The Inevitable 2024 Pros Switching Sponsors Thread

[PastorofMuppets]

I am surprised at the amount of people leaving Lone Star. I thought they were overpaying their talent for the most part (or so I was told earlier in the year by a semi-notable free agent) and would be expanding their team.

They overpaid/over offered to help build a pro team last off-season. Management learned that only certain pros actually move the needle on disc sales and decided to not resign several people, and to focus only on up and coming talent (at a lower market price). The owner has said he would much rather focus on amateurs and people having fun than trying to outspend other companies to have big name pros. Looks like HOD is also taking the same approach. This appears to be the "business decision" that caused their marketing director to leave because he disagreed with this approach. From speaking with people inside Lone Star, business is great and growing, but their data didn't show the pros on the team pushing disc sales much in a positive direction or coming close to recouping their contracts. Their massive AM Ranger team obviously resulted in a windfall of disc and merch sales.

 

[acrosley]

hmm "those players by their World Champion title" . . IS it just Kristin or do Lat 64 have some big news here?

Barsby to Lat 64 you heard it here first!
I knew I should've got his tour series Eagle last year too!

 

[lee76007]

They overpaid/over offered to help build a pro team last off-season. Management learned that only certain pros actually move the needle on disc sales and decided to not resign several people, and to focus only on up and coming talent (at a lower market price). The owner has said he would much rather focus on amateurs and people having fun than trying to outspend other companies to have big name pros. Looks like HOD is also taking the same approach. This appears to be the "business decision" that caused their marketing director to leave because he disagreed with this approach. From speaking with people inside Lone Star, business is great and growing, but their data didn't show the pros on the team pushing disc sales much in a positive direction or coming close to recouping their contracts. Their massive AM Ranger team obviously resulted in a windfall of disc and merch sales.

That's how I understood it from a week ago

 

[Nale72]

hmm "those players by their World Champion title" . . IS it just Kristin or do Lat 64 have some big news here?

Catrina Allen?

 

[Nale72]

 

[Myke566]

Barsby to Lat 64 you heard it here first!
I knew I should've got his tour series Eagle last year too!

Barsby is under contract through 2024. More likely to be Catrina Allen.

Wildcard prediction:
Austin Turner to Latitude 64 on their World Champion team. He won Junior Am Worlds in 2015, and on his instagram he no longer has DGA in his sponsors in his bio.

 

[DanJon]

Seems like that snippet from Perkins had a lot of truth in it.

Those familiar name, lower-level pros probably aren't getting the same offers after their contracts expire (Emerson, Clemons, Tanner, etc).

They will get an offer elsewhere, but I'm guessing it's most likely not guaranteed money.

Would be interesting to see how many lower level pros have the bulk of their contracts as performance based pay, plus selling so many discs per year while on tour.

All it takes is one off-year and they might be in the hole after the tour is done.

 

[biscoe]

Covid bubble has burst.

 

[dehaas]

Emerson's post shared above reads like Lonestar chose to cut ties in my opinion. Who knows where he lands, maybe a mixed bag deal with Infinite/TSA/Clash?

As far as Cat to L64, I just don't see it. They already have Kristin, so I don't think they'd be gaining much for the money.

As far as their page indicating another world champ, I could possibly see Barsby. I would guess him being an Innova lifer, but money talks. He's not super relevant on tour at this point, although you do see him pop off into the top 10 at an event or two a season. If anything I could see Latitude signing him with the intent of an extended European swing where they could promote him and let him beat up a bit on the softer MPO fields.

Like we've all agreed the Covid bubble has popped and we'll see manufacturers buckle down on sponsorships. I think in the next 2-3 years we'll see some assumed lifers make moves in order to stay on tour. If you're not moving plastic or generating a lot of social media content things are gonna get slim.

 

[mostlynorwegian]

hmm "those players by their World Champion title" . . IS it just Kristin or do Lat 64 have some big news here?

Uh. They do happen to have this guy, Wysocki. Raptor legs might have another run or three left to spare in the tank.

 

[dehaas]

Uh. They do happen to have this guy, Wysocki. Raptor legs might have another run or three left to spare in the tank.

Ricky was with Latitude the first time around, Dynamic this time around.

 

[Rol6566]

Resigning Feldberg to Latitude?

 

[PastorofMuppets]

Seems like that snippet from Perkins had a lot of truth in it.

Those familiar name, lower-level pros probably aren't getting the same offers after their contracts expire (Emerson, Clemons, Tanner, etc).

They will get an offer elsewhere, but I'm guessing it's most likely not guaranteed money.

Would be interesting to see how many lower level pros have the bulk of their contracts as performance based pay, plus selling so many discs per year while on tour.

All it takes is one off-year and they might be in the hole after the tour is done.

