When will ESPN cover Disc Golf?

[T Strat]

Im thinking when the pdga membership count goes over 100,000. Which judging by the growth over the last 5 years. I would expect that number to be hit by 2016. There is a lot of math behind that so please don't expect me to explain it.

...Like basic math? Go ahead, try to blow my mind..

 

[scarpfish]

Im thinking when the pdga membership count goes over 100,000. Which judging by the growth over the last 5 years. I would expect that number to be hit by 2016. There is a lot of math behind that so please don't expect me to explain it.

I won't, but FWIW, that's still way too small to get on ESPN's radar, especially when you consider that around 70% of the already issued PDGA numbers aren't current players.

 

[Out of Bounds]

New to Disc Golf and this site, but loving it.

I think trying to get on TV would be easiest by qualifyng as an Olympic Sport. If that proves too difficult(ie. not enough countries playing) Then try and qualify for the X-games or something similar.

It is likely easier to qualify for an established event than to convince a network to film the sport independently. Even much larger established sports complain they don't get enough T.V.

Just my two cents.

 

[ryankh87]

New to Disc Golf and this site, but loving it.

I think trying to get on TV would be easiest by qualifyng as an Olympic Sport. If that proves too difficult(ie. not enough countries playing) Then try and qualify for the X-games or something similar.

It is likely easier to qualify for an established event than to convince a network to film the sport independently. Even much larger established sports complain they don't get enough T.V.

Just my two cents.

Not a bad point. and welcome :thmbup:

 

[BionicRib]

I won't, but FWIW, that's still way too small to get on ESPN's radar, especially when you consider that around 70% of the already issued PDGA numbers aren't current players.

If 100,000 people are in the pdga..........how many more are playing that are not in the pdga? The sport is growing, the support is growing, the courses are growing. Why not put it on tv?.........If you can get kids on tv stacking cups there has got to be a market for disc golf.......

 

[bradharris]

New to Disc Golf and this site, but loving it.

I think trying to get on TV would be easiest by qualifyng as an Olympic Sport. If that proves too difficult(ie. not enough countries playing) Then try and qualify for the X-games or something similar.

It is likely easier to qualify for an established event than to convince a network to film the sport independently. Even much larger established sports complain they don't get enough T.V.

Just my two cents.

Getting a sport into the olympics is nearly impossible. And there are a lot of sports ahead of disc golf in line.

 

[Cgkdisc]

Trying to get in the Winter Olympics to compete at night would be easier to do and more visually appealing.

 

[Menacewarf]

...Like basic math? Go ahead, try to blow my mind..

That's Amazing!

I hope you've enjoyed another edition of California's Gold!

/Huell Howser

 

[Sadjo]

This discussion has happened time and time again. I remember players having thse same discussions 25 years ago they we were getting close. The best way to work toward that is to not make being on TV but working toward growing the sport from helping on the local scene.

Help your local club or TD by seeking sponsorship for your club or event. Propose new courses by speaking before city councils, county councils, park boards and tourism groups.

I've been a TD for several years and have sold over a dozen courses to communities and private land owners.

You have to create the groundswell in your community that other communities will want to do too. Chuck Kennedy taught me years ago that cities and park departments compete for bragging rights. I've pitched projects targeted toward egos to get course installed and improved. It works.

 

[grodney]

Some one will say can't they just cover the final group? No they can't because if the winner was to win from a group or two or three or four back and no coverage of that person would make us and ESPN a joke.

Not only that but a single group is friggen BORING. You *need* cutting between groups. I can only watch Nikko do so many practice arm-swings and walk back and forth so many times. It would also be a helluva lot more watchable if it were only 2-somes instead of 4-somes. Even with cutting between groups, 4-somes make each hole take way too long.

 

[Disc Golf Live]

Getting a sport into the olympics is nearly impossible. And there are a lot of sports ahead of disc golf in line.

Right. The Olympics are not in the cards for far too many reasons. And getting into the Olympics is not a ticket to TV. Many of the established Olympic sports still don't get TV coverage, at least in the US. Not much Biathalon on TV here, although that stuff is a hoot to watch. Even a derivative sport like rhythmic gymnastics (which DG would likely be considered) gets no TV while the more established version gets decent coverage on various stations.

