Grow the Sport

[Utz]

Interesting look at our sport from Vibram

Article here

[paganscum]

Bravo.

[hberciunas]

Great article.

A few observations from a newbie. Although I am not sure how the money works and understand the concept a bit, there are some other significant ways to grow the sport  . . . for the professionals.

Advertising. Promotion outside of our little world. I have seen a few plugs concerning college teams at televised football games etc., but it could be huge to spend some of the PDGA funds, or Innova/Discraft/Vibram funds on real TV advertisement during college games on ESPN etc.

Also, making sure that major local media is connected to large events. I go to many running events with my wife and there is always at least one local news team in attendence.  I also attended/played the KC Wide Open and saw no news coverage.

Just some thoughts

[tla06]

Interesting...I think I heard some feathers ruffling. 

[KCVinnie]

Good article, thanks for posting.

I think I am going to bring a few discs into the office to place on my desk for conversation starters.

[Mike Hyzer]

Warning: Only a handful of people will benefit from disc golf growing into the mainstream. Overwhelming odds are that you, the reader, are not one of those people. Be careful what you wish for.

[exminnesotaboy]

I think I am going to bring a few discs into the office to place on my desk for conversation starters.

I hung a couple of discs from my cubicle wall with the big binder clips.  There isn't a week that goes by that some doesn't ask a (positive) question about them. 

[coops]

Warning: Only a handful of people will benefit from disc golf growing into the mainstream. Overwhelming odds are that you, the reader, are not one of those people. Be careful what you wish for.

Everyone would benefit from disc golf growing into the mainstream. More people would know about it and likely play it, and we'd have more pull to get choice pieces of land to make incredible courses.

You don't have to be making money from the sport to benefit from more people knowing about it.

And, after all, shouldn't we be hoping that more people get to learn about the wondrous flight of a golf disc?

[Ken Franks]

What a great read, I have always been on board with Steven's ideas.....

[Mike Hyzer]

Warning: Only a handful of people will benefit from disc golf growing into the mainstream. Overwhelming odds are that you, the reader, are not one of those people. Be careful what you wish for.

Everyone would benefit from disc golf growing into the mainstream. More people would know about it and likely play it, and we'd have more pull to get choice pieces of land to make incredible courses.

You don't have to be making money from the sport to benefit from more people knowing about it.

And, after all, shouldn't we be hoping that more people get to learn about the wondrous flight of a golf disc?

We'll see if you hold the same views when there aren't any free courses left and discs cost $40 apiece.

[coops]

It seems HIGHLY unlikely that there will be a point when there are only pay to play courses. Sure, there may be more than there are now, and that will probably be a good thing, but they won't be removed from public parks and the hiring of staff to collect fees on courses in public parks will still be extremely cost-prohibitive.

And the only thing that will drive disc prices higher like that, other than inflation, would likely be either a higher quality material that is also more expensive to produce, or a lack of the current material, which is much more likely. There is simply too much pushback from the current disc golf community to allow for a significant, unwarranted, price-hike.

[jamidanger]

since 2007, the year that disc golf became the national past-time, more and more baseball fields are surrendered to the disc golf community. i have always thought and hoped for really legitimate mando markers, other than a spray painted arrow on a tree. the foul poles at these ballfields were never soldout to or plastered with advertising. this is a disc golf oppotunity in the making. jeez there are at couple at prairie center. also i think audio speakers can be mounted to them.

[Mike Hyzer]

At any rate, I can't think of many forms of entertainment/recreation that are now more accessible and affordable to the average Joe than they were before they became mainstream. One thing that comes to mind is the sport of whitetail deer hunting. Used to be I could knock on the door of most any rural home and gain permission to hunt their land. Then all the TV shows and product-sponsorship dollars started coming in, and it did attract a lot of new hunters. Nowadays, it's "Sorry, we lease our land to hunters from out of state." You can see the $10/acre lease rates on craigslist and the insanely high prices on hunting gizmos and apparel, too. The 180-acre farm I used to hunt for free now leases for $1800 just for Oct-Dec! WTF?!

[coops]

DG has most often been compared to skateboarding as it pertains to its rise and its mainstreaming. Now, I'm not a skateboarding expert, but it seems like the equipment is probably comparably priced to what it used to be and there are still quite a number of free skate parks on public lands. There are probably also a number pay to skate parks, but those haven't replaced the free places, just added to them.

We will NEVER get to the point of ball golf, which is what I think you are afraid of. Ball golf was adopted by the aristocracy at a very early age. The wonderful part of the aristocracy is their utter unwillingness to change. Our game won't be co-opted by them and will always be a game of the common man. Any implication otherwise is lunacy.

[Mike Hyzer]

DG has most often been compared to skateboarding as it pertains to its rise and its mainstreaming. Now, I'm not a skateboarding expert, but it seems like the equipment is probably comparably priced to what it used to be and there are still quite a number of free skate parks on public lands. There are probably also a number pay to skate parks, but those haven't replaced the free places, just added to them.

We will NEVER get to the point of ball golf, which is what I think you are afraid of. Ball golf was adopted by the aristocracy at a very early age. The wonderful part of the aristocracy is their utter unwillingness to change. Our game won't be co-opted by them and will always be a game of the common man. Any implication otherwise is lunacy.

Yes, I may be reaching a bit. But keep in mind that a skate park takes up a fraction of the real estate and requires a fraction of the maintenance of disc golf. That said, if all it does is reach skateboarding popularity, I suppose it won't be so bad.