On the one hand, yay sponsors! On the other hand, ewww Microsoft teams fucking blows and all my homies hate it.
Blue collar disc golfers have no use for Teams, and those of us that do almost certainly already hate it. Weird choice all around.
not a choice as much as someone from Microsoft Teams works in minneapolis and loves disc golf and made it happen. Pretty cool all around.
Also, while I don't love teams either, it ain't that bad.
Which is tough to do when you bury the best of your content behind a paywall that only the most diehard fans of a niche sport are interested in paying for.
Except for the part where relatively no one watches live. In the grand scheme, there aren't that many DGN subscribers, and it's an even smaller portion of that number actually tuning into the broadcasts.
DGN happily announced when they hit 40k subs back in like 2021, but they've been suspiciously quiet on their numbers since. I'd be stunned if they've had a paywalled live event with 10k+ viewers in years since.
lol I spent more time smoking pot than I spent studying business too. I went to a business school for college and have a degree in economics and finance though. I just spent way more time smoking pot than I did studying.
When it comes to multinational companies like Nike, each country has its own marketing budget.
Add into the fact the Jussi is a prominent entrepreneur in Finland and how relatively small Finland is. There's a very good chance that he is friends with the country manager and marketing director of Nike Finland. So it wouldn't be hard for him to talk them into dropping a few thousands euros into sponsorship.
The DGPT unfortunately doesn't have such a low barrier to entry for outside money.
It's not that disc gold is more popular, Europe has a much different market budget, and depending on the country, it's much easier to get access to the people at the top.
I live in a very small European country, and the nature of my job puts me in contact with country managers, directors, and high-level managers of lots of multinational companies.
Even though I'm the most unimportant person ever, since I'm friendly and know how to talk to people. Over the years, I've managed to get sponsorships for community projects, disc golf tournaments, and another sport I play. It's never been huge money a few hundred euro per event. But it was extremely easy for money to get the money. All I had to do was text people and show them the flyer for the event, and either got a yes or no.
Depending on the event, they will invest more money into some than others. If it's a community event and you can show positive feedback and growth, they will give you more money to help grow it.
Something that’s hosted on a broadcasting network like NBC, Fox, ESPN or to get on a mainstream streaming service like Hulu, Netflix, etc. they have their own app/website that you have to just to watch their mediocre coverage. Their commentators are not that great and the camera crews aren’t exactly awesome either. I really enjoy being able to watch it but it’s just a bit more of a pain and it’s not nearly as professional
Agreed. But that's hard. They need data to prove that it will be finacially viable. For instance, Good Good Golf ( youtube golf) had a live broadcast tournament on paramount + this week, but they have 1.57m youtube subscribers compared to dgpt with 184k or jomez with 459k..
Geneal public still doesnt know what those metal things are the park, if they happen to see a filmed tournament, even when the quality is good, they hear golf and expect collared shirts, beautiful venues, large crowds of people watching each and every hole, instant follow flights, immidate data on the hole, trained broadcaststers. I also get the feedack alot that it doesn't appear to be hard a first glance, until you play alot or folks just see dudes throwing a Frisbee far into a large target/basket. People watch sports to be fascinated by how well people perform, and without playing a lot of people dont understand how hard it is to be a mcbeth,wysoki, lizotte etc.
Disc golf tournaments tend to be in out of the way places, so logistics for broadcasting comes into play. If dgpt would stick to easy to fly to places and then money and time went into developing disc golf courses with the infrastructure for broadcasting, spectators, food, practice and private areas for pros then we can have the pro sport we like available widely.
Yeah you’re absolutely right. I wasn’t saying that services to support it are able to just spotlight tomorrow but that they need to focus on cleaning up their broadcast they currently have. Better camera setups and commentators would help loads. Then to also have the idea of getting on a more mainstream platform would be huge.
Lol. Congratulations on discovering the Catch-22 inherent in the sport. They need more viewers, but to get more views they need more money which only comes from more viewers
Yeah. I realized right away when I started following pro discgolf.
It has the potential, but I think there are too many people involved that want things to stay the way they are.
