
Adult kickball....HAHAHAHAHAHA!
MarkDSM
Double Eagle Member
https://www.kickball365.com/are-we-closer-to-having-a-major-league-of-kickball-formed/
Here is a 10 year old pro kickball pipe dream
The Shide
Casual lurker
- Joined
- Jul 24, 2010
- Messages
- 937
The only time I can remember using the phrase "grow the sport" is when the course is overrun with newbs, and we are having to stand around waiting on them to finish the hole. Oh, a hyzer here, a hyzer there, here a hyzer, there a hyzer, hyzer, hyzer, hyzer.
And then I will say, "can we stop growing the sport now?"
And then I will say, "can we stop growing the sport now?"
da Crippler
Eagle Member
Yes, by all means, grow the sport. Pump it up into a big bubble just like the real estate market a few years ago. Build hundreds of new courses, get thousands more people playing, sell millions of discs, bags, accessories etc. Then let the bubble burst, empty all those new courses of fad players so I can have uninterrupted rounds again, fill used disc bins with cheap plastic, sell their bags on ebay for pennies on the dollar, and send them all back to their subterranean video game lairs.
At times my local course is too crowded, 20 years ago it wasn't.
How about adult Red Rover?
My little state has over 100 courses I can choose to play, and tournaments almost every weekend whenever I wish to play them. 20 years ago it had 2 courses, and 3 events per year.
It's easy to attack #growthesport, because it doesn't mean anything. Or doesn't mean any one thing.
For myself, on the whole I'm happy with the growth I've seen, and have little reason to believe I won't be happy with the trend continuing. Though it wouldn't matter if I weren't; it's growing regardless, and likely to continue.
If #growthesport means make it a mainstream spectator sport......don't sweat it. There's very little hope, or danger, of that.
