Does Nate Heilman Have a Conflict of Interest?

[denny ritner]

PDGA Board President

Major disc vendor
Tight relationship with a major disc manufacturer
Runs PDGA Majors and DGPT events

Do his personal interests interfere with his job making decisions for all PDGA members?

 

[dmoore1998]

"Heinold"

And yes, he definitely has a conflict of interest. Most people on the Board are going to have some sort of conflict because disc golf is relatively small and the people involved in it are involved in multiple areas. So he does, but i don't necessarily think it's a problem unless/until something specific happens.

The bigger question is how someone who runs probably the most poorly run website in disc golf retail is going to run the PDGA. The quality on that site is horrendous lol.

 

[elmexdela]

"Heinold"

And yes, he definitely has a conflict of interest. Most people on the Board are going to have some sort of conflict because disc golf is relatively small and the people involved in it are involved in multiple areas. So he does, but i don't necessarily think it's a problem unless/until something specific happens.

The bigger question is how someone who runs probably the most poorly run website in disc golf retail is going to run the PDGA. The quality on that site is horrendous lol.

so its not a problem until it is

 

[txmxer]

"Heinold"

And yes, he definitely has a conflict of interest. Most people on the Board are going to have some sort of conflict because disc golf is relatively small and the people involved in it are involved in multiple areas. So he does, but i don't necessarily think it's a problem unless/until something specific happens.

The bigger question is how someone who runs probably the most poorly run website in disc golf retail is going to run the PDGA. The quality on that site is horrendous lol.

which retail site does he run?

 

[dmoore1998]

which retail site does he run?

Ledgestone

 

[dmoore1998]

so its not a problem until it is

Right, I mean ideally you wouldn't have anyone have a conflict of interest...disc golf just isn't big enough for that though. I don't think there's an inherent problem, but there's certainly opportunity for a problem to show up.

 

[Three Putt]

PDGA Board President

Major disc vendor
Tight relationship with a major disc manufacturer
Runs PDGA Majors and DGPT events

Do his personal interests interfere with his job making decisions for all PDGA members?

You and I were just talking about the PDGA in another thread; we (disc golfers) are insular. We don't trust outsiders. That makes all of the PDGA BoD members disc golfers who are promoting disc golf somewhere and so to various levels all of them have conflicts of interest.

Rick Rothstein was a friend of mine back in the day; he was often on the PDGA BoD AND he had a contract to produce the official PDGA magazine AND he had a very close relationship with Innova as a vendor. There was a lot of moving parts there, and there was a lot of potential for conflicts of interest. The reality was that disc golf was painfully small, we had a very small pool of people qualified to be on the BoD, and Rick certainly wasn't getting rich publishing Disc Golf World. Disc golf just wasn't anywhere big enough to be concerned about conflicts of intrest, and having someone like Rick on the BoD was an asset to the PDGA. Basically we've had these issues before, and it wasn't a problem. Everybody who was promoting back then was giving more to disc golf than they were getting.

However...

I keep reading about how big disc golf is getting, big sponsorship contract numbers are getting throw around, big payouts are being paid...evidently there is some money in disc golf these days. At some point, you have to react to that.

Is Nate Heinold that point? I have no idea. I know nothing about how much money he is making from his disc golf ventures. I don't have any real data to evaluate. I'd probably need some sort of example of him doing something that brought his decision making into question before I'd support a call for his head.

 

[brutalbrutus]

However...

I keep reading about how big disc golf is getting, big sponsorship contract numbers are getting throw around, big payouts are being paid...evidently there is some money in disc golf these days. At some point, you have to react to that.

It's amazing how fast view counts have risen over the last few years on youtube for "secondary" DG channels. I regularly get vids on my recommended list that are 40-80k and aren't tourney vids.

 

[Hampstead]

Speaking of Nate's decision making, I'll give him credit for moving Ledgestone away from the clown show it was a few years ago. But I'll subtract that credit for his religious zealotry. So, looks like it's a wash.

 

[Shallows]

Nate Hymen has a conflict of interest like everyone else in every industry they work in.

Another word for conflict of interest is investment. Ledgestone Insurance makes money, DGPT makes money, PDGA makes money, Discraft makes money, Nate makes money.

