American Disc Golf Tour

[DavidSauls]

my guess is they thought ESPN+DG=$$ and that every gary, jack, and joe would've paid up for the opportunity to be on "ESPN". Expecting an epic story of failure that will be talked about for years..

Remember way back in 2015, when it was Open-only ($300) and they reserved a 45-day period for invited players to claim their spots?

You're probably right that they expected the letters "ESPN" to create a sensation, and a stampede.

I agree with AndyJB that it may not be an epic failure. They have a very nice golf course, and (allegedly) about 70 registered with still a month to go. I'll settle for a big enough failure that we never hear another word about it---other than, of course, the mocking and ridicule sure to follow.

 

[OB Four]

Remember way back in 2015, when it was Open-only ($300) and they reserved a 45-day period for invited players to claim their spots?

You're probably right that they expected the letters "ESPN" to create a sensation, and a stampede.

I agree with AndyJB that it may not be an epic failure. They have a very nice golf course, and (allegedly) about 70 registered with still a month to go. I'll settle for a big enough failure that we never hear another word about it---other than, of course, the mocking and ridicule sure to follow.

I'm half expecting a hucker magazine situation.

 

[DavidSauls]

Then again, they might get their 50,000 views, particularly if views of any duration count.

It listed on ESPN3's website as just:

GOLF
American Open 2016


The only "golf" listing that day. So we can imagine golf fans, looking for whatever golf tournament is scheduled for that Sunday, seeing this, clicking on it, and being temporarily mesmerized by the appearance of hippies with Frisbees having invaded and taken over a golf course during a tournament, sort of an "Occupy Golf" revolt.

 

[DavidSauls]

I'm half expecting a hucker magazine situation.

It could be. I'd expect the rest of the Tour --- the promised 2 major pro events, 2 major amateur events per year --- to go that way, as well as the promised amateur handicaps.

 

[namar]

Slight typo on the new site.

:thmbup: that oughta mellow everyone out.

Does anyone ever wonder how they're going to afford all this? Pro quality live coverage is probably a minimum 15k up to 100k. Paying to get on ESPN3 can't be cheap? Paying to rent a golf course, paying Ricky to show up (joking, but maybe not), paying Billy Crump, then paying the winners, and all the prize packs. This is gonna cost a ton! How can they afford this?

fun fact: Salient spelled out in Cyrillic translates roughly as "laundered Russian Mob oil money"
I still think Trump is somehow involved.

 

[filobedo]

Then again, they might get their 50,000 views, particularly if views of any duration count.

It listed on ESPN3's website as just:

GOLF
American Open 2016


The only "golf" listing that day. So we can imagine golf fans, looking for whatever golf tournament is scheduled for that Sunday, seeing this, clicking on it, and being temporarily mesmerized by the appearance of hippies with Frisbees having invaded and taken over a golf course during a tournament, sort of an "Occupy Golf" revolt.

They will not get many traditional golf viewers as the "fifth major" aka The TPC is the same weekend. Playing on the property will be a treat for anyone that signs up. At this point, hopefully mainstream media realizes this was just an initial experiment similar to the PDGA working with the Beach Sports Network to show a few events a couple of years back that was not available for many to watch. If the TD is having trouble posting scores for a C Tier that concluded a week ago,I wonder how live scoring will go? Possibly tincans and string to relay scores from every hole back to the production truck?

 

[DavidSauls]

They will not get many traditional golf viewers as the "fifth major" aka The TPC is the same weekend.

I'm just wondering if some golf fans, looking online for the TPC or anything else, will see "golf", see an event they don't recognize with a promising name like "American Open", and click on it.

More pointedly, I'm wondering if that's the intention.

 

[DavidSauls]

They will not get many traditional golf viewers as the "fifth major" aka The TPC is the same weekend. Playing on the property will be a treat for anyone that signs up. At this point, hopefully mainstream media realizes this was just an initial experiment similar to the PDGA working with the Beach Sports Network to show a few events a couple of years back that was not available for many to watch. If the TD is having trouble posting scores for a C Tier that concluded a week ago,I wonder how live scoring will go? Possibly tincans and string to relay scores from every hole back to the production truck?

Just one of the multitude of knocks against this event, is the competence of the people running it. The inability to upload scores, from a 1-day event that purportedly had 18 players, re-enforces those doubts. (There are no results anywhere from the ADGT event on February 20, either. It wasn't a PDGA event so they're not obligated, but---who doesn't post their results anywhere, not even on the 2 websites and 2 facebook pages they control?)

You're right about the property, but they've posted some pictures and descriptions of some of the holes, and they are less-than-inspiring. Now, I acknowledge that sometimes holes don't reflect well in pictures, and I could be dead wrong about the layout. But after 4 months of commending them for getting Cobblestone---I'm still amazed and impressed by that---my reaction to those pictures and descriptions has been, "You've got to be kidding."

