True Reason Why Disc Golf Isn't Becoming Main Stream

[cblanch4]

The typical reasons you hear are that Disc Golf is boring to watch, it's not a spectator sport, to many associate Disc Golf with potheads. Others claim they don't want it grow due to overcrowding of courses. Sorry this is kind of Novel, but I think it's the true reason DG is not mainstream.
^^This is a Joke and not what's holding Disc Golf back.
In order for Disc Golf to become big someday some important things need to happen.
1. Professionalism, especially at the professional level. (This is the first step to get bigger sponsors in the game. Large companies want the face of their company to represent them well. )
2. Pay To Play courses – I'm pretty sure I'll get raked over the coals for this one, but it's true. This will help to limit the amount of Drugs and Alcohol on the course. This is important to get parents supporting disc golf for their kids 18 and under. This group is vital to growth of the sport. Getting drugs off the course is also important for the public eye. If the board of Directors and executives at Nike think disc golf is for potheads, they will never sponsor a single player no matter how good he or she is. Pay to play will (even if it's just enough to pay for a small 3 person staff to monitor the course) increase public view of disc golf over the long run. This is a long term culture thing.
3. Most importantly - $$$MONEY$$$ There is no money in disc golf! Has anyone read or studied the history of Golf? The first PGA championship tournament in the US was in 1916 with first prize winning $2580; keep in mind, the PGA had 35 members at the time. So 100 years ago first place in golf won more money than first place in almost every PDGA sanctioned tournament (not including Inflation, which according to DollarTimes.com inflation calculator is worth about $58,000 today). If I started a new "Sport" called pin the tail on the donkey and hosted my first tournament and first prize got $60,000 I bet in a month I would have as many members as the PDGA has. No wonder Golf has grown. What really needs to happen is someone wealthy needs to get addicted to disc golf and put up some money, or the manufactures need to put up some money. When money gets involved so do sponsors. If you don't believe that money is the answer, look at poker, its on ESPN With tons of viewers, WHY? Because people love to watch people earn and lose big money. Why else would people watch shows like who wants to be a millionaire, jeopardy, and wheel of fortune? If the prize was $500 no one would watch.
a. I've created a spreadsheet that shows what I believe is the minimum for putting up enough money to get interest. We need 10 big tourneys/year (8 NT and Worlds and USDGC) $500,000 purse at EACH ONE. If first place gets 12% or $60K, and second place gets 12% of the remaining $440K and so on then if a Touring pro placed in the top 10 in every tournament he would make a garunteed $190K and an average of $360K. That's the kind of money that will get big names involved. If you averaged between 10th place and 25th place earnings would be $80K. After that the numbers drop significantly. However, that would provide 25 touring pros an average of >$80k per year. Not including other tournament winnings. When people start making that kind of money then people will start watching, and big sponsors will get involved.
What is you Ideas, am I right, Wrong, or are there other ways for this sport to grow more quickly. $5Million is a lot, but doable with the right connections.

 

[World Eater]

bcz not everyone has met Holly yet.

edit : if you're really interested in that side of DG you might want to read up on Vibram's site. They were pretty interested in payout structuring and such.

 

[Aim For The Chains]

Considering a disc could be used for years at a time before needing replacement... Premium disc prices need to go up too while you're at it.

 

[allinpflop]

Sounds like you have it all figured out....now just go ahead and write the check for $5 million and I'm sure by this time next year we will be all over ESPN and bigger than ball golf.

 

[DavidSauls]

$5Million is a lot, but doable with the right connections.

It's a shame nobody ever realized that.

 

[Pbmercil]

. $5Million is a lot, but doable with the right connections.

Where are these connections and how does one go about making them?

 

[Cgkdisc]

Name a mainstream sport that is not offered or supported via the school system. Tough to think of many. Several sports you see in the Olympics are only offered in a limited number of schools (kayaking) and would not be considered mainstream in the U.S. other than the visibility they get at the Olympics.

Two elements will make it difficult to break through there. First, is for schools to have enough space on campus or nearby for a course and be willing to maintain it. Basketball has become big time because it's easy to set up courts outside for practice, inexpensive equipment and gyms supporting court(s) have multiple use. Major metro populations will rarely have access or exposure to any or just a few DG courses. There's limited park space available if any and not enough income to offset high property costs and taxes for private properties close to town. If a downtown ball golf course is failing, DG income from sharing the space will not be enough to save the course nor enough income to justify taking over part of that property exclusively for DG if the ball golf course completely folds.

