Cornhole on ESPN 2 this afternoon....Where has disc golf gone wrong?

[tbird888]

Agreed. Hopefully my post points out the inherent...oddity...of kissing ESPN's ring so hard.

I'll sound like a broken record here, but we are a sport whose media has come-of-age on the internet, not on cable. Going to ESPN is going backwards, and it's truly only an issue in the minds of people who have an inferiority complex tied to their disc golf love.

The only way I'll be happy with ESPN is if they come begging us. They've had their opportunity, people have reached out, and producers within the network play disc golf and are stumping hard. If the brass doesn't see the vision, well that's their issue. Long term we're actually better off without them.

Couldn't agree more. ESPN is struggling to evolve in a rapidly changing media world. Who wants to fit an hour into someone else's schedule when there's an ever-expanding "DVR" of quality tourney coverage on YouTube to flip through whenever one has the time? Disc golf doesn't need to fit into a mold. It appears to be doing just fine taking the path it chooses. Besides, normal is boring.

 

[gammaxgoblin]

What confuses me most is why this many people are made so insecure by cornhole on ESPN. There have been a hundred of these threads between here and Facebook...specifically about cornhole, no other sport.

A. Good for Cornhole! I'll bet somebody did a helluva job pitching and securing that sale. I'd be interested in buying that person a beer and hearing the story behind the scenes of the effort it took to accomplish that.

B. Who the F#*& cares? Our biggest channel hit 100k subs this year and will probably hit 200k before the end of the 2020 season. CCDG will overtake SpinTV and become the #2 most subbed channel by the end of this year, and the number of regularly-filming crews has doubled in the last couple of seasons.

Downvote

 

[gammaxgoblin]

Agreed. Hopefully my post points out the inherent...oddity...of kissing ESPN's ring so hard.

I'll sound like a broken record here, but we are a sport whose media has come-of-age on the internet, not on cable. Going to ESPN is going backwards, and it's truly only an issue in the minds of people who have an inferiority complex tied to their disc golf love.

The only way I'll be happy with ESPN is if they come begging us. They've had their opportunity, people have reached out, and producers within the network play disc golf and are stumping hard. If the brass doesn't see the vision, well that's their issue. Long term we're actually better off without them.

downvote

 

[lyleoross]

What confuses me most is why this many people are made so insecure by cornhole on ESPN. There have been a hundred of these threads between here and Facebook...specifically about cornhole, no other sport.

A. Good for Cornhole! I'll bet somebody did a helluva job pitching and securing that sale. I'd be interested in buying that person a beer and hearing the story behind the scenes of the effort it took to accomplish that.

B. Who the F#*& cares? Our biggest channel hit 100k subs this year and will probably hit 200k before the end of the 2020 season. CCDG will overtake SpinTV and become the #2 most subbed channel by the end of this year, and the number of regularly-filming crews has doubled in the last couple of seasons.

Okay, now I'm insecure about my insecurity about cornholing.

 

[lyleoross]

Question, does downvote mean you're insecure because someone questioned your insecurity about cornholing?

And even now, Beavis is laughing that someone would call a sport Cornholing. I agree with Jamie, if this is what worries us we are way too paranoid.

 

[Cgkdisc]

Okay, now I'm insecure about my insecurity about cornholing.

Kernel of truth there.

 

[DiscFifty]

"Cornole on ESPN 2 this afternoon....Where has disc golf gone wrong?"

The PDGA just doesn't have a clue how to (or simply doesn't want to) market the professional side of the sport. And everyone else in the business, is in the business of marketing themselves.

 

[brutalbrutus]

ESPN has peaked...

 

[lyleoross]

It always amazes me how little folks understand capitalism. The rules of capitalism doen't demand that a good or safe or entertaining product get made, just that it is profitable.

I like to give two examples to demonstrate the point. If I can make a toy that has the potential to cut off your child's finder, but I can make enough profit that I can can cover the lawsuits and recalls, that is good capitalism. The classic example of this type is BP and Deepwater Horizon. When all was said and done, they still made more profits on their cost cutting than they had to pay in penalties. Good capitalism.

Nowhere does it say that ESPN has to cover the most entertaining sport. Nowhere does it even say they have to do a good job. There is one mandate, make money. If the profit on covering cornholing is 100,000, cost 200,000, money made 300,000. Well, I made money. If the profit on disc golf is 100,000, money made, 2,000,000, cost, 1,900,000, well, I'm gonna cover cornholing. Less investment and risk. Even if demographics show that 80 percent of the country thinks cornholing is dumb and 80 percent of the country thinks disc golf is better than ice cream.