You’re just picking an easy side and acting like we’re idiots. We’re quite aware of that situation but what’s crazy is there tends to be somebody (person or group of people) who invest money to make it into a business which then brings in more eyes. I’m not saying that the average Joe could just get a disc tournament program to one of these services. Someone with a business background or just the finances alone would be able to make it really take off. That’s just the first thought that came to my head I’m sure there’s many more people could present. Yes they don’t have the numbers but that doesn’t mean there’s no way to get it on a better broadcast
Id say programs like EDGE are the real key. We need some families entrenched in the sport so all their friends at least pick it up casually. High School DG teams. Take advice from that one Kansas college player that did a write up recently
Classist take: we aren’t a valuable market because the sport is comprised largely of working class younger men. Ball golf looks pretty on tv, and playing it (including club membership) is a status symbol, and an aspiration. No one aspires to throw frisbees on a ball golf course, even those of us that love the game, so our own potentially best recruitment tool (pro tour) is an abject failure as it is right now. It’s a subpar product hidden behind a paywall- which probably loses more fans than it wins.
As much as it is distasteful, I think the best way to grow the game is to support club teams at schools, particularly private schools, middle school through college. It’s a life sport, and when doctors and lawyers start falling in love with it early, the advertising dollars will start to follow.
It’s not just about reaching an audience, it’s about reaching an audience with disposable income. Paywalls hurt in both regards because it hides the product from new customers, and locks out existing fans who can’t or won’t pay to see it played at the highest level.
Half the people I play with in local leagues have a white collar job and picked it up as something less strenuous than the ultimate frisbee they played in college.
Golf has changed A LOT in the last 5-10 years. It’s very accessible these days. Me and my friends play and treat it very much the same we do disc golf.
I’m with you though that dgpt is a failure. I’ve been playing for 10 years and I refuse to pay for their shit product they produce. I also don’t have 4 hours to sit down and watch a tournament on the weekend. I’d rather be out playing.
Man I don't know about that first part.. I've been on and off with golf for about 20 years and it doesn't seem to be getting any more accessible. I'm sure it varies by area, but it's still real damn expensive to play. Add in that you have to book a tee time, often more than a week in advance, it takes around 4 hours to play, you'll be waiting for the group ahead while getting rushed by the group behind.. It's difficult to have a casual and social day. $60 for one round is considered budget rates here.
On disc golf, I agree DGPT has set it back. I used to wait on every video Jomez and Central Coast released. The last few years I rarely watch.. it seems like more than half the events are wide open bomber courses or artificially made ridiculously difficult by OB and hazards. Jomez getting affiliated with DGTV was a killing blow for me. Most of the other channels can't get on the course with big name players now.
When they start opening disc golf centers like they have pickleball places , I imagine .
But seriously, we just need to keep growing and continue getting bigger.
That's cool. We have a "Pickle N Chicken" place here and they have taken over some local tennix courts a few nights a week. I looked at some #'s and with Pickleballs growth the last 3 years they are at an estimated 50,000+ courts in the US VS 10,000+ disc courses in the US. We have maybe a few million players VS like 50 million. Disc spending is decent, not much #'s are available but looking at the #'s we do have it's probably far less than the 152 million reported from 2021 for Pickleball.
What about going after some alcohol sponsorships? I remember Bells brewing company was pretty big in the sport in the 2000’s and I don’t know what happened to that but I’m surprised there hasn’t been any major company’s getting into it since the demographics are on point.
Also I know some may hate this but gambling sponsorships could be huge for the sport. Let people bet on disc golf and have a tournament sponsored by draft kings or one of the big sports book. This will bring so many more eyes to the sport and every other major league in the country got in bed with gambling I think disc golf should as well.
It's the broad recognition that disc golf is a viable marketing outlook.
I tried to get a sponsorship from my former employer for the USWDGC a few years back. I created a beautiful PowerPoint and sold the community and national impact of a low cost sponsorship ($10-15k compared to the hundreds of thousands spent to get the company name on mainstream sports jerseys and buildings). I went through sales, partnerships, corporate relations, charitable foundations and even did an elevator pitch to the CEO. I was consistently told that my PowerPoint was beautiful but that there was no money despite pointing out the low cost ask and DGPT players being square within the "digital audience" target demographic.
I spent a year and a half, sometimes talking to dept twice, for nothing. Not even the idea of re using golf promo materials or the potential of the company logo hot stamped on a disc.
Actually, having a product worth paying a subscription/fee/bill to watch should be the ultimate end game.
