Grow the Sport

[Mick]

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.

As a new player but an old guy and I have seen a lot of things in my short 56 years.
Both sides are true:
The more people playing , the more voting /whatever power. I play with a guy who has been playing Disc Golf since 83 and he told me there was only a couple of courses. Today, there are a lot of places to play.
BUT, if too many people play ,then things change. I used to be a flyfisherman, I fished all over and all the time. Now I only flyfish in remote areas with are hard to get to. The streams I used to fish have been overran with hoards of people both respectful and  destructive. I can see waiting a long time to play  and have all ready followed players that just threw their trash on the ground with a trash can near by.

I for one am glad with the growth but wary of th Wally world aproach to the sports. A balance of enough to keep it productive but not so much  ,it destroys itself in the name of progress.
Remember the Harley craze

Mick

[Mike Hyzer]

I used to be a flyfisherman, I fished all over and all the time. Now I only flyfish in remote areas with are hard to get to. The streams I used to fish have been overran with hoards of people both respectful and  destructive. I can see waiting a long time to play  and have all ready followed players that just threw their trash on the ground with a trash can near by.

I saw the madness at Bennett Springs once. Had to been a thousand yuppies standing shoulder to shoulder in that tiny trout pool they have down there.

[Utz]

The problem is not with the bottom end of Disc Golfers. Disc Golf will always have the appeal of being a very inexpensive sporting activity that one can get into at any age. You don't have to carry an elaborate bag, tons of discs or wear all the DG schwag --- But we do, and we freaking love it! However there are still many many people out there that play DG as a recreational healthy sport. That dynamic wont change. There will still be free parks donning baskets with amateur to pro setups.

I hope we do eventually get to see pay to play courses. but...thats another subject.

Vibram Steve has great points. The top end of disc golf isn't sustainable with the current model. Its complicated though, we need people other than disc golfers to be interested in the sport. conversely, Disc Golf NEEDS professional golfers. This drives companies and clubs to build and design new gear, technology,courses, etc. --- this is the part of Disc Golf that is fascinating to me.  You can tell we're growing astronomically just from the different molds of drivers we're seen in the last 6 years... or all the new bag companies popping up.. or the PDGA #'s increasing at a rapid pace

It's a great time to be apart of Disc Golf. We cant contain it, we can just help mold where its going.  let's all work together and grow the sport!

[eeastwood]

I serve on my city's parks and rec board and can you tell you that p&r departments will continue to put in courses that are free to play. However, the sort of discussions we have around disc golf  courses "is do we have the support within the community for disc golf?".  Simply put more players/more mainstream it becomes, the more support disc golf will receive, giving way to more courses and more options.

[dangasaur]

If you really want to grow the sport, do it at the highschool level.  Disc golf is a lifetime sport.  Getting kids hooked into it early is going to not only make more disc golfers but it's going to make their friends and parents aware of the sport 2nd hand.

I could see the KCFDC sponsoring intramural disc golf.

[jack]

One must also realize that Steve's point on this topic is very jaded from his own vision.  TO belittle the companies as he did in the article isn't the best way to attract them to help.

I also don't like how he ignored KC in the list of events and included the information that he is looking to distract from.  Here are some actual numbers from last year's events that he referenced, as well as the amount of payout (vary's from his comment's)

Event	KC	Total		Steady Ed	Total		Beaver Fling	Total		Worlds 09	Total	Field Paid		Worlds 12 Entries	Total	Field Paid
Pro Men	62	19416		65	15466		76	19115		131	33401	57		144	36225	59
Pro Women	10	3250		15	3200		22	5520		21	5725	11		30	7555	12
Subtotal	72	22666		80	18666		98	24635		152	39126	68		174	43780	71
Master's	21	3240		35	5922		36	5905		73	18500	36		96	24135	39
Female Masters	4	540								14	3650	7		9	2250	4
Grand Masters	9	1840		23	3461		15	2450		57	12625	16		68	17090	27
Sr. Grand Masters	3	610		3	450		3	475		15	3750	15		26	6525	11
SubTotal	37	6230		61	9833		54	8830		159	38525	74		199	50000	81
Total	109	28896		141	28499		152	33465		311	77651	142		373	93780	152

As you can see the Wide Open is above in most areas, as well as lower attendance.  Steve likes his favorites, and I get that, but to pontificate as a person that has access to Vibram isn't the same as the people that volunteer to run events which all events he mentioned do.  This is Steve's FT job, god love him for it, but lets not take this as gospel.

I also do think that pay-to-play is going to be about the only way that we see a different landscape for the sport.  The mention of the sport and growth by folks in P&R and the sustainability of the parks by the disc golf community is a product of not equal sums.

We haven't grown as much as a community as the courses.  We don't have the numbers in the club of people that do the work to support the growth, an increase of over 500% in courses over the last decade is matched by an increase of 60% within the club, that isn't sustainable.  We need to have more members.  If we had more members, and more accountability at the grass roots level we may see that swell.  We would also see the need to have more "manicured" and well maintained locations to play that were free from the distractions of the current locations.  That "aristocracy"

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.

Isn't the case, and I think that though there may always be free locations to play, that we progress to a point where it does cost money, and we as a local community help the touring pro with the coffers from the pay-to-play locations, and then in fact help to support the sport at a grass roots level.  In the next year or five, probably not, but in the future I see that happening.

The sport needs more people to understand it and help it, it needs more people to step up and help to make it feasible for people to be professional at, and in all honesty, people need to be better today than they were just a mere five years ago.

Make no mistake, I love that Steve feels that this is right around the corner, the problem is that his math and formula's aren't accurate in his own article, and if we can't be accurate in the information, the misrepresentation of these things only helps to solidify that we aren't ready yet to make it.


Notice here that KC this year had less entries than those he mentioned, and our payout was larger than Steady Ed, and less than $2000 difference in Beaver (where they had 26 more players)

[Tom]

Personally, I prefer less people playin......no waiting on tee boxes, less trash on the courses, fewer loud, red haired fellows  , less young, long arms to take my $,
better parking, fewer folks that wanna take a basket home from the park.....

Shrink the sport, yeh!

[Ken Franks]

Let the age protected players, play for adult diapers and stickers for their walkers...

[Utz]

Let the age protected players, play for adult diapers and stickers for their walkers...

Good lordy...  Hey Tom, I have plenty of old tennis balls I can have shipped to Olathe relatively cheap for your new walker..

[jamidanger]

i've got plenty of stickers already. you're not man enough to walk in my dirty diaper, and who knows what brand the pdga endorses? seniors are doing just fine playing for hash.

[tla06]

not only feathers but fur too...

[Ken Franks]

i've got plenty of stickers already. you're not man enough to walk in my dirty diaper, and who knows what brand the pdga endorses? seniors are doing just fine playing for hash.

 hash, It's not just for the elderly anymore....

[CD]

Let the age protected players, play for adult diapers and stickers for their walkers...

Oh, young Tankhopper, you will yearn one day to be young again 

[Ken Franks]

Oh, young Tankhopper, you will yearn one day to be young again 

 I'm already there buddy, Already there!!!!

[discglover]

I totally disagree  that charging money to play will help grow the sport. Having a free public park to play with no parking fees, tee times or green fees, the cost of the equipment to play. That is what the main attraction to the sport is and the best way to get noticed by the general public.
Smithville isn't proof enough of how that worked? The only way to really test the theory is charge parking at every park. Then you'll see the casual players no longer playing along with several others who may not like extra fees.
Picture how will they charge in a major tournament for parking and fees for the gallery? And if they do what it will do to how many  participate in playing or watching?