I'm not making any claims about the ethics of this sort of thing but patronage is what makes the world go round buddy.

 

[flatflip]

He has an interest in seeing the PDGA succeed. His idea of success is growth at any cost. Whether that is problematic or not, and whether he is the person to execute that vision, is up to you as a voting PDGA member.

Did Headrick have a conflict of interest?

 

[SocraDeez]

Rick Rothstein was a friend of mine back in the day; he was often on the PDGA BoD AND he had a contract to produce the official PDGA magazine AND he had a very close relationship with Innova as a vendor. There was a lot of moving parts there, and there was a lot of potential for conflicts of interest.

Yeah, but Rick Rothstein is cool.

Only know him through reading things he's written, though, and, of course, Ice Bowl legacy. For anybody curious, Disc Golf World News archive can be found here (thanks, Phil Kennedy!):

https://www.flyingdiscmuseum.com/magazines0

 

[Three Putt]

Yeah, but Rick Rothstein is cool.

Which is why there was no problem with him being on the BoD.

Actually when I was in St. Louis in the 90's I never heard anyone complain about that; I heard Bruce Brakel go off about it when I moved to Chicago in 2000, though. He had a whole rant about how KCWO was an "am scam" event and Rothstein only got away with it because he was on the BoD or something like that. I only kinda remember that, and I only remember it because KCWO was THE tournament in my area in the 90's. It was the event we were all trying to copy, so everything he was complaining about were things that I had done in the PDGA events I had run.

 

[denny ritner]

I heard Bruce Brakel go off about it when I moved to Chicago in 2000, though. He had a whole rant about how KCWO was an "am scam" event and Rothstein only got away with it because he was on the BoD or something like that.

My first experience with BB was when he walked up on our group in a tournament on some sort of nipple basket hole in East Lansing when he was spotting to tell us just before we putted that he had just watched a guy 6 putt from 20 feet for a 7.

 

[ejvogie]

The quality on that site is horrendous lol.

As is the selection

 

[Countchunkula]

Which is why there was no problem with him being on the BoD.

Actually when I was in St. Louis in the 90's I never heard anyone complain about that; I heard Bruce Brakel go off about it when I moved to Chicago in 2000, though. He had a whole rant about how KCWO was an "am scam" event and Rothstein only got away with it because he was on the BoD or something like that. I only kinda remember that, and I only remember it because KCWO was THE tournament in my area in the 90's. It was the event we were all trying to copy, so everything he was complaining about were things that I had done in the PDGA events I had run.

The Brakels were part of the group running the local series (IOS) when I first started playing tournaments. I remember tourney staff talking during players meetings about the way that series was designed to be fair to all (unlike certain other tourneys). It didn't mean much to me at the time since I'd never played a tourney run by anyone else. A couple of years later, I did play a few non-IOS events and started to see the differences. Nothing against the other events, but it did make me appreciate the IOS way of doing things.

 

[txmxer]

As is the selection

I asked about it because I thought it was just a tournament site--primarily to sell tournament related swag.

 

[Three Putt]

The Brakels were part of the group running the local series (IOS) when I first started playing tournaments. I remember tourney staff talking during players meetings about the way that series was designed to be fair to all (unlike certain other tourneys). It didn't mean much to me at the time since I'd never played a tourney run by anyone else. A couple of years later, I did play a few non-IOS events and started to see the differences. Nothing against the other events, but it did make me appreciate the IOS way of doing things.

Yeah, the IOS was a good series. It was very AM-centered, though. There was a philosophy difference to how IOS was set up and a Pro-centered event like KCWO. My only issue with Bruce was that he kinda came off with a "we do it the right way and everyone else is ripping you off" attitude when really there was no right or wrong way to do it, you could run a good event either way. But...I didn't really know the guy and really didn't feel like arguing with him, so maybe I just caught him at a bad time? Who knows.

IOS was a really good series, though. I can't quibble at all with what that group did, they did a great job of promoting disc golf in Chicago.

 

[bwgort]

The answer is yes. Here is the page where all board members disclose their conflicts of interest. http://https://www.pdga.com/board-of-directors/coi

I believe it was last updated last year

 

[biscoe]

better link