The inevitable re-attempt at a 2020 Pros Switching Sponsors Thread

[Three Putt]

I thought DD told McBeth that they had money to throw around when he was leaving Innova?

I of course have no knowledge of DD fiances, but DD not being in the position to throw a lot of money around at this particular moment fits with a lot of rumors I've heard. That's not to say they don't have some money to throw around and that they won't have more money to throw around in the future, but 2019 didn't sound like it was DD's greatest year.

Every company has bumps in the road, though. I wouldn't want it to sound like they are in any serious trouble, because I certainly don't know anything close to that. It just might have been very bad timing for PP to be looking for an upgrade to her deal.

 

[R-Ogre]

I of course have no knowledge of DD fiances, but DD not being in the position to throw a lot of money around at this particular moment fits with a lot of rumors I've heard. That's not to say they don't have some money to throw around and that they won't have more money to throw around in the future, but 2019 didn't sound like it was DD's greatest year.

Every company has bumps in the road, though. I wouldn't want it to sound like they are in any serious trouble, because I certainly don't know anything close to that. It just might have been very bad timing for PP to be looking for an upgrade to her deal.

It's crazy to me, getting back into DG after largely a 15 year hiatus how many companies there are. I can't imagine that anyone outside innova and discraft isn't one bad year away from total collapse. The sport has grown but I have a hard time believing it's grown enough to support the Mints, AGLs, Thought Spaces, etc forever.

 

[Jolt]

Paul leaving Innova was unexpected. . but Paige leaving her "DD family" is SUPER unexpected, they must have given her an offer she just could not say no to.

But every single discgolf pro HAS to see what Paul got with Discraft and think…"i want that to"
To get your own line of discs is going to be "the thing" to get into your contract

 

[ThrowBot]

Pros: "It doesn't matter what brand I throw, I'm just good."
Ams: "I guess brand doesn't matter, I should just throw whatever."
Manufacturers: "Ams figured out brand doesn't matter, why are we paying these Pros?"

The bolded is what I don't see happening, at least not anytime soon. Some people get it more than others. But you're always going to have some starry-eyed fanboys with loose cash and the itch to try out the latest mold with their favorite pro's name on it.

Which is fine! Most fun wins, etc.
I certainly went through my years of trying every mold that I could get my hands on.

 

[dwayne.hoffman]

The next domino to fall will be Calvin Heimberg. Where does he land? Certainly DD has to be charging hard at him now.

 

[Golden Tuna]

MPO get a majority of the views. But that one video is taking an outlier. It hit the YouTube lottery. How about comparing something similar. 2 Jomez videos.
1. USWDGC R1: 170K views
2. USDGC R1: 302K views

That is a better comparison. Each round was done by Jomez, each round was a "featured" card.

I just picked that event because it was the most recent worlds.
We can probably use any data set you want - the message is still the same....

2018 Worlds final Round Front 9
MPO: 142,658
FPO: 45,861

Again, I'm not saying it is ok, or women suck, or anything similar. I AM saying that men have greater competition, play at a higher level, and the audience agrees. So, I am not confused by why male disc golfers sell more discs and make more money.

If we're talking about accounting, marketing, customer service, etc, (outside disc golf) men and women should absolutely be paid equally. But, this is the entertainment business...

A side note to this news: I thought a contract was an agreement of pay for rendered services. Since when can people get out of contracts because they want to? Bad business for DD IMO.

If PP doesn't have the professionalism to finish out her contract after all DD has done for her, she probably doesn't deserve a big pay day. Then again, what do I know...

 

[rj29274]

I heard Salient was in play. . .

 

[eegor]

I heard Salient was in play. . .

Today's internet comedy winner!

 

[dwayne.hoffman]

Hypothetically, if Paige does land at Discraft, I posit that Vanessa Van Dyken will benefit from having Paige around. And, that's not all the FPO players accounted for either.

 

[Jolt]

kind of odd that companies are talking to players that are under contract . . can you even do that?

 

[Three Putt]

Paul leaving Innova was unexpected. . but Paige leaving her "DD family" is SUPER unexpected, they must have given her an offer she just could not say no to.