For the present, our sport is viewed as being too obscure, too niche, for mainstream TV. That's why I believe our efforts should go towards growing public awareness while we grow our game. Towards that goal, I've tried to position Disc Golf Live as a publicity vehicle, not so much preaching to the choir as bringing more folks into church. Since we can't afford (or aren't on the radar of) ESPN and the like, we can utilize available free resources such as local community and public access TV to bring our game to people across the country, one community at a time. While this approach lacks a big Wow factor, it can be successful on a local scale in many, many, communities across the land.

If you've got a station in your town, give me a shout and I'll set you up with copies or downloads of my show to submit locally for broadcast.

Joe

 

[donnyv]

As Seen On TV? Good or Bad for the game?

This discussion has happened time and time again. I remember players having thse same discussions 25 years ago they we were getting close. The best way to work toward that is to not make being on TV but working toward growing the sport from helping on the local scene.

Help your local club or TD by seeking sponsorship for your club or event. Propose new courses by speaking before city councils, county councils, park boards and tourism groups.

I've been a TD for several years and have sold over a dozen courses to communities and private land owners.

You have to create the groundswell in your community that other communities will want to do too. Chuck Kennedy taught me years ago that cities and park departments compete for bragging rights. I've pitched projects targeted toward egos to get course installed and improved. It works.

^^^^ Preach it brother

A stronger local scene and more courses would be better than watching it on the tube anyday. Seeing DG on tv is cool and all but doesn't guarantee success or respect (see Seinfield, Happy Endings, Conan, etc). Seeing the courses full of people will help increase the demand for more courses. No courses in your area? Show the powers that be (park dept, city, private land owners, etc) how DG can be a benefit (inexpensive to build and maintain, healthy activity for residents, etc) to the community.

Not trying to diss ESPN because it has changed the way sports are seen, but I can watch DG videos on the net 24/7/365. There's thousands of them about DG and most are longer than the 15-second clip ESPN will ever show on Sportscenter. Maybe they are not in HD or at a exclusive country club but you get a wide spectrum of real people discing to filter through, without being spoon-fed by a corporation like ESPN who knows or cares little about the game of disc. Maybe one day it will happen but I'm too busy playing, pitching/building courses, living life, to worry about it.

.02

 

[scarpfish]

If 100,000 people are in the pdga..........how many more are playing that are not in the pdga?

Maybe 2-3 million or so, I don't know. That's still small potatoes compared to people who play other more established sports. Bowling has somewhere around that many people in its sanctioning organization alone. Just because someone plays something recreationally, doesn't mean that they want to be a spectator to top players of that same activity, especially when most live coverage of an event would coincide with the times that they would most likely to be out playing a round themselves.

The sport is growing, the support is growing, the courses are growing. Why not put it on tv?.........If you can get kids on tv stacking cups there has got to be a market for disc golf.......

A. We don't need it, as were growing leaps and bounds without it.
B. It doesn't translate very well to televised coverage. (God knows I have some disc golf DVD's that I couldn't bear to watch more than once).
C. Television as we know it is going to be a very different animal by the time disc golf's numbers get to the point where some semblance of broadcasting becomes feasible. Why should we try to strive for something that is going to be a dinosaur by the time we get there.

 

[xdzt]

I really feel that Disc Golf has great opportunity for being a spectator sport. Many of the other fringe sports discussed herein can be really interesting to watch if you get into the sport and understand the rules, but quality disc golf coverage is just inherently interesting to watch. The flight of the disc, the surrounding nature, the back and forth competition... These all make for a good (televised) spectator sport...

BUT there are obvious problems with filming it. I wonder if perhaps we don't require a paradigm shift in sports filming altogether. There are some pretty decent quality cameras for cheap. I'm thinking the best way, for now, might be to forego the traditional live coverage of other sports in favor of placing a ton of cameras around the course (maybe 3+ on every hole?) in fixed locations. Take this footage at the end of the event and edit it together to tell the story of the event. This would be a much more enjoyable experience for me to watch than DiscGolfPlanet.tv, as much as I admire what the latter are trying to do.

 

[Nuke]

Anyone in the world with a computer and internet connection could log on and watch the first NT of the season for free last weekend. When I was watching, I believe it peaked at around 1400. Disc golf won't be on TV. We all just need to come to grips with that and be okay with it.

 

[bradharris]

but quality disc golf coverage is just inherently interesting to watch. The flight of the disc, the surrounding nature, the back and forth competition... These all make for a good (televised) spectator sport...