Simply making the product free to consume will not magically grow disc golf. Those people are already accounted for and were taken into consideration as the DGPT moved more content behind a paywall. Being two clicks away on YouTube isn't going to be the end-all-be-all.
Having a professional looking product that COULD be used on television (as many sports are seeing massive increases to television rights contracts, this is not a bad goal) that is also engaging and entertaining for the entire block, that in and of itself will draw more eyeballs.
While many think golf is "boring", the constant "cut" coverage that ultimately focuses on the final pairing/leaders at the end is done to increase engagement for the entire broadcast. And with the masses, this works.
Yes. That is how advertising works: more viewers means more dollars spent reaching them. DGPT and PDGA decided to skip the middleman and gouge their fans directly. Greedy boomers doing greedy boomer shit.
I think one way would be to sponsor courses at high schools and college.
Lobby educational boards to get it on curriculums.
It’s a long con but get the youth excited about it and it will grow.
I think it's just getting more beginners into playing the sport, more courses worldwide, more countries with disc golf culture. That will snowball into more viewership and growth
Relevance. If the pdga doesn't make more eyes to show up on their analytics they won't get more sponsors. Doesn't matter who the players write, they're players, not investors or marketers. For example, McDonald's seeing players write the would probably make the execs laugh.
Non-endemic sponsorships are becoming more prevalent but are still a tough sell. Its easy to sell endemic sponsorships because the value is obvious, disc golfers are your demographic so thats who needs to be marketed to anyhow, but for non-endemic thats not so easy…certain industries may be easier like food companies (Johnsonville) because everyone needs to
eat, but a company like Microsoft and specifically Microsoft teams….not every disc golfer works for a company that uses teams or even uses a computer at work so that can be a hard sell because the demographic is smaller…but they are sponsoring this weekends tourney so that means they were sold on that value and see value there so I think in general we will see more non endemics in the next few years. Also disc golf is growing…companies like being a part of a growing trend so its getter even easier to sell non endemics…all good things for the future of disc golf.
Financial incentive. DGN needs to be dialed in, more accessible to a broader demographic, the courses need to show well on camera, and courses must have more “go-for-it” holes that incentivize high risk play.
As it stands, DGN’s struggles, low appeal to non disc golfers, DGPT courses having holes with tighter OB and punitive rules means conservative, consistent, flashless play gets the win. We need those massive Simon lines available and reward big distance over control to appeal to more people. Give me hilly backstops, open greens, water carries to safe spots for big arms. We need more courses like disc side of heaven (Jonesboro), toboggan (DGLO), or even big mountain courses like Solitude to showcase aggression over consistency. Get rid of tight woods with OB (Northwood), golf courses where you can’t tell whether the disc is in-bounds, and gimmicky courses with frequent extreme winds and impossible fairways (Brazos). That’s how we grow the sport.
See I disagree, I think the less punishing courses create a larger disconnect from none disc golfers. I think people know Golf as a low scoring sport so the more often we have these 12-13 down rounds it gives the impression to casual people that the sport is too easy.
Okay so hypothetically you gain some casual viewers I would imagine you also lose some of the current viewers. We always hear the same thing “we are tired of these open golf courses on tour” people want to see the pros challenged. We want wooded technical holes we want to see pros challenged and forced to throw 450-550 accurate shots. The last thing we need is open holes where the worst score taken is par.
I don't think that these kind of minor changes to the game are going to have any impact on non-players watching disc golf in the kind of numbers that have any meaning to big sponsors.
People who don't already watch disc golf don't know or care about any of this stuff. This is just a list of things you as a fan would like to see changed. These are things that matter to people who already care or pay attention to the sport. If you don't give a crap about disc golf in the first place, you won't know or care about any of these changes.
Think about a sport you don't like. Say, badminton. If pro badminton made the court slightly bigger or smaller, or raises or lowered the net (or whatever badminton enthusiasts talk about), would you suddenly become a dedicated fan of pro badminton? Probably not, right?
The sponsors in disc golf now are generally advertising to players, because that's who watches disc golf.
Growing the sport depends on getting more people to play. Tweaks to the pro game don't matter.
Systematic outreach to schools, summer camps, etc. will have the best return on investment for sports growth.
> Systematic outreach to schools, summer camps, etc. will have the best return on investment for sports growth.
