@ David Sauls...
A network will take a chance on any sport (let's say disc golf) if they think its entertainment value is enough to drum up viewership thus increasing its market share and making their ad time more valuable. In the past, the sponsor dollars mostly come from entities that are not directly related to the "event" in question. For example, ExLax paying for commercial time during a Dart Tournament or car race. What does Home Depot have to do with NASCAR? What does Mutual of Omaha have to do with Wild Animals? What does Pepsi have to do with Hockey?
ExLax just wants to get their commercials on the air and traditionally the cost of air time during the dart tournament, or whatever, will be cheaper, and, if there is no objection by the parties involved, they will take the time allotted to them. Ex Lax doesn't specifically buy a particular time (though they can and do but it's more expensive) but rather a package of time slots which will air over a specific period of time. For example: Fifty spots which would air over the second week of March or for the entire month of April. It all depends on air time costs. Of course this is just a minor example of a much larger issue, but I wanted to illustrate that it doesn't have to be Innova or Fly Pad or Disc Nation buying air time. It could be any entity buying air time. Red Bull seems to be a big proponent of lesser known sports, why not disc golf? And for those calling Red Bull poison, etc... check yourself before you wreck yourself. It's a sponsor and Snickers or Bud Light aren't exactly elixirs for a long, healthy life either. I don't drink the stuff but if they want to spend their dollars on my sport, go ahead and plaster your Red Bull flag anywhere you want.
What's more important is that the PRODUCERS of the event make a great product which can be sold to the station (more specifically: the rights to air the program/event for a specific amount of time). So if The Memorial had been filmed, pieced together and presented to meet the basic industry standard it could be sold to a cable station or media conglomerate who could air the program as either original programing, filler, a late-night broadcast, or some other slot on their schedule where they have an opening. Station managers are ALWAYS looking for new material and are ALWAYS willing to take chances. Sometimes it works, a lot of times it doesn't. But they will take the chance. If it's interesting enough, it may attract a viewership from outside of the sport. If the sport pushes the event on its known fans and gets them to watch, thus pushing up the numbers, the next time you have an event to sell to the station, you'll get more interest and support. If the product is clean (nothing that would scare away sponsors - this is where the anti-drug argument comes up) then it's easier to find sponsors willing to support the product. The people at Lou's Tire Emporium in Salt Lake don't care about disc golf (or maybe they do) they just want their ad to run.
If disc golf was presented in a more dynamic way than it is now it would get more attention from stations looking to add content. It's hard to sell disc golf to a station when disc golf is played in a public park with joggers and birthday parties going on in the background. It's hard to sell disc golf as a sport when the "look" of the sport is hard to understand to a casual observer.
I think one way to make it more attractive would be to have a $100,000 challenge. Winner gets 100K, second place 50K, or something like that. Make the event more appealing to the players and put more drama on the line. Make the event more interesting to follow so a viewer can involve themselves in the drama. I know the first question people are going to ask is, "okay, who puts up the $100,000? Well, that's where the disc golf companies need to show up. Or some benefactor with some moxie. It's going to take someone with some love of the sport who has a deep pocket to take that chance.
If the Iditarod with just over 40 competitors and barely over a week of competition can drum up attention, then certainly disc golf can do the same. And the two sports are almost the same age. And again, I bring up skateboarding. It's the same age as disc golf, yet it's flourishing while disc golf is still struggling to find a foothold. What did skateboarding do that disc golf didn't do?
I think I saw a disc golf video from the early eighties or maybe the seventies with Casey Kasem doing the play-by-play. What's interesting is that the winner was playing for 30K. Is that right? Or am I mistaken? 30K in early eighties money. I don't think there's a modern day event that even comes close to that amount. I could be mistaken about that total, but I think that's what they said in the video. I bring this up because obviously the sport had some outside interest at one time and my question is how did that slip away? What was it about the sport that made TV exes pass on any future broadcasts?
I'm not that old but I am not in the best health. But I do hope to live long enough to see disc golf get to that next level. I wish I had the money to be that benefactor for the sport because I would certainly love to see the 100K challenge become a reality.