Disagree 100%. The "nature" on a course hardly translates to TV, the competition is really hard to follow without a well put together broadcast that can accurately trace the action, and the flight of the disc. Well obviously we enjoy seeing that and it's part of the reason we play the sport, but to the layperson it's just a frisbee in the air.

Sports on TV get viewers because the competition is compelling. Any good broadcast has to capture that to be successful. There is no such thing as a sport that is just inherently broadcastable.

BUT there are obvious problems with filming it. I wonder if perhaps we don't require a paradigm shift in sports filming altogether. There are some pretty decent quality cameras for cheap. I'm thinking the best way, for now, might be to forego the traditional live coverage of other sports in favor of placing a ton of cameras around the course (maybe 3+ on every hole?) in fixed locations. Take this footage at the end of the event and edit it together to tell the story of the event. This would be a much more enjoyable experience for me to watch than DiscGolfPlanet.tv, as much as I admire what the latter are trying to do.

How is that any different from the many DVDs already in production?

 

[grodney]

I don't care enough or have the energy to type an entire manifesto, but you'd be a lot closer if you stopped worrying about (big) tournaments for the next 10-15 years and instead directed all that time/money/energy to other facets of the game. (Of course I said the same thing 15 years ago. Oh well.)

You'd also be well-served to stop worrying about building "world class" courses and "tournament" courses, and stop turbo-izing your existing courses; and instead, concentrate on building lower-level (i.e. short) courses that are still fun and interesting, especially in areas where the demographics and population are right.

But whatever -- carry on.

 

[xdzt]

Disagree 100%. The "nature" on a course hardly translates to TV, the competition is really hard to follow without a well put together broadcast that can accurately trace the action, and the flight of the disc. Well obviously we enjoy seeing that and it's part of the reason we play the sport, but to the layperson it's just a frisbee in the air.

When I say that the nature on a course translates well to TV, I mean in the same way it does in golf. If you watch broadcast golf, they often have short clips of just pretty areas or local wildlife. Furthermore, the surroundings of the game make it pleasing to the eye to watch in a way that many other broadcast sports don't achieve.

I agree that competition is tough to follow without a well put together broadcast, which is why I later go on to argue that a limited camera live-broadcast format probably isn't right for the sport yet, instead favoring a well edited video.

I disagree completely about lay people not enjoying watching a 400 ft drive soar through the air or a tricky putt through the trees manage to catch chains. Is the appreciation deeper if you play the game? Absolutely. But I firmly believe there's something aesthetically pleasing about the flight of discs, and the feats that the pros accomplish with said discs are interesting in a "whoa, look what they can do" kind of way.

How is that any different from the many DVDs already in production?

Because I would never buy a DVD of a sporting event unless I wanted to use it as a tool to work on part of my game. I'm thinking of a freely available internet stream with advertising for revenue rather than a physical dvd you watch once and let collect dust. I've watched a lot of ball golf and baseball on TV, but I would never in a million years pay for a DVD of a game/tournament.

 

[Disc Golf Live]

Valid points made about DG being available anytime for those of us who choose to track it down on the internet. Most of us know that there are videos of just about everything imaginable out there, if you know to look for them. Lots of DG viewing options, many of them pretty enjoyable.

However, those points overlook the biggest upside of DG on TV, which is to expose more and more uninitiated folks to the game. Online videos will never (unless one goes viral when picked up by a broader-market website) grow our game. Never. They will nourish the need of established disc golfers to learn more about the game and perhaps improve their skills, but online videos will not bring significant numbers of new players to our sport. You've got to know what you're looking for to find our sport online, after all.

Televised disc golf, at whatever level, should be seen as a means of growing public awareness and publicity in general. Such exposure takes its place alongside print stories, local course promoters, disc displays in stores, and baskets in high visibility locations at parks as just another way to bring more new players to our sport.

Nuke, be sure to check out Channel 22 in Charlotte, you'll find regular helpings of DG on TV:

http://video.uncc.edu/content/schedule

Mostly, DGL is on during the weekends and late night, so tune in if you get a chance.

Joe

 

[grodney]

USA Fencing has 17000 active members! Why aren't they on ESPN more??!?!

http://www.tacomafencing.com/index....ing-demographics&option=com_content&Itemid=50