Starting a League from scratch

[Bamm]

Since this is the League Coordinator's part of the forum:

So I have been playing about 7 years. Not much "grassroots" for disc golf in my area. Only a handful of courses and none I would rate better than 2.5-3.0 unless you want to drive an hour. So the University I work at (Longwoood University - Lancer Park is the course) has a 9 hole course they put in about 4 years ago. It was a pretty sucky course until this past year when the department that runs it started really putting some time/effort into it. Don't get me wrong, it's still a pitch and putt, but with mostly new guys playing in the area I'm not sure you want to start them out with a super hard course so it works. Anyway, I have a couple of young friends that have taken up the sport and brought along 5-10 others. We counted in our heads about 15 guys that would play a weekly and we are trying to start that this spring. None of us have ever been in a league. I have played in a weekly tourney a few times but that's it. We would love advice. Not trying to get huge or do too much right off the bat. We want to keep it simple but we want to learn from the experience of guys that have done this before. So, long story long, what advice would you give someone in this position? Just some background info, the University pays for all the maintenance/signage/upkeep of the course. They are thrilled that we are trying to make this happen. I know we will run a $1 ace pot. I know we will play for tags and probably a trophy or something at the end of the year. Maybe run a "points" tourney for end of the year standings? Let me know what you guys think......opcorn:
Thanks in advance!.....................jbz

 

[hellbound]

Ian might chime in on this. Sunday doubles in our area was started out in the boonies on a pitch and putt course. Just about 8 people originally, fast forward 3 years and numbers have doubled or more depending on the time of year and weather. Keep it simple. Normal 5.00 buy in, 1.00 ace pool, and we do a birdie pool that pays out weekly. Draw two numbers- say hole 3 and 17. If no one hits both then it goes to the lowest number. If that holes not hit then next. If both are not hit its a ctp throw off for anyone that payed in. Doing the birdie pool this way helps to spread the cash out if you have newer players/same people winning every week.

We started by doing free ctp's (discs, minis, towels and such). However in the end it was the same couple of people donating and the wrong people where winning the freebees.

Biggest thing i couldn't stress enough is if they only know a person or two and are little reluctant to do it, then fix the round so they play with the right people. Not forcing them to buy in the first time and just getting to know the group has help to gain a few people from time to time.

It takes some time to get the word out but nothing beats the word of mouth when a nice size group is standing at a tee pad and just starts a conversation with people just leaving the course.

Doubles box for us is simple
Tackle box to hold everything
pencils
Deck of cards (we use Pinochle so the deck last longer Ace-9's)
Atm cash bags (to keep acepool and payouts from rolling around inside disc golf bag)
Score cards (use to order them from tim on DGCR)
1 or 2 flags kept in box incase of a free ctp

 

[Bamm]

So if $1 of the $5 goes to the ace pool, what does the rest ($4) go towards?

 

[hellbound]

sorry its 1.00 for the birdy pool also. so 5.0 goes to payout

 

[PWaggoner]

PDGA league is $25 plus 50 cents per player per round.

And the PDGA says you have to charge at least $1. 50 cents is supposed to go to the club. If there is no club maybe to the college or towards prizes. Whatever you want.

One of the real reasons to play a league is for points IMO. So ask around, see if anybody wants to play am or pro worlds. Im going to just assume your a group of ams and a few would like to play am worlds.

Make everybody play advanced and the top couple people will get a good chunk of points towards the 1500 requirement.

The winner of my first (and only so far until April) league made 300 points.

People can still be separated by skill and age if there is money or prizes, just online keep them bulked together for points.

 

[Bamm]

So what if we don't want it see the need to be a "Pdga"league at first? I'd say that at least initially 0% of the league has any interest in ams or worlds. I'm thinking baby steps.