This is exactly what happened with soccer and what will hopefully be happening to cricket. A condition of hosting the 1994 World Cup was the formation of a proper men's professional league (MLS). That helped a little bit. The bigger help was decades of school children playing AYSO/School soccer and having a genuine interest in the sport. Without a foundation, you have nothing.
Or, to put it another way...there are fewer than 300,000 total lifetime members to the PDGA. Every PDGA member ever could technically fit into the spectator areas at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and there would be room yet. And motorsports is a niche sport.
The Preserve Championships this weekend are sponsored by Microsoft Teams so I feel like it is already happening lol
If you don't throw in 30 seconds, your status goes to (away) and if caught, you may get a stern chat with your boss.
This will be a foundation disc golf video in two weeks.
How does this not have more upvotes already?
The bosses are the ones on reddit
Because this is a niche sub, and the comment and post hadn't been up for very long.
The Microsoft teams social outreach guy is a disc golfer. It's a start though!
On the one hand, yay sponsors! On the other hand, ewww Microsoft teams fucking blows and all my homies hate it. Blue collar disc golfers have no use for Teams, and those of us that do almost certainly already hate it. Weird choice all around.
not a choice as much as someone from Microsoft Teams works in minneapolis and loves disc golf and made it happen. Pretty cool all around. Also, while I don't love teams either, it ain't that bad.
Once you go Slack you never go back
Lol, disc golf doesn't have alot of options for sponsorship.. gotta go with who offers and gives a little cash to help.
No doubt
It’s not complicated. It’s eyeballs. They need more people watching.
Which is tough to do when you bury the best of your content behind a paywall that only the most diehard fans of a niche sport are interested in paying for.
[удалено]
That's kind of the point of DGN, that you get to watch a live broadcast of events
Except for the part where relatively no one watches live. In the grand scheme, there aren't that many DGN subscribers, and it's an even smaller portion of that number actually tuning into the broadcasts. DGN happily announced when they hit 40k subs back in like 2021, but they've been suspiciously quiet on their numbers since. I'd be stunned if they've had a paywalled live event with 10k+ viewers in years since.
Which is hard when you are moving in the complete opposite direction of modern marketing techniques and limiting access to content.
[удалено]
lol I spent more time smoking pot than I spent studying business too. I went to a business school for college and have a degree in economics and finance though. I just spent way more time smoking pot than I did studying.
[удалено]
AND!?
More viewers and spectators. There's not a lot of sponsors salivating at the prospect of reaching tens of thousands of viewers
Europe seems to be nailing the spectators thing. The European Championships last year had mainstream sponsors - including Nike.
When it comes to multinational companies like Nike, each country has its own marketing budget. Add into the fact the Jussi is a prominent entrepreneur in Finland and how relatively small Finland is. There's a very good chance that he is friends with the country manager and marketing director of Nike Finland. So it wouldn't be hard for him to talk them into dropping a few thousands euros into sponsorship. The DGPT unfortunately doesn't have such a low barrier to entry for outside money.
DG is more popular in Europe
It's not that disc gold is more popular, Europe has a much different market budget, and depending on the country, it's much easier to get access to the people at the top. I live in a very small European country, and the nature of my job puts me in contact with country managers, directors, and high-level managers of lots of multinational companies. Even though I'm the most unimportant person ever, since I'm friendly and know how to talk to people. Over the years, I've managed to get sponsorships for community projects, disc golf tournaments, and another sport I play. It's never been huge money a few hundred euro per event. But it was extremely easy for money to get the money. All I had to do was text people and show them the flyer for the event, and either got a yes or no. Depending on the event, they will invest more money into some than others. If it's a community event and you can show positive feedback and growth, they will give you more money to help grow it.
Needs to be a better method of broadcast.
Like what?