^ This. Lone Star's owner posted on the team page earlier (since removed) that the business chose to go a different direction going forward in regards to Pro sponsorships and that no players "left" they simply were not offered extensions or the extension offered wasn't in the price range players were expecting and an agreement couldn't be made. That he (the owner) going forward was setting new expectations for the pros they chose to sponsor and focusing specifically on up and coming talent who also have a strong presence in the community and represent the brand well. This of course spurred a lot of vitriol in the comments so he removed the post to keep things civil. In the case of both Emerson and Chandler for instance, they had no social media presence and weren't very involved in the disc golf community and probably weren't the ideal fit for the "face" of the company. Both great players, but not the fit the company was looking for, and probably didn't move a ton of plastic. A bigger manufacturer could have probably took a flier on keeping them and expanding the team. Time will tell how it pays off for Lone Star and if they were able to sign a "face" for next year. I do know they offered a couple high profile free agents deals, but no word yet on if any signed.

 

[dehaas]

Resigning Feldberg to Latitude?

Only if he regrows the beard

 

[Jolt]

Uh. They do happen to have this guy, Wysocki. Raptor legs might have another run or three left to spare in the tank.

It would be fun AND make some sense to let the Top Tier of trilogy players, aka Kristin and Ricky to be just that. .Trilogy players and represent ALL the brands. . Kristin and Ricky CAN move plastic, why limit them to one of the brands when they could sell all of them?

 

[Nale72]

I just realized I couldn't find Hjalmar Fredriksson in any of the current Latitude teams. I wonder if they still are negotiating or if Hjalmar is also leaving L64. After his success this year while still a junior I guess other manufacturers have been trying to sign him. He is for sure currently one of the most promising European players.

 

[Nick Pacific]

Not really. The non-donors will still be there. The donors will just be rated 990 instead of 1010.

Everyone starts at even par on day 1. You never know what can happen. And I'd bet almost nobody is going to regret playing in the world championships despite being 990 and having almost no chance 30 years from now. No, the regrets will come from those who didn't.

 

[HyooMac]

^ This. Lone Star's owner posted on the team page earlier (since removed) that the business chose to go a different direction going forward in regards to Pro sponsorships and that no players "left" they simply were not offered extensions or the extension offered wasn't in the price range players were expecting and an agreement couldn't be made. That he (the owner) going forward was setting new expectations for the pros they chose to sponsor and focusing specifically on up and coming talent who also have a strong presence in the community and represent the brand well. This of course spurred a lot of vitriol in the comments so he removed the post to keep things civil. In the case of both Emerson and Chandler for instance, they had no social media presence and weren't very involved in the disc golf community and probably weren't the ideal fit for the "face" of the company. Both great players, but not the fit the company was looking for, and probably didn't move a ton of plastic. A bigger manufacturer could have probably took a flier on keeping them and expanding the team. Time will tell how it pays off for Lone Star and if they were able to sign a "face" for next year. I do know they offered a couple high profile free agents deals, but no word yet on if any signed.

@PastorofMuppets - a couple of very good posts on Lonestar.

Has seemed to me that it appeared to be a change in business strategy, and I take it from your posts that's pretty much it.

And I can understand that winning an event doesn't necessarily translate into disc sales (Emerson). This is just my biased opinion, but when I watch him on Skins, he comes off more whiney than competitive. Just doesn't appear to be someone you'd enjoy playing with. And if he doesn't have a lot of social media to counterbalance that, I guess it's not surprising that his discs aren't flying off the shelves in support of a relatively new and unknown brand.

Which bring us back to Lonestar's strategy. If you can't afford someone with a built-in following (like Simon, Paul, Eagle), you're better off paying much less and helping newer/regional players build them. After all, every signature series disc that Lonestar sells is still a Lonestar disc. And if they build enough equity in the brand, they will continue to sell discs even as their team turns over.

 

[Nale72]

I just realized I couldn't find Hjalmar Fredriksson in any of the current Latitude teams. I wonder if they still are negotiating or if Hjalmar is also leaving L64. After his success this year while still a junior I guess other manufacturers have been trying to sign him. He is for sure currently one of the most promising European players.

Ok, I missed a couple of L64 teams since they didn't put them out in order. Today they announced their Gold Team, their 4th tier (still no Keiti or Hjalmar though) 2024 Latitude 64 Gold Team - Latitude 64

Beside the World Champion Team, L64 has still not announced their Sense team, which is their 3rd tier. I guess this is where Hjalmar will be. But I can't really see Keiti fit here, so she still seems to be out.

Tier 3: Sense

The second plastic in the Latitude 64° Royal line-up, this team level represents our players actively seeking to elevate to the professional level. The Sense Team comprises younger players who are competing at significant regional events but also at some Disc Golf Pro Tour events and local Majors. Players competing on the professional level who are still in school or looking to earn their way onto the Tour will most likely be on this team.

 

[Nale72]

Would make sense for Fajkus to go back to Innova I guess if they split on good terms. Or maybe Infinite?