Second, is eventually getting enough schools with facilities to meet the minimums required to be sanctioned by state HS sports authorities. Title IX for girls could potentially loom as a related issue. While DG can be played by both boys and girls, we haven't yet seen the popularity among girls/women to match the boys. So it's possible DG may be seen as a boys only sport that needs to be offset by another girls sport unless we figure out that girls like it within a school environment almost as much as the boys.

This is not to paint a bleak future for DG by any means. It will just be tougher road for those who desire it to be considered "mainstream" in the U.S. by big time media versus an awesome grassroots recreational activity sweeping the nation in more suburban, smaller towns and rural areas with cool terrain for DG.

 

[jeffmonty]

OP, I don't think you're necessarily wrong, but what is your motivation? Personally, I couldn't care less if DG doesn't go mainstream, I actually hope it doesn't. I don't need my sport/hobby being considered mainstream to "validate" my enjoyment of it. The only upside I see to the growth are new courses. But even then, locally we have enough trouble getting volunteers to maintain the courses we already do have.

 

[WhiteyBear]

You heard it first here..."money" is holding DG back.

The answer to any problem is to throw $$$ at it and just watch it magically grow.

Want to make DG explode? Stop relying on the thought of sponsors, and get a full-bore children to teen program going. Get in schools, make it a HS sport, give scholarships to college for it, implement Title IX.

/rantbecauseitsnotjustmoney

 

[DiscgolfStu]

I love it. As soon as disc golfers start making that kind of money parents will demand it in the school system anyhow. I'm in (but I have no money).

 

[Improbably]

. . . $5Million is a lot, but doable with the right connections.

For profit entities don't choose to lose money. "They" are not going to put five million dollars into disc golf until "they" can reasonably expect to get at least ten million dollars out of disc golf. A net loss for disc golf does not sound like growth.

 

[Declarkus]

You heard it first here..."money" is holding DG back.

The answer to any problem is to throw $$$ at it and just watch it magically grow.

Want to make DG explode? Stop relying on the thought of sponsors, and get a full-bore children to teen program going. Get in schools, make it a HS sport, give scholarships to college for it, implement Title IX.

/rantbecauseitsnotjustmoney

Universities are offering online gaming scholarships....athletic scholarships, so selling DG to schools shouldn't be too difficult.

Money is the easy answer, but ball golf is an expensive hobby with tv deals, sponsorships and big money tourneys, yet in the US, a golf course closes every 48hrs. The decline has been attributed to lack of interest from youth, so it will be the next generations that decide what goes mainstream. This is also my argument against the pay to play solution

 

[ru4por]

Who is trying to get disc golf to become mainstream?? All those greedy disc manufacturing companies, the disc retailers?? Golfers?? There are hundreds of non mainstream sports. Most never intended to become mainstream. X Games changed some of that, but that was bought by the likes of Red Bull, Monster, Sobe.......purely as a marketing strategy.

 

[natedg1976]

This is getting so old. The reality is, with a governing body like the pDGA, disc golf will not go mainstream. And that's ok. It doesn't need to. Even though it is a niche sport, it is still growing pretty dang fast. Why, pray tell, does it need to be mainstream? What difference does it make to us mere mortals? In my mind none. If disc golf goes mainstream, I foresee it becoming more like golf. Way to damn expensive, and all of the fun being sucked right out.

 

[Pbmercil]

Universities are offering online gaming scholarships....athletic scholarships, so selling DG to schools shouldn't be too difficult.

Money is the easy answer, but ball golf is an expensive hobby with tv deals, sponsorships and big money tourneys, yet in the US, a golf course closes every 48hrs. The decline has been attributed to lack of interest from youth, so it will be the next generations that decide what goes mainstream. This is also my argument against the pay to play solution

There is a massive difference between pay to play disc golf and the cost of playing ball golf. I've payed 3-5 bucks for a single day round at a lot of different places. The last ball golf round I played was many times more expensive then that, and I got a good deal.

Pay to pay is not a solution, it is a natural progression in the growth of the sport that is already happening and inevitable. There are only so many city parks that can or will sustain free play courses, and when their is demand for a better disc golf experience then those places can offer pay to play comes in.

Any ball golf comparison is comically unfair. Ball golf has been for most of its history a sport that catered to rich people and was as much a status symbol as a hobby, even in the early days.