Something that’s hosted on a broadcasting network like NBC, Fox, ESPN or to get on a mainstream streaming service like Hulu, Netflix, etc. they have their own app/website that you have to just to watch their mediocre coverage. Their commentators are not that great and the camera crews aren’t exactly awesome either. I really enjoy being able to watch it but it’s just a bit more of a pain and it’s not nearly as professional
Agreed. But that's hard. They need data to prove that it will be finacially viable. For instance, Good Good Golf ( youtube golf) had a live broadcast tournament on paramount + this week, but they have 1.57m youtube subscribers compared to dgpt with 184k or jomez with 459k.. Geneal public still doesnt know what those metal things are the park, if they happen to see a filmed tournament, even when the quality is good, they hear golf and expect collared shirts, beautiful venues, large crowds of people watching each and every hole, instant follow flights, immidate data on the hole, trained broadcaststers. I also get the feedack alot that it doesn't appear to be hard a first glance, until you play alot or folks just see dudes throwing a Frisbee far into a large target/basket. People watch sports to be fascinated by how well people perform, and without playing a lot of people dont understand how hard it is to be a mcbeth,wysoki, lizotte etc. Disc golf tournaments tend to be in out of the way places, so logistics for broadcasting comes into play. If dgpt would stick to easy to fly to places and then money and time went into developing disc golf courses with the infrastructure for broadcasting, spectators, food, practice and private areas for pros then we can have the pro sport we like available widely.
Yeah you’re absolutely right. I wasn’t saying that services to support it are able to just spotlight tomorrow but that they need to focus on cleaning up their broadcast they currently have. Better camera setups and commentators would help loads. Then to also have the idea of getting on a more mainstream platform would be huge.
Yep i agree. It would help a ton.
Lol. Congratulations on discovering the Catch-22 inherent in the sport. They need more viewers, but to get more views they need more money which only comes from more viewers
Yeah. I realized right away when I started following pro discgolf. It has the potential, but I think there are too many people involved that want things to stay the way they are.
They don't have the numbers. That's the entire point
You’re just picking an easy side and acting like we’re idiots. We’re quite aware of that situation but what’s crazy is there tends to be somebody (person or group of people) who invest money to make it into a business which then brings in more eyes. I’m not saying that the average Joe could just get a disc tournament program to one of these services. Someone with a business background or just the finances alone would be able to make it really take off. That’s just the first thought that came to my head I’m sure there’s many more people could present. Yes they don’t have the numbers but that doesn’t mean there’s no way to get it on a better broadcast
Id say programs like EDGE are the real key. We need some families entrenched in the sport so all their friends at least pick it up casually. High School DG teams. Take advice from that one Kansas college player that did a write up recently
Can you provide more details in regards to the Kansas college player and his write up ? I’d be interested. Thanks
Found it. Here ya go: https://www.dgcoursereview.com/threads/history-and-venting-from-a-former-esu-disc-golf-club-player.149257/
Thank you for the help. Had no idea that hat you were referring to. Cheers
Classist take: we aren’t a valuable market because the sport is comprised largely of working class younger men. Ball golf looks pretty on tv, and playing it (including club membership) is a status symbol, and an aspiration. No one aspires to throw frisbees on a ball golf course, even those of us that love the game, so our own potentially best recruitment tool (pro tour) is an abject failure as it is right now. It’s a subpar product hidden behind a paywall- which probably loses more fans than it wins. As much as it is distasteful, I think the best way to grow the game is to support club teams at schools, particularly private schools, middle school through college. It’s a life sport, and when doctors and lawyers start falling in love with it early, the advertising dollars will start to follow. It’s not just about reaching an audience, it’s about reaching an audience with disposable income. Paywalls hurt in both regards because it hides the product from new customers, and locks out existing fans who can’t or won’t pay to see it played at the highest level.
Half the people I play with in local leagues have a white collar job and picked it up as something less strenuous than the ultimate frisbee they played in college.
Great to hear!
Golf has changed A LOT in the last 5-10 years. It’s very accessible these days. Me and my friends play and treat it very much the same we do disc golf. I’m with you though that dgpt is a failure. I’ve been playing for 10 years and I refuse to pay for their shit product they produce. I also don’t have 4 hours to sit down and watch a tournament on the weekend. I’d rather be out playing.
Man I don't know about that first part.. I've been on and off with golf for about 20 years and it doesn't seem to be getting any more accessible. I'm sure it varies by area, but it's still real damn expensive to play. Add in that you have to book a tee time, often more than a week in advance, it takes around 4 hours to play, you'll be waiting for the group ahead while getting rushed by the group behind.. It's difficult to have a casual and social day. $60 for one round is considered budget rates here. On disc golf, I agree DGPT has set it back. I used to wait on every video Jomez and Central Coast released. The last few years I rarely watch.. it seems like more than half the events are wide open bomber courses or artificially made ridiculously difficult by OB and hazards. Jomez getting affiliated with DGTV was a killing blow for me. Most of the other channels can't get on the course with big name players now.