But every single discgolf pro HAS to see what Paul got with Discraft and think…"i want that to"
To get your own line of discs is going to be "the thing" to get into your contract

The possibility here is that people don't really know what the market for their services is anymore. These are young people who are not making a ton of money and are going to have relatively short careers. The McBeth deal probably totally blew out of the water what they perceived their ceiling was with a sponsorship deal, so high-profile players probably have to be out shopping a deal right now in case this is a one or two year blip. Could Paige Pierce really afford to wait see if the checkbooks would still be open when her DD deal runs out? Probably not. If she got out there shopping for a deal and found out her ceiling had risen significantly, can she just stick with the deal she has? Probably not.

 

[Jolt]

It would be nice to have those Paige Ti Stalkers back

 

[F. Howl]

Maybe Innova is going over the top to get Paige and making the figure public? Good PR for them, supporting FPO, and perhaps becoming the big 2020 signing story that everyone talks about. I've heard second hand from guy who's in and out of the Rancho factory, that Dave was sore over McBeth leaving in 2019. The indirect quote I heard was, "Let's see him (McBeth) win another Worlds throwing Discraft."

 

[Odedge]

I was very surprised by Paige's announcement. I do think it was a hard decision for her and I hope it will turn out to be a good one. I think she is going to Discraft with a similar contract to Paul McBeth's where she can have more signature discs. This could be a win-win for both her financially and for the sport as it should draw in more women players.

I didn't like that she brought up the loyalty factor in her video. If she was truly loyal to her "like family", she would have honored her contract through 2021. This does shine a light on the fact that this is a business for everyone involved and maybe players and companies shouldn't sell it as being anything else.

That said, I will still support [as much as a fan can]Paige as she is a great player. I enjoy watching her play and I can learn from her game. I will still support Dynamic Discs because I like what they do as a company as well as their discs. #teamwarden

What I will probably not do is support a company just because said player is currently throwing their discs. I didn't start buying Discraft when Paul started throwing them because is a few years, he may be throwing another brand.

 

[Jolt]

Looking at what Innova done for Ricky vs was Discraft done for Paul . .

 

[COLODISCR]

FWIW, Dynamic's top seller in October was the PP 5X Lucid-X Suspect. A retired mold (because sales were low) revived for a limited run specifically for Paige, and it nearly doubled the sales of the next best seller during the month. Draw your own conclusions.


Have to say I'm surprised about this. Makes all these long term contracts suspect to me if a third of the way through it, a player can bail on it. I mean, what's the value of a multi-year deal if they can be set aside so easily? I assume that DD got something in exchange for letting her out of the contract, otherwise what sort of precedent would it set? Imagine if some company went to McBeth tomorrow offering everything he's getting now plus $1M a year in salary and use of a jet for travel. Would he be able to just walk away from Discraft? Would they let him go for nothing?

Contracts can be very complex things depending on how they are written and who is involved. If you are one of the "big names" in the business you can often negotiate various options that are beneficial to them such as some form of release option. Companies often go for this as there is still usually a financial benefit of having the big name for a portion of the contract length instead of not at all if that freedom was holding up being able to get them signed plus there are often other stipulations such as monetary ones where the company may still benefit if they allow the release option. There is also a chance that whoever is signing her bought out the remaining portion of her contract and DD canlme out ahead monetarily on the deal. Many times the contracts include a confidentiality agreement banning the involved parties from publicly discussing the contract so it is unlikely to ever know the details of the contract and terms of her release. I would expect that they didn't just release her out of the goodness of their hearts unless they really are just a stand up company...

 

[Future_Primitive]

Amazed at how many people have seen and read her contract. Sure makes it easier to crucify her for breaking the contract to leave DD. :\

 

[GoobyPls]

Hearing Innova now as well. Original source was speculating.

 

[Arisugawa]

And then Val immediately signed with Discraft. LOLZ.

I could be mistaken, but didn't Elaine leave Discraft after they signed Val and immediately gave her a disc for her 2016 World Championship? I have absolutely no insider knowledge on this, but I thought she left because they seemingly welcomed Val with open arms and gifts, while she felt her own accomplishments during her tenure had been overlooked.

 

[Hampstead]

You know what would have been cool? Instead of 15 pages of stupidity, the OP got edited with new signings so you could just read one post to see what you need instead of sifting through trash. J/S

Pizza talk is far more interesting than 30 posts of PP contract speculation.