Let's Increase PDGA Membership Fees...

[gemini55]

Pro Membership:

• 9,522 currently active. Total members with 1 year term, est @ 75% = 7,140

Outcome: Let the Pros take the biggest hit. Increase the membership fee to $100.

Assuming all 1 year term members renew and no additional new memberships are added, this is a $178,500 increase in fee revenue.



Am Membership:

• 37,091 currently active. Total members with 1 year term, est @ 75% = 27,818.

Outcome: I'm giving Ams and Juniors the same increase. If you're an Am paying $50, I'd sure hope you'd be an Am paying $60. And I don't see Mom or Dad pinching pennies over a $10 increase for a Junior membership. The kid is obviously dedicated to playing if they are a member, or share the hobby with a parent who's a member as well.

Same assumptions, no churn rate and no new memberships, and this becomes a $278,180 increase in fee revenue.




Now, the true question is, what does the PDGA do with an extra ~$500k?

 

[hiflyer]

Well, no new memberships would probably be a good assumption. This all sounds a little elitist to me, but what do I know?

 

[ru4por]

Well, no new memberships would probably be a good assumption. This all sounds a little elitist to me, but what do I know?

Well, there would likely be a decrease in renewal, as some take a stand on the ten buck increase. I would think that we could look to the mission statement of the PDGA to see where they should be spending that extra income.

 

[DiscFifty]

"Let's Increase PDGA Membership Fees..." nah...let's don't.

 

[DavidSauls]

Now, the true question is, what does the PDGA do with an extra ~$500k?

I think the true question is, WHY?

It's backwards to collect more money, and look around for ways to spend it. The process should be (1) identify a spending need, (2) decide whether increasing fees is the right way to fund it, as opposed to cuts elsewhere, etc., and (3) decide if the need is compelling enough to warrant the increase.

An any rate, the assumptions are unrealistic, so that $500K won't happen. The reality is that if you increase fees, you decrease memberships (compared to not increasing fees), just like with almost anything else people spend money for.

 

[da Crippler]

I'm told by people who know about these things that less than 3% of discers have a PDGA #. I was a bit shocked by that but the source is reliable. The PDGA only cares about the top 50 pro men and maybe the top 10 pro women, everyone else is a pot feeder. I think I'll forego renewal next year and just pay the extra $10.

 

[DinosaurThunder]

In 2017 the PDGA made 3.4 million and spent 3.1. Looking at the expenses line items they could definitely use the additional 500k to step up advertising/marketing - maybe buy some TV time and see how it goes? Use some to keep Jomez on the road full time and key partner of the PDGA? They spent around 151k on advertising. They could also use it towards the tour, maybe bring consistent baskets to each event and do course prep work to meet professional standards? As that total spend came in at around 310k (In comparison they pay 620k in salaries). Otherwise I'm sure they have some debts or liabilities worth paying off....

 

[DinosaurThunder]

Or use it to build lodging, camp grounds and training facility (weights, indoor putting, ice baths etc.) at the international disc golf center. The PDGA could extend training/free place to stay offers to international pros, tour pros and up and up and comers on the NT/AM scene. They could then hold camps/clinics to give these pros additional income while at the center. Kinda like what USA track and field does but on a smaller scale. Additionally if a top pro gets hurt, it could be a nice place to recover and train. I would assume more people who can reach the top ratings of our sport, the better product the PDGA can market to sponsors. Additionally they could rent the lodging and camp grounds to the rest of us during the NT season when pros or high level AMs are on tour - discounted or free rate for PDGA members.

 

[Jouni]

Shouldn't there be a reason for collecting money beforehand? Increasing the fees and then deciding what to do with the extra money sounds backwards.

 

[ru4por]

In 2017 the PDGA made 3.4 million and spent 3.1. Looking at the expenses line items they could definitely use the additional 500k to step up advertising/marketing - maybe buy some TV time and see how it goes? Use some to keep Jomez on the road full time and key partner of the PDGA? They spent around 151k on advertising. They could also use it towards the tour, maybe bring consistent baskets to each event and do course prep work to meet professional standards? As that total spend came in at around 310k (In comparison they pay 620k in salaries). Otherwise I'm sure they have some debts or liabilities worth paying off....