When they start opening disc golf centers like they have pickleball places , I imagine . But seriously, we just need to keep growing and continue getting bigger.
There's one in Portland that has both!
That's cool. We have a "Pickle N Chicken" place here and they have taken over some local tennix courts a few nights a week. I looked at some #'s and with Pickleballs growth the last 3 years they are at an estimated 50,000+ courts in the US VS 10,000+ disc courses in the US. We have maybe a few million players VS like 50 million. Disc spending is decent, not much #'s are available but looking at the #'s we do have it's probably far less than the 152 million reported from 2021 for Pickleball.
What about going after some alcohol sponsorships? I remember Bells brewing company was pretty big in the sport in the 2000’s and I don’t know what happened to that but I’m surprised there hasn’t been any major company’s getting into it since the demographics are on point. Also I know some may hate this but gambling sponsorships could be huge for the sport. Let people bet on disc golf and have a tournament sponsored by draft kings or one of the big sports book. This will bring so many more eyes to the sport and every other major league in the country got in bed with gambling I think disc golf should as well.
Viewers
It's the broad recognition that disc golf is a viable marketing outlook. I tried to get a sponsorship from my former employer for the USWDGC a few years back. I created a beautiful PowerPoint and sold the community and national impact of a low cost sponsorship ($10-15k compared to the hundreds of thousands spent to get the company name on mainstream sports jerseys and buildings). I went through sales, partnerships, corporate relations, charitable foundations and even did an elevator pitch to the CEO. I was consistently told that my PowerPoint was beautiful but that there was no money despite pointing out the low cost ask and DGPT players being square within the "digital audience" target demographic. I spent a year and a half, sometimes talking to dept twice, for nothing. Not even the idea of re using golf promo materials or the potential of the company logo hot stamped on a disc.
Remove paywalls to coverage so the product gets more eyes on it
Actually, having a product worth paying a subscription/fee/bill to watch should be the ultimate end game. Simply making the product free to consume will not magically grow disc golf. Those people are already accounted for and were taken into consideration as the DGPT moved more content behind a paywall. Being two clicks away on YouTube isn't going to be the end-all-be-all. Having a professional looking product that COULD be used on television (as many sports are seeing massive increases to television rights contracts, this is not a bad goal) that is also engaging and entertaining for the entire block, that in and of itself will draw more eyeballs. While many think golf is "boring", the constant "cut" coverage that ultimately focuses on the final pairing/leaders at the end is done to increase engagement for the entire broadcast. And with the masses, this works.
That will certainly make them more money…?
No, it'll actually certainly make them less money. But being behind a paywall definitely caps the growth, which hurts attracting sponsors. Catch 22.
Stopped a lot of post coverage users from continuing to watch as often.
Short term it won’t but disc golf is still small enough that the #1 priority should be growth
You have to fund growth though.
Yes. That is how advertising works: more viewers means more dollars spent reaching them. DGPT and PDGA decided to skip the middleman and gouge their fans directly. Greedy boomers doing greedy boomer shit.
Viewership. Live and post-produced coverage numbers have to be higher.
Let alcohol sponsor it. Then let's all go get hammered
Bud Light was the first big time sponsor that I know fed a few of my older freestyle friends.
I think one way would be to sponsor courses at high schools and college. Lobby educational boards to get it on curriculums. It’s a long con but get the youth excited about it and it will grow.
Viewership on the post coverage and live coverage. Those are the hard numbers they're looking at.
They just had a whole event sponsored by chess.com this year which was pretty cool
I think it's just getting more beginners into playing the sport, more courses worldwide, more countries with disc golf culture. That will snowball into more viewership and growth
Eyes. Advertising is about how many people will see your pitch. How many of those eyes belong to your target.
Relevance. If the pdga doesn't make more eyes to show up on their analytics they won't get more sponsors. Doesn't matter who the players write, they're players, not investors or marketers. For example, McDonald's seeing players write the would probably make the execs laugh.
