Disc Golf 2012 Year End Demographics

[Casual Squishy]

Are those numbers really out of alignment with other sports?
"2% serious" to 98% "casual" doesn't really seem like anything abnormal for any sport, and a fair amount of those 98% probably play local league play which isn't counted.
Bowling might work as an example, at one time it had hundreds of thousands of league players but very few enter anything but local nonsanctioned events.
Anyone know the numbers for our most oft compared sport? (guessing golf has some am equivilant of PGA, probably have to combine them for a fair comparison.
Or daily joggers vs marathon runners etc...
2% seems like a decent number when you put it in context.

 

[techn9cian4life]

I'm still on the fence about joining this year.. mainly because the Boise area doesn't have very many PDGA sanctioned events. There's plenty of events going on this summer with in a 5-6 hour drive radius, but not sure if I'd be willing to make those trips because they'd be more than likely by myself. Sure Boise has tournaments, but hardly any of them are sanctioned so the PDGA membership doesn't really come in effect.

 

[Casual Squishy]

I'm still on the fence about joining this year.. mainly because the Boise area doesn't have very many PDGA sanctioned events. There's plenty of events going on this summer with in a 5-6 hour drive radius, but not sure if I'd be willing to make those trips because they'd be more than likely by myself. Sure Boise has tournaments, but hardly any of them are sanctioned so the PDGA membership doesn't really come in effect.

Take the plunge, do it once, get your number, and then renew or not each year as needed to save money either way. I put it off for years and could have gotten in <#5000. I'm not at all into "bragging rights" but in hindsight it would have been kinda cool. Now I'll bet #100,000 is less then a decade away and someday you'd be able to tell your grandkids, "I remember back in the day when..."

 

[onemilemore]

I'm still on the fence about joining this year.. mainly because the Boise area doesn't have very many PDGA sanctioned events. There's plenty of events going on this summer with in a 5-6 hour drive radius, but not sure if I'd be willing to make those trips because they'd be more than likely by myself. Sure Boise has tournaments, but hardly any of them are sanctioned so the PDGA membership doesn't really come in effect.

Sounds like you'd be better of joining your local or regional club (if they exist) and getting to see where your fees go a little closer to home.

 

[DavidSauls]

If I had to guess from looking around my local park, I'd guess the vast majority of people who play disc golf, never do it in any organized way. Not tournaments, not local weeklies, not a member of the local club, nothing. They're just out having fun.

 

[MNthrow]

To me this is a big casual sport with a small part that are very into the game. I mean I've played for 9 years and I haven't played in a "pro" tourney. It's such a fun game that you can enjoy for a few hours with friends which to me explains why there is a lower member number.

 

[timj5304]

Bottom line for me not renewing this year and last year was my first year PDGA is I only get a couple Saturdays off per year and get to play 1-2 tourneys only. If it costs 50 bucks and I only save 20 bucks, what the hell is the incentive. I sure as hell am not gonna pay 45 dollars to someone for a 15 dollar disc, I am not going to cut out a coupon to buy something from the store if it says the regular price is 20 bucks but with the coupon i now pay 50

The pdga can say whatever BS they want but the reason more memberships are not purchased is price. If it was lets say an escalating price, lets say 5 bucks for a first year member, 10 for 2nd year, 20 for 3rd year, 30 for 4th year and full price at year 5 from there on out you would see a ton more memberships. Yeah would be a little work but would be getting a TON of new members that way and then people would truely give it a chance and either get hooked or leave. I mean if you had to pay 10 bucks for year 2 and did not renew that would say the sport wasn't for you.

 

[McFer]

Probably the best comparison would be the USTA. Relationship with the pro tour, but also responsible for sanctioning amateur tournaments.

For comparison, the USTA has 700,000 active members, while supposedly 25 million Americans play tennis at least casually.

 

[onemilemore]

Probably the best comparison would be the USTA. Relationship with the pro tour, but also responsible for sanctioning amateur tournaments.

For comparison, the USTA has 700,000 active members, while supposedly 25 million Americans play tennis at least casually.

Good comparison, thanks for the numbers. The 2.8% membership level there is just a tick higher than disc golf, for a much more established sport. Interesting...

 

[Scoot_er]

98% don't play 5 tournaments per year?

And that is the only good reason to join! /

 

[Cgkdisc]

Perhaps as seen by the 98%. Members know there's much more value than just saving the $10 nonmember fee.

 

[Scoot_er]

Perhaps as seen by the 98%. Members know there's much more value than just saving the $10 nonmember fee.

Yeah! You can play A-tiers! :hfive:

 

[Pwingles]

I think both of these things are factors, but I also think the PDGA has a bit of an identity crisis. 73% of members are ams, but how much of the PDGA budget is sunk into the pro side of the sport? I think more awareness of the PDGA could be raised - and thus, more memberships - if funds were directed more toward the recreational players. That's where the growth will come from.

PDGA doesnt stand for Amateur discgolf association . Ams feed the sport at the upper levels. Both with money and new players. For every 1 person who makes the leap to pro, id bet there are ~100 who pick up the game and started playing events the same year.

Without outside revenue, discgolf itself will have a really difficult time improving on things as they are now for the pros, so they will need a steady flow of new ams to foot the bill for a lot of stuff. I imagine from a Pro level perspective, it is virtually impossible to earn a living if you arent a top 5, mayyyyybe top 10 player. It would almost certainly involve you winning at least two bigger events, carpooling, sharing resources etc (which has been the trend the last few years for touring pros).

 

[MNthrow]

Price is part of it, but you have think of why. If you are a casual player/weekend warrior why would you become a PDGA member? Look this sport is becoming more popular and that is a great thing. There are a ton of people who play weekend league basketball, baseball, football. Alot of people play alot but don't play in the tourneys.

 

[Karl]

There is some good news from the 2012 Year End Demographics. The PDGA now estimates that over 1 million people play disc golf regularly and the PDGA ended 2012 with over 18,000 current members.

Cool beans, but not only was the word "regularly" questioned (as is should have been) but the quote "1 million people play disc golf..." should be questioned.

IF 1,000,000 people play, is that 1:316 people in the country (the US has ~316MM pop.), is that 1MM out of all the countries that have PDGA members, is it 1MM out of all the people in the world, or is it 'some other' catagory?

If it's 1MM in the US, then a town (like my town!!) of 13,000 has about 41 people who play it "regularly". Maybe my town is behind the times but I sincerely doubt that there are 41 people in the town who even KNOW what dg is, let alone play it. And if it's NOT "just the US" these ratios are even worse.

Just don't know....

Karl