 

[hellbound]

Didn't relize that you might not be looking at doubles. Disc golf united has a league that you can handicap for the difference in divisions (looks to be $0.25 per player if you use it). Little extra paper work. As for PDGA sanction the weekly event. Unless your required to carry insurance and have a good number of pdga players weekly its prob not in the best interest in spending the extra money for it.

 

[Bamm]

We will probably mix in doubles nights as well. Might end up all doubles. Have no idea right now. This is all new to me and I just need to see what the rest of the guys want to do and what their expectations are. Thanks guys! Feel free to chime in with any other advice.

 

[biscoe]

1. figure a format (i prefer singles myself but doubles may be less intimidating for new players)- i do suggest charging at least some fee and returning the bulk of it as payout- makes players more vested. we allow first timers to play for free and charge them after that.

2. advertise- particularly the free the first time aspect

3. there will be a lot of figuring out as it goes to be done with it being new and in a newer dg area but try to be consistent in what you do from one week to the next. this gives players a warm fuzzy feeling that someone is in charge and they can safely expect it to occur.

4. stick with it even if initial results are slow, takes time to build.

 

[Bamm]

Thanks my friend! Much appreciated!

 

[Nemmers]

I echo all what was said above, but I'll add my two cents. It's SUPER easy to start a league, especially one that's unsanctioned. (Sanctioned ones are easy too, but they're a lot less leg work and with zero up-front costs.) And starting from scratch is even better because there are no expectations and if/when you screw up nobody has any right to get pissed off.

I've found there are two keys to running a successful league: constant communication and transparency. The first is necessary so people don't have to dig around to find when and where the next league round is, how much it costs to play, etc. The second is because players need to know where their money is going. If you're going to take a little for your time they don't mind that, so long as you're up front about it. Many of the complaints people have about leagues and tournaments stem from the TD/league director being shady about where entry fees to and who got paid out what for their scores. Cut that off at the pass and post results ASAP after the round is over.

Hope that helps. Good luck with your league, bro!

 

[Bamm]

Great advice! Thanks! Transparency is a must. No question. We already have a facebook page setup for the league. There we will be able to get out invites and info and post the final results of each weekly/tourney. Keep the advice coming, I am a sponge soaking it up.....

 

[JRW III]

Pick a time or two to have a standard round during the week. Could be singles one day and doubles the other. Consistency that people can plan for is key.

Good luck!

 

[EROPPER]

Social media to publicize for sure-- Even just a simple FB group- consistency- someone to organize-

a backup/trusted coordinater when the primary can't make it-

"if you throw it, They will come"

good luck with your league !

 

[Bamm]

Social media to publicize for sure-- Even just a simple FB group- consistency- someone to organize-

a backup/trusted coordinater when the primary can't make it-

"if you throw it, They will come"

good luck with your league !

Great points, we are well on the way to having this much in place. Thanks to all of you that have dropped advice on us. We are greatly appreciative and are willing to listen and learn. Thanks!

 

[Bamm]

First unofficial group round this weekend. Random draw doubles. 13 signed up the first day. Looking good so far.

 

[esdubya]

Awesome!

 

[Bamm]

First tourney. 14 players. Great time. Everybody very happy. No ace hits so it rolls. Finished 2nd.

 

[olkok]

You may want to consider a handicap league. At some point you'll find that the same people are winning all the time and handicapping it will even everyone up.

 

[Audible Vibration]

Your league sounds like mine: short 9 hole course, not much of an established DG community, mostly rec and/or non pdga members. I wouldn't worry about a sanctioned league yet. You can always do that in the future if there is interest, but for now you should focus on getting players that will consistently show up. It's not so fun playing for tags when the guys with the low tags don't show up.

What we do each week is vote if we're playing 9 or 18 for tags. If only 9, we usually play doubles on the 2nd round of 9, but sometimes vote on something different. We draw cards for singles and flip discs for doubles so everybody can meet and play with new people. We don't charge people to play, but do the $1 ace pot. Seems to work out well for us, and isn't too overwhelming to manage.