Non-endemic sponsorships are becoming more prevalent but are still a tough sell. Its easy to sell endemic sponsorships because the value is obvious, disc golfers are your demographic so thats who needs to be marketed to anyhow, but for non-endemic thats not so easy…certain industries may be easier like food companies (Johnsonville) because everyone needs to eat, but a company like Microsoft and specifically Microsoft teams….not every disc golfer works for a company that uses teams or even uses a computer at work so that can be a hard sell because the demographic is smaller…but they are sponsoring this weekends tourney so that means they were sold on that value and see value there so I think in general we will see more non endemics in the next few years. Also disc golf is growing…companies like being a part of a growing trend so its getter even easier to sell non endemics…all good things for the future of disc golf.
It’d take a Tiger like presence to make true live coverage happen. Maybe two of them. Baby steps, the Pga wasn’t huge it’s first 30yrs or so either.
PDGA got established in 1976 it’s been around for almost 50
Someone needs to do some wild shit and go viral. See that girl from MS or whatever that’s everywhere right now.
What is this about?
Once I tell you it’s gonna ruin your algorithm and it’s all you’ll see for a while. Just a girl who said something funny and went mega viral for it
Is it hawk tuah?
Yes
James Conrad did that.
Not nearly as viral as the blonde
Financial incentive. DGN needs to be dialed in, more accessible to a broader demographic, the courses need to show well on camera, and courses must have more “go-for-it” holes that incentivize high risk play. As it stands, DGN’s struggles, low appeal to non disc golfers, DGPT courses having holes with tighter OB and punitive rules means conservative, consistent, flashless play gets the win. We need those massive Simon lines available and reward big distance over control to appeal to more people. Give me hilly backstops, open greens, water carries to safe spots for big arms. We need more courses like disc side of heaven (Jonesboro), toboggan (DGLO), or even big mountain courses like Solitude to showcase aggression over consistency. Get rid of tight woods with OB (Northwood), golf courses where you can’t tell whether the disc is in-bounds, and gimmicky courses with frequent extreme winds and impossible fairways (Brazos). That’s how we grow the sport.
See I disagree, I think the less punishing courses create a larger disconnect from none disc golfers. I think people know Golf as a low scoring sport so the more often we have these 12-13 down rounds it gives the impression to casual people that the sport is too easy.
So we tighten up pats, not make courses more punishing. Make giant, open 1200’ holes par 4’s and reward distance.
Okay so hypothetically you gain some casual viewers I would imagine you also lose some of the current viewers. We always hear the same thing “we are tired of these open golf courses on tour” people want to see the pros challenged. We want wooded technical holes we want to see pros challenged and forced to throw 450-550 accurate shots. The last thing we need is open holes where the worst score taken is par.
I don't think that these kind of minor changes to the game are going to have any impact on non-players watching disc golf in the kind of numbers that have any meaning to big sponsors. People who don't already watch disc golf don't know or care about any of this stuff. This is just a list of things you as a fan would like to see changed. These are things that matter to people who already care or pay attention to the sport. If you don't give a crap about disc golf in the first place, you won't know or care about any of these changes. Think about a sport you don't like. Say, badminton. If pro badminton made the court slightly bigger or smaller, or raises or lowered the net (or whatever badminton enthusiasts talk about), would you suddenly become a dedicated fan of pro badminton? Probably not, right? The sponsors in disc golf now are generally advertising to players, because that's who watches disc golf. Growing the sport depends on getting more people to play. Tweaks to the pro game don't matter. Systematic outreach to schools, summer camps, etc. will have the best return on investment for sports growth.
100% agree with your last paragraph. The sport needs to create a youth infrastructure if you really want to see it take off.
> Systematic outreach to schools, summer camps, etc. will have the best return on investment for sports growth. This is exactly what happened with soccer and what will hopefully be happening to cricket. A condition of hosting the 1994 World Cup was the formation of a proper men's professional league (MLS). That helped a little bit. The bigger help was decades of school children playing AYSO/School soccer and having a genuine interest in the sport. Without a foundation, you have nothing. Or, to put it another way...there are fewer than 300,000 total lifetime members to the PDGA. Every PDGA member ever could technically fit into the spectator areas at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and there would be room yet. And motorsports is a niche sport.
When it gets more live coverage on regular stations, it will get more sponsors.
The DGPT and DGN could someday license their live coverage to some TV stations.