Final Round Radio - American Disc Golf Tour

[Script]

Thanks to DGCR for all of the questions to ask Steve.

Here is the link to our latest podcast with Steve Boucher of the American Disc Golf Tour.

http://www.anotherrounddiscgolf.com/final-round-radio-episode-30-steve-boucher/

Enjoy and give us a like on facebook, follow us on twitter and instagram, or subscribe on iTunes!

 

[heartman]

"Unfortunately" I won't be going into this with an open mind ... lol

I'm expecting lots of deflecting of any "tough" questions, and Boucher flouting ESPN trying to dazzle people with the brand recognition.

 

[AndyJB]

I just hope some of my questions got asked. I will give it a listen later. I tried to be diplomatic yet pointed.

 

[BennettUA]

"There's a lot of things were not gonna talk about."

"Folks want to see the contract. We're not gonna show folks this contract."

"Did you try to involve the PDGA?"
"We didn't." (paraphrasing: There are competitors on the board of the PDGA, and that goes against our interest)

When asked who is designing the course, no one is mentioned, other than "lots of people involved." Says frequently how great the ball golf course itself is(claims it's the highest rated course in the country by the members).

The production company of the ADGT at the first event is http://avivmoonproductions.com/

"This will either make disc golf....or set it back if the disc golf community doesn't come out and support its own event. Whether you like us or not, it's not us, this is a disc golf event."

"It's not about supporting one of us, it's about disc golfers need to step up and put their actions where their mouth is."

My concern is not having the biggest players on ESPN for the first time.
We've already got some big players committed.
Such as who?
We're going to wait and announce the list, that's one thing that we're withholding.

Are there any sponsors that you can mention?
We're not gonna announce that today.

"Jump off a building or lay down for a train?" ((can we vote for both? ))

"Reddit/discgolf or DGCR?"
"Which one am I on more? Which one do I avoid more? I don't pay attention to the discussion boards. I stay away from them." (Ksquared gives timg some love as a cool dude, and Kevin agrees with DGCR)

Panthers go 13-3 and go to the Super Bowl. (ARDG crew has them at 14-2)


Big kudos to Kevin for being honest about being skeptical of Salient and the ADGT.

 

[Darkgreen]

"This will either make disc golf....or set it back if the disc golf community doesn't come out and support its own event. Whether you like us or not, it's not us, this is a disc golf event."

Ha! So if this fails, it isn't the fault of the ADGT organizers, everyone else is to blame. And look out everyone, if this doesn't succeed then it might be bad for the sport, so just forget about Salient's history and show up.

 

[AndyJB]

Sounds like he is pretty accusatory and defensive. Normally that's Kilgus' MO. Wonder if they are already feeling the heat?

 

[AndyJB]

Listened to the whole thing. Not impressed.

Basically not a lot was said other than that their entire business plan for ADGT is "we have ESPN." and that is quite literally what he said.

He is also putting the impetus on disc golf fans to make this a success. Blatantly stating that if we dont watch it, it will fail and be bad for disc golf.

Like I said, not impressed. Maybe if it was anyone else behind it, but since it's Salient doing typical Salient shenanigans, I find it hard to believe they will find the support they are demanding.

 

[DavidSauls]

Sounds like he is pretty accusatory and defensive. Normally that's Kilgus' MO. Wonder if they are already feeling the heat?

You reckon?

Set aside any feelings about the principals, and consider: If you spent a lot of time and effort to create something you expect to be fabulous, and announced it to what you anticipated to be great acclaim and excitement, only to get this kind of reaction, at least in some quarters---how would you feel?

 

[dontBLAMEtheDISC]

That interview to me was mostly pointless except to show that "hes not afraid to answer questions" except he basically repeated things everyone already knew, didnt really give straight foward answers to easy questions, and they might announce more things in December.

Also the fact he is apparently partners with kilgus yet he has no idea what kilgus is doing here and there is not a good thing.

But if the contracts with espn are all encompassing then they are geniuses because basically salient is saying if you are a disc golf pro, am, sponsor, manufacturer, etc etc and you want to participate or get on espn you will have to deal with us where we control everything.

I may be wrong and salient really does want to grow disc golf for unselfish reasons, but to me if that was truly the case i would think you would want the pdga to be involved in some way.

The bad/good thing about this tour is that it needs to be successful.

 

[DanJon]

They should really be ready to take responsibility if it fails.

Also they don't "have" ESPN.

They bought airtime.

Anyone with the money can do that.

 

[AndyJB]

They should really be ready to take responsibility if it fails.

Also they don't "have" ESPN.

They bought airtime.

Anyone with the money can do that.