In other words, what we are measuring and value is very different than what ESPN measures. They don't care about excitement or drama, they care about bottom line. There are limits. If the coverage isn't profitable, even if lack of profit is due to the sport being boring. The boring doesn't matter to them in any way other than, does it impact views? If the sport is so boring that no one will watch, well, no profit so no coverage.

So, measuring disc golf against cornholing, one to one, is a fool's errand. Understanding capitalism and it's roll in ESPNs choices is all that matters.

 

[lyleoross]

As an aside, it should be clear to anyone that coverage costs for disc golf far exceed coverage costs for cornholing. That is likely to be a primary motivator for ESPN.

 

[lyleoross]

There is one other great example of all that matters is profit. When Chevy discovered that the ignition in the Cruz was faulty, resulting in engine shut off and loss of control at high speeds, internal memos show they did the calculation. The cost of fixing the problem was higher than what the cost of law suits was gonna be so, don't fix it. Easy enough.

 

[Mando]

Well, you are a private course owner, so you must be use to being in pain!

a truer statement was never spoken. LOL

 

[scarpfish]

Nowhere does it say that ESPN has to cover the most entertaining sport. Nowhere does it even say they have to do a good job. There is one mandate, make money. If the profit on covering cornholing is 100,000, cost 200,000, money made 300,000. Well, I made money. If the profit on disc golf is 100,000, money made, 2,000,000, cost, 1,900,000, well, I'm gonna cover cornholing. Less investment and risk. Even if demographics show that 80 percent of the country thinks cornholing is dumb and 80 percent of the country thinks disc golf is better than ice cream.

No one has ever established if the cornhole events that ESPN aired weren't paid for by entities trying to promote cornhole. This may have cost ESPN little to nothing.

 

[lyleoross]

No one has ever established if the cornhole events that ESPN aired weren't paid for by entities trying to promote cornhole. This may have cost ESPN little to nothing.

You mean there's potentially someone out there with less intelligence than Failient?

 

[DanJon]

"Cornole on ESPN 2 this afternoon....Where has disc golf gone wrong?"

The PDGA just doesn't have a clue how to (or simply doesn't want to) market the professional side of the sport. And everyone else in the business, is in the business of marketing themselves.

Maybe the PDGA doesn't want to waste money marketing the sport to a dying entity such as ESPN2?

 

[ru4por]

"Cornole on ESPN 2 this afternoon....Where has disc golf gone wrong?"

The PDGA just doesn't have a clue how to (or simply doesn't want to) market the professional side of the sport. And everyone else in the business, is in the business of marketing themselves.

I think it is more simple. Ask 100 people if they know about cornhole and the same 100 if they know about disc golf.

Even worse, ask some old people that question. They are the ones that ESPN is really directed at.

 

[DavidSauls]

Maybe the PDGA doesn't want to waste money marketing the sport to a dying entity such as ESPN2?

Or is smarter than to waste resources in a futile attempt to make disc golf a major spectator sport, at all.

 

[Tripper]

Lots of years ago, there was a show that aired on Saturdays that showed the professional putt putt golf circuit. I seem to recall that the show always seemed to be filmed in the southern states, North and South Carolina, Georgia, etc.

I have been playing pickleball for about 30 years now. The sport is blowing up, especially in senior communities in Arizona and Florida. It's a wonderful game to play but I find watching it to be extremely dull as every rally is exactly the same. Also, like disc golf and probably most sports, the top players are so skilled, they make it look so easy that viewers aren't terribly impressed.

To me, Cornhole, is like watching paint dry. Watching some average 50 YO housewife toss a beanbag through a hole and having the announcer describe her awesome athletic ability as if she were Russell Westbrook, is so typical of the hype found in every news broadcast now days.

There is a new putt putt show, Holey Moley on ABC. I watched for a few minutes the other day. The course is extreme, the commentary was hilarious.

 

[Chaz58]

I was at the gym this afternoon and on ESPN2 is some people throwing bean bags at slanted wooden planks with a hole. They all are taking this seriously, logos, sponsors...its on ESPN2. I am thinking how can something like this be such a....thing and something as incredibly athletic as pro level disc golf not be more of a thing. IDK kinda blows my mind.

Tried watching this on television once and was incredibly bored with the whole thing within 5 minutes. Beer drinkers who do nothing but play this bags game constantly and hit the hole almost every throw. About as exciting as watching darts on television where everyone just pounds the triple 20 constantly, or do I dare say, watching a disc golf tournament where the entire card pretty much throws the same shot off of most tees (can you say hyzerbomb or spike hyzer here?).

 

[markmcc]

Watch this and tell me it not "The Coolest Thing You've Ever Seen"!!

https://www.facebook.com/ESPN/videos/1081883702010391/?v=1081883702010391