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How are pro disc golfers making money?

lyleoross said:
It turns out there are some great studies on this. Let's first acknowledge the "to each their own" thing.

Money doesn't make you happy. Period. Now, one can come back to the, "if you're broke how can you be happy, argument, and researchers have looked at that. Folks who live in very poor circumstances, say the Caribbean, or Central and South America, are significantly happier than the average citizen of the United States. They take more leisure time and spend less time obsessing about work in general. Work is a means to an end, not the end.

I'm willing to bet that the average poor disc golfer is reasonably unhappy. Their work is the end, it's what matters to them. Instead of doing something fun, you've turned into something where you have to make money. Sounds tough enough to me.
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Please cite your sources before throwing around meaningless statements, unless you just saw the documentary "Happy" and decide to quote that...
 
The competition is getting better every year. At some point a pro Disc golfer could make a very nice wage? I highly doubt that the money would ever match that of PGA golf but hell anything is possible? The money will definitely increase with more people getting into the sport. I raced bicycles on and off for half my life and like a touring pro disc golfer the average professional cyclist is not in the sport for the money but because they love what they do. There are only a handful of million dollar contracts in pro cycling. The majority scrape by doing what they love. I would happily trade my life of pressure and deadlines to chase a passion.
 
Nubes said:
The competition is getting better every year. At some point a pro Disc golfer could make a very nice wage? I highly doubt that the money would ever match that of PGA golf but hell anything is possible? The money will definitely increase with more people getting into the sport. I raced bicycles on and off for half my life and like a touring pro disc golfer the average professional cyclist is not in the sport for the money but because they love what they do. There are only a handful of million dollar contracts in pro cycling. The majority scrape by doing what they love. I would happily trade my life of pressure and deadlines to chase a passion.
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Your example of pro cycling is interesting, because pro cycling has been popular for decades, is a fairly big spectator sport, but for some reason the money hasn't seemed to follow that. Many opinions are given in these forums that DG hasn't seen the bigger money because it's not a spectator-driven sport, which is needed to attract the big sponsors. Why has pro cycling had the same problem seeing the $$?
 
I heard that several of the top guys do a traveling "male review" show...



...
haha made you look
 
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Notverygood said:
I bet there's some potential money in that...
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I actually don't really know much about uber, do they actually do that? I bet it would be tough to get the right people at the right time, but you could at least cover gas money with a couple fares.
 
jeffmonty said:
Your example of pro cycling is interesting, because pro cycling has been popular for decades, is a fairly big spectator sport, but for some reason the money hasn't seemed to follow that. Many opinions are given in these forums that DG hasn't seen the bigger money because it's not a spectator-driven sport, which is needed to attract the big sponsors. Why has pro cycling had the same problem seeing the $$?
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Most of that has to do with Pros racing on open terrain, can't charge the spectators with ticket Money to make the bucks or charge for Food and Drink in the stadium. The better and popular pro's have to make due with sponsors even extra ones then the team has though it seem more and more teams have a sponsor for everything now in the top tours. And get this in North America the sport has only been on full TV coverage since the 1990's and that was when the fans could get full coverage to the masses, seems before that they had to stop live stuff for in the mountains or for weather.
 
Hampstead said:
I heard it's common for second tier pros to not call owners of found discs and sell them instead.


Kids, don't be a second tier pro.
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Not all do this, not to mention I have found discs without a name on them or just a first name nothing else. I did with a 10 time KC Pro Aviar rainbow stamp in white/off white. It had only a first name on it and a PDGA number but the guy was not current with Membership to the PDGA I could not return disc to them even using a phone book of that city or an online yellow pages and calling all the people in the city he lives in with that name. I think this info is still on the inside rim of the disc.
 
Hampstead said:
I heard it's common for second tier pros to not call owners of found discs and sell them instead.

Kids, don't be a second tier pro.
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They'll even jump in the water to retrieve discs to sell, I'm guessing.

5095277_orig.jpg
 
DJBackhand said:
I've been thinking lately about pro disc golfers, and I've been wondering how they make money. I know there are payouts if you place well in tournaments, and there are always sponsorships, but I imagine most players are breaking even or close to it financially. Any thoughts about this?
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After taking mortgage applications for 10 years, and reading all of the replies to your question so far, I'll tell you what I think...

I believe that there are two different kinds of people in this world ... people that will tell you and themselves why they can't do something ... and people that will try and figure out how they can do something.

I'm pretty sure the pro disc golfers, that are touring, are part of the second group!,
 
jeffmonty said:
Your example of pro cycling is interesting, because pro cycling has been popular for decades, is a fairly big spectator sport, but for some reason the money hasn't seemed to follow that. Many opinions are given in these forums that DG hasn't seen the bigger money because it's not a spectator-driven sport, which is needed to attract the big sponsors. Why has pro cycling had the same problem seeing the $$?
Click to expand...

From what I had gathered when I was into it, is that this is the way its been for so long type mentality. The team owners and event organizers are greedy. Most contracts in cycling are short because so many things can sideline a rider from illness to injury so securing anything more than a 1-2 year contract is tough. The guys who pull in the huge contracts are typically the ones who the teams are built around. If sports that have a huge following like cycling had a players union similar to that of American sports then the wages and contracts would change. The riders don't have the power, the team owners and event organizers do.
 
I won $1300 at worlds this year and lost money. And that's not even counting the wages I lost for taking a week's leave of absence.

Not everyone is Pete Johnson.
 
jeffmonty said:
Your example of pro cycling is interesting, because pro cycling has been popular for decades, is a fairly big spectator sport, but for some reason the money hasn't seemed to follow that. Many opinions are given in these forums that DG hasn't seen the bigger money because it's not a spectator-driven sport, which is needed to attract the big sponsors. Why has pro cycling had the same problem seeing the $$?
Click to expand...

Huge crowds. And $30k cash payout, and this is 1970's money...

 
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