That's true, but he also made the pretty fair point that no one else has.
Salient is a small company, and deservedly so, and they are fronting the cost of this airtime. Why can't someone else? You would think it would be high on someone like Steve Dodge's priority list.

That's about the only good point Boucher made in the entire interview though. The rest was assigning blame to other disc golfers and touting ESPN.

 

[AndyJB]

You reckon?

Set aside any feelings about the principals, and consider: If you spent a lot of time and effort to create something you expect to be fabulous, and announced it to what you anticipated to be great acclaim and excitement, only to get this kind of reaction, at least in some quarters---how would you feel?

Maybe, but they are really living with their head in the sand if they expected any other reaction than mass skepticism.

 

[heartman]

"Reddit/discgolf or DGCR?"
"Which one am I on more? Which one do I avoid more? I don't pay attention to the discussion boards. I stay away from them." (Ksquared gives timg some love as a cool dude, and Kevin agrees with DGCR)

If anyone from Salient advertised on /r/discgolf, I'd be incredibly tempted to abuse my mod powers and just remove their post ...

... I'd probably just do my usual copy/pasta warning people about their shady business practices/etc/etc

 

[dontBLAMEtheDISC]

That's true, but he also made the pretty fair point that no one else has.
Salient is a small company, and deservedly so, and they are fronting the cost of this airtime. Why can't someone else? You would think it would be high on someone like Steve Dodge's priority list.

That's about the only good point Boucher made in the entire interview though. The rest was assigning blame to other disc golfers and touting ESPN.

If they get it live on espn 2 or espn U where it shows up on your cable/satellite guide while looking or you see it while flipping chanels then they might have something.

If its only streamed on espn3 than you might as well have just used someone like smahboxxtv to stream it live on youtube beacuse at least with youtube anyone who can find internet access and a electronic device can watch it but with espn3 you need to have a cable/satellite provider.

 

[BraveThrower43]

That's true, but he also made the pretty fair point that no one else has.
Salient is a small company, and deservedly so, and they are fronting the cost of this airtime. Why can't someone else? You would think it would be high on someone like Steve Dodge's priority list.

That's about the only good point Boucher made in the entire interview though. The rest was assigning blame to other disc golfers and touting ESPN.

I don't understand why someone would want to front that kind of money for air time on ESPN3. How many more people are actually going to be exposed to the sport than already would be? It's just another much more expensive avenue of online streaming.

 

[DavidSauls]

Maybe, but they are really living with their head in the sand if they expected any other reaction than mass skepticism.

Could be. Have you never had an idea that seemed so great to you that you tore off in pursuit of it, without taking the precaution of running it by cooler, perhaps wiser heads? I see ideas like this in these forums all the time. But, instead of floating the idea and getting some input, they ran with it. Not just an ESPN-event, but a whole new tour and organization.

 

[heartman]

looks like DGCR was created in 2007

/r/discgolf was created on 7/16/2008



they're actually quite close in age (which I wasn't aware of)



obviously they're total n00bs since there was no mention of DGR

 

[jeffmonty]

You reckon?

Set aside any feelings about the principals, and consider: If you spent a lot of time and effort to create something you expect to be fabulous, and announced it to what you anticipated to be great acclaim and excitement, only to get this kind of reaction, at least in some quarters---how would you feel?

Are there any quarters where people are genuinely excited about this "tour"? Other than those that saw or heard the initial announcement, but really don't know the Salient history or aren't following these threads on social media? Is there anyone fawning over this, outside of Salient? Seems to me everyone is taking a wait-and-see attitude, with no one wanting to be the first to jump in to the fire. I don't remember anything more nebulous than this proposal.

 

[BgWvDave]

I don't understand why someone would want to front that kind of money for air time on ESPN3. How many more people are actually going to be exposed to the sport than already would be? It's just another much more expensive avenue of online streaming.

Agreed. Here is what Brain Graham had so say on the subject.
Taken from a recent interview on All Things Disc Golf

ATDG: In the ADGT announcement, they state part of the reason for why they were able to secure an ESPN broadcast instead of the PDGA is due to the speed at which the PDGA operates. Do you feel the PDGA operates too slowly to move relationships like this forward?

Graham: "The PDGA could very easily live stream our events on ESPN3 but the costs involved do not guarantee you any larger of an audience then we are already getting using other more cost effective live streaming portals. With ESPN3, you are paying for the name."

 

[DanJon]

The people behind ADGT seem to think that by attaching disc golf to ESPN(3), that it will automatically legitimize it.

Suddenly the general public will come out in droves to watch recorded disc golf and outside sponsors will be begging to throw money at us.