In the for what it's worth column, here's my take on the DGWT...
I've made a couple of observations and posted an opinion - overall, however, it's important to note Jussi ran a fine tournament, the course was dressed nicely and the event was executed well. Kudos to him and his team.
Some quick perspective, I was Commissioner and Chairman of the Board of the PDGA in the early part of this century and drove the creation of the National Tour (among other things including negotiating the IDGC, restructuring the org, creating the disc golf foundation and the Majors structure). At the time, I was relatively new to the organized aspect of the sport and previously had been an active in racing mountain bikes. While in that sport I witnessed 2 organizations, IMBA and NORBA, split the riders which had lasting negative impact on its growth (when was the last time you watched that sport on network television?). While serving the PDGA it was personally important to maintain and keep the voice of the players relevant in the growth of the sport. In full disclosure, I do wonder whether the current elected leadership has lost sight of that dynamic, the org is arguably no longer leading but following and seems to be willing to hand over control of top events (DGWT DGPT) justifying it as 'they can do a better job than we can'. Not sure if that's just an excuse for underperformance or justified, right now all is fine and dandy until the basic for-profit motivations are no longer aligned with the desires/voice of the players - which will likely happen over time.
The NT was certainly less than perfect (I took a lot of arrows to the back
- but it was the best we had to offer at the time, was a top request from the members and, in hindsight, has sustained itself for 13 years thus far. It did, however, fundamentally ensure that the voice of the players, the PDGA, had a significant role in its development – whether or not it has been used over time.
So... DGWT adding women's divisions? We can ask but as players we have no right to demand it in this case.
You can say what you want about the course/layout/and facility but it's Jussi's call.
To this point, I expressed an opinion on this as it's tough for me to reconcile the ultimate vision of the DGWT with holding the event in a multi-use public park. Totally agree the PDGA had nothing to do with sight selection – but they've been working on identifying medium-size cities for major events for years, seems like that effort could have benefitted Jussi and the DGWT had it been leveraged… As I watched on Saturday – it simply felt like we stepped back in time 13 years to the NT kick-off without much change other than a little more glitz…
More and higher quality video coverage would have been great - we can ask for it and if it's profitable, we'll get more... Jussi's call...
I wish for nothing but success in the efforts of the DGWT, we all will be better for it. I do, however, remain curious on the ability for the new tours to provide a real economic return on the investment… The PDGA likely justifies its quarter million-ish/year investment in the NT/Majors as marketing expense as there is little-to-no direct return.