 

[cblanch4]

This is getting so old. The reality is, with a governing body like the pDGA, disc golf will not go mainstream. And that's ok. It doesn't need to. Even though it is a niche sport, it is still growing pretty dang fast. Why, pray tell, does it need to be mainstream? What difference does it make to us mere mortals? In my mind none. If disc golf goes mainstream, I foresee it becoming more like golf. Way to damn expensive, and all of the fun being sucked right out.

Mainstream means more courses (closest course to where i live is an hour and a half) I would love more mainstream, better courses, greater competition among manufacturers which creates innovation (better bags, or atleast cheaper bags). Mainstream doesn't ruin sports, even if there were two golf courses in the world it would cost the same to run a golf course, so the prices would be the same if not higher. Mainstream usually means cheaper. What would make disc golf more expensive by going mainstream, would it cost more to maintain a course? I doubt it? You could maintain a course with one or two people with people paying $5 as an entry fee. Golf is so expensive because because you have metal clubs, Expensive course maintenance fees because of fertilizers and lawncare, and because of property taxes. Disc golf can still coexist in a city park or in the mountains, even if its Mainstream.

 

[cblanch4]

Name a mainstream sport that is not offered or supported via the school system. Tough to think of many. Several sports you see in the Olympics are only offered in a limited number of schools (kayaking) and would not be considered mainstream in the U.S. other than the visibility they get at the Olympics.

Two elements will make it difficult to break through there. First, is for schools to have enough space on campus or nearby for a course and be willing to maintain it. Basketball has become big time because it's easy to set up courts outside for practice, inexpensive equipment and gyms supporting court(s) have multiple use. Major metro populations will rarely have access or exposure to any or just a few DG courses. There's limited park space available if any and not enough income to offset high property costs and taxes for private properties close to town. If a downtown ball golf course is failing, DG income from sharing the space will not be enough to save the course nor enough income to justify taking over part of that property exclusively for DG if the ball golf course completely folds.

Second, is eventually getting enough schools with facilities to meet the minimums required to be sanctioned by state HS sports authorities. Title IX for girls could potentially loom as a related issue. While DG can be played by both boys and girls, we haven't yet seen the popularity among girls/women to match the boys. So it's possible DG may be seen as a boys only sport that needs to be offset by another girls sport unless we figure out that girls like it within a school environment almost as much as the boys.

This is not to paint a bleak future for DG by any means. It will just be tougher road for those who desire it to be considered "mainstream" in the U.S. by big time media versus an awesome grassroots recreational activity sweeping the nation in more suburban, smaller towns and rural areas with cool terrain for DG.

I do agree getting into high schools would be huge for the sport, In my hometown the high school PE classes take buses to the local course, but it is no where having inter-school competitions.

 

[Declarkus]

There is a massive difference between pay to play disc golf and the cost of playing ball golf. I've payed 3-5 bucks for a single day round at a lot of different places. The last ball golf round I played was many times more expensive then that, and I got a good deal.

Pay to pay is not a solution, it is a natural progression in the growth of the sport that is already happening and inevitable. There are only so many city parks that can or will sustain free play courses, and when their is demand for a better disc golf experience then those places can offer pay to play comes in.

Any ball golf comparison is comically unfair. Ball golf has been for most of its history a sport that catered to rich people and was as much a status symbol as a hobby, even in the early days.

What part of my comparison was comical? or unfair?
And when you say any, you mean your comparison too right?

Because the difference in $5 for 1hr DG round and $50 for 5hr golf round isn't a "massive difference." It's the same per hour. My point was that an increase in participation will generate more money for the industry. I used the golf comparison, because it is a common mainstream sport often looked at as what DG should aspire to be like, but it's quickly losing interest.

 

[cblanch4]

Where are these connections and how does one go about making them?

Maybe someone has a rich uncle! Maybe one or a few manufacturers could try venture capital. VC's throw money at anything that can earn them a return. And Yes disc golf can earn a return on $5Mil

 

[Star Shark]

What part of my comparison was comical? or unfair?
And when you say any, you mean your comparison too right?

Because the difference in $5 for 1hr DG round and $50 for 5hr golf round isn't a "massive difference." It's the same per hour. My point was that an increase in participation will generate more money for the industry. I used the golf comparison, because it is a common mainstream sport often looked at as what DG should aspire to be like, but it's quickly losing interest.

$5/hr vs $50/5hrs is the same per hour? Uhh... No...

Also, most pay to play courses are a daily rate so you could go and play 3 rounds for 5 bucks <I do this fairly often>.