Or use it to build lodging, camp grounds and training facility (weights, indoor putting, ice baths etc.) at the international disc golf center. The PDGA could extend training/free place to stay offers to international pros, tour pros and up and up and comers on the NT/AM scene. They could then hold camps/clinics to give these pros additional income while at the center. Kinda like what USA track and field does but on a smaller scale. Additionally if a top pro gets hurt, it could be a nice place to recover and train. I would assume more people who can reach the top ratings of our sport, the better product the PDGA can market to sponsors. Additionally they could rent the lodging and camp grounds to the rest of us during the NT season when pros or high level AMs are on tour - discounted or free rate for PDGA members.

While I appreciate your thought into this, I cannot disagree more. I have absolutely zero interest, as a PDGA member, in funding a penny for any of this.

 

[Streets]

I'm a PDGA member to save the $10 on tournaments and that's about it...with a newborn this discount means less and less because I'm not playing many tournaments this year any way.

 

[ru4por]

I'm told by people who know about these things that less than 3% of discers have a PDGA #. I was a bit shocked by that but the source is reliable. The PDGA only cares about the top 50 pro men and maybe the top 10 pro women, everyone else is a pot feeder. I think I'll forego renewal next year and just pay the extra $10.

What more would you like to see the PDGA do for you?

 

[thirtydirtybirds]

I already don't join because of the cost. What return will I see for membership at the current price? Not much. And I am willing to bet none of those proposed uses of additional revenue would be in my area.

Hard pass

 

[DavidSauls]

Complaints that the PDGA does too much for pros, and complaints that it should do more for pros, make me feel like perhaps it's doing well, balancing multiple goals.

 

[robdeforge]

What more would you like to see the PDGA do for you?

not the person you asked, but maybe figure out a way to actually make pros play by the rules? that would be a start

 

[Horsman]

not the person you asked, but maybe figure out a way to actually make pros play by the rules? that would be a start

Who doesnt follow the rules? Foot Faults?

 

[SonicGuy]

I'm a PDGA member to save the $10 on tournaments and that's about it...with a newborn this discount means less and less because I'm not playing many tournaments this year any way.

>Forces TD's to collect a $10 surcharge<
>Allows surcharge to be waived<

Aren't you happy with your $10 discount?!?

 

[robdeforge]

Who doesnt follow the rules? Foot Faults?

Multiple kinds of stance violations occur, be it missing the mark on a field shot or something related to jump/step putting

Time violations are never called

Players hardly ever watch each other in order to observe infractions

Many players are just plain wrong about some of the rules. Whether they were told an incorrect rule and never looked it up to confirm for themselves or they simply picked it up on their own, I'll never know.

 

[JC17393]

Multiple kinds of stance violations occur, be it missing the mark on a field shot or something related to jump/step putting

Time violations are never called

Players hardly ever watch each other in order to observe infractions

Many players are just plain wrong about some of the rules. Whether they were told an incorrect rule and never looked it up to confirm for themselves or they simply picked it up on their own, I'll never know.

This all may be true, but what exactly should the PDGA be doing about it? Beyond maybe making more of an effort on the education side, I'm not sure how much they can do.

And please don't say using referees or rules officials on the course. As nice as that would be, I think it's well down the list of things that that sort of money, if it existed in the PDGA budget, should be spent on.

 

[ThrowBot]

Not sure if/where the stats are available, but how much (if any) has yearly paying membership been growing year-over-year? My gut says it must be going up but I have no firm basis for this. Just the raw increase in new PDGA #'s has been significant since I started paying attention to such things (somewhere in the 60,000's), but perhaps more difficult to track down is the "attrition" rate: how many existing members don't renew each year, and thus drop out of the yearly membership purchase pool.

It's true that increasing yearly fees will decrease the number of current members, but to what extent that offsets the annual growth trends is another issue. And remember: anybody who doesn't renew because of the fee increase, will wind up paying an extra $10 at every tournament they play, which goes straight to the PDGA. So while you may lose current members by raising the membership fees, that revenue may come back in other ways.

So taking all of that together, yes I think the PDGA can raise their net revenue by modestly increasing membership fees. But is that what they want, more money but less active members? Or are they content to leave a little money on the table if it means a larger membership base?