 

[JC17393]

I'm just wondering if some golf fans, looking online for the TPC or anything else, will see "golf", see an event they don't recognize with a promising name like "American Open", and click on it.

More pointedly, I'm wondering if that's the intention.

I'm assuming it's at best a 50/50 split in terms of intentional and unintentional. My guess is that ESPN3 doesn't have a "Disc Golf" category under which to list the tournament, and no intention to create one for what could be a one-off event, which is why it is classified as "Golf". That's the 50% unintentional since it's out of the organizers' hands.

However, I'd also guess that is the sort of thing ESPN would advise their broadcaster partners about in advance, since it is an unusual circumstance. Given that, wouldn't the best idea be to name the event "American Disc Golf Open" so there is no doubt or confusion?

I mean, since disc golf courses around here operate as businesses they're listed in the yellow pages under the Golf Course category as there is no Disc Golf category. But the disc courses specifically include "Disc Golf" in their listing to avoid confusion (we still occasionally get ball golfers showing up expecting "Discount Golf" though).

That's the 50% intentional part. They're trying to sucker ball golf viewers into clicking and loading the stream and bolstering their unique viewer count in the process.

Of course, that might be giving the organizers too much credit for being smart enough to actually recognize that potential and exploit it.

 

[DavidSauls]

You could be right about ESPN. But they do have a record of carefully hedging their words in a way bound to mislead. "Live on ESPN Networks" comes to mind.

In the Orangeburg course takeover fiasco, they said "There was no active club registered with the city", clearly sidestepping that there was an active club with a history of running tournaments there, with the parks department's consent.

 

[DavidSauls]

And if it's just an accident, I'm sure they'll take credit for the viewership numbers that result.

 

[filobedo]

I'm just wondering if some golf fans, looking online for the TPC or anything else, will see "golf", see an event they don't recognize with a promising name like "American Open", and click on it.

More pointedly, I'm wondering if that's the intention.

Not likely unless the LPGA tour or Champions Tour viewers are looking for coverage. The Golf Channel now has a relationship with NBC who has the Players and most golf viewers know where to find the major golf telecasts. I maybe wrong but I think ESPN only shows two days of PGA tour coverage at the Masters and possibly the same type of coverage at the Tour Championship or some of the FedEx which are in April and in the Fall. I am still surprised no one was upset when the PDGA had tournament broadcasts on Beach Sports with limited viewing because it was on such an obscure channel that is very limited and I think they broadcast the dg events a couple months after the fact in the middle of weekdays or in the middle of the night. They must have sold that deal to one of the touring pros selling Vemma on Tour.

 

[DavidSauls]

OK, I gotcha. I don't watch much golf, nor anything online, but that makes a bit of sense (in regards to golf fans not looking to ESPN).

Obviously, no one was upset with the Beach Sports channel because it was nothing like the ADGT. People were underwhelmed, but that's about it.

 

[texhop58]

So was told the American disc golf qualifier in dfw today fetched 4 cards of 3 for their event. I'm sure they were hoping for a few more to that list.

 

[filobedo]

I'm just wondering if some golf fans, looking online for the TPC or anything else, will see "golf", see an event they don't recognize with a promising name like "American Open", and click on it.

More pointedly, I'm wondering if that's the intention.

I see your point and just found the listing which is broad and could be anything similar to,
"the Human Fund, money for people."

 

[DavidSauls]

I see your point and just found the listing which is broad and could be anything similar to,
"the Human Fund, money for people."

Somehow, the listings I came upon were a little different---sorted by sport, with a heading for each sport or type of broadcast (Sportscenter, E60, etc.). It showed everything on ESPN, not just ESPN3. Hence my reference to the "Golf" heading.

 

[DavidSauls]

So was told the American disc golf qualifier in dfw today fetched 4 cards of 3 for their event. I'm sure they were hoping for a few more to that list.

They posted results (though I can only work out part of it). 13 players, 2 pros (5 of whom received free ADGT memberships). I'd say the Texas Open hitched their wagon to the wrong star.

 

[texhop58]

Ok. I had talked to one of the players today. He said he thought 12. But he said the payout and player pack was fair or equivalent for what he paid compared to a PDGA event.

 

[DavidSauls]

Did they play by ADGT rules?

 

[bradharris]

I'm not sure a massive failure, but it will looks like a small C-Tier that somehow had a few top pros. For disc golfers, it wont matter and for non disc-golfers.....well, it wont matter either.

I'm sure it will just fizzle away to nothing. I just hope, for their sakes, that the pros get paid.

This event could be a massive failure, but not in a very public trainwreck kind of way. There is a lot of money invested in this. Where that money is coming from is unclear, but someone is footing the bill. It seems unlikely that the investors/advertisers are going to see anywhere near the kinds of returns they were hoping for.