A professional disc golf tour run by professional disc golfers.

[mizunodave]

Every major professional sport has a players union to look after their interests. Why not disc golf?

As of the end of 2018 there were 233 MPO players over 1000 rated. There were 93 FPO players over 900 rated. 326 total.

These 326 players vote to form a board from their members to represent the larger body.

With this united front they go to the tournament directors of DGPT events, NTs, other A tiers and ask them to bring their tournament under this new professional player driven tour. They could bring back Smashboxx, Jomez, and CCDG. They could rearrange the schedule to best suit the touring pro.

Why give Steve Dodge or the PDGA the power to control your work environment when you can control it yourself?

 

[JC17393]

This presumes that the players want that power. Is there indication that the current situation (the combination of NTs, DGPTs, Majors, and scattered A-tiers) is entirely unsatisfactory to the majority of touring players? Or that tournament directors aren't already catering to these players as best they can?

Also, there's a significant difference between a "touring" pro and the majority of those 326 players you identified. I don't think we have a total of 100 truly "touring" pros between MPO and FPO.

 

[CaptainAnhyzer]

Pros have enough to focus on their plate during the season.
Not sure anyone wants to be part of directing a Tour Series AND play in them.
I try to do that on a local and regional level and my rating suffers considerably.
I can only imagine what ramping it up to a national level would do.

 

[Motorpro]

I come out of auto racing. In every form of racing ( and many other sports) at some point the driver or athletes have started there own series. Every single time it's a disaster. Talented drivers and athletes are one thing. Managers and promoters are a whole different thing. Not harder not easier just different . Let the players do what they do best and leave promotion to people who do that well. Just like promoters should leave video to people who do that well.

 

[RistoS]

I come out of auto racing. In every form of racing ( and many other sports) at some point the driver or athletes have started there own series. Every single time it's a disaster. Talented drivers and athletes are one thing. Managers and promoters are a whole different thing.

I don't think the post itself implies it would be a tour managed by the players, just a body to drive their interests like in any other pro sport. The thread title is poor, I'll give you that.

 

[_MTL_]

PDGA Board approved a touring pro committee in December


https://www.pdga.com/files/2018-12-11bodmeetingminutes_final.pdf

 

[lyleoross]

PDGA Board approved a touring pro committee in December


https://www.pdga.com/files/2018-12-11bodmeetingminutes_final.pdf

I'm always surprised at just how poorly many view the PDGA. And I'm always amazed at how well they've guided the sport.

 

[ru4por]

Every major professional sport has a players union to look after their interests. Why not disc golf?

As of the end of 2018 there were 233 MPO players over 1000 rated. There were 93 FPO players over 900 rated. 326 total.

These 326 players vote to form a board from their members to represent the larger body.

With this united front they go to the tournament directors of DGPT events, NTs, other A tiers and ask them to bring their tournament under this new professional player driven tour. They could bring back Smashboxx, Jomez, and CCDG. They could rearrange the schedule to best suit the touring pro.

Why give Steve Dodge or the PDGA the power to control your work environment when you can control it yourself?

I don't think the bolded is true. In fact, I might counter that far more professional sports do not have player unions. And the ones that do have something very important in common.....money. They all have a reliable, steady flow in income into the sport. Usually through spectating and advertising. Pro disc golf is supported on the back of the amateur player. And my amateur money would go away, if pros organized.

Why would players pay a third party to represent their needs when they could do so for themselves?

 

[biscoe]

I don't think the bolded is true. In fact, I might counter that far more professional sports do not have player unions. And the ones that do have something very important in common.....money. They all have a reliable, steady flow in income into the sport. Usually through spectating and advertising. Pro disc golf is supported on the back of the amateur player. And my amateur money would go away, if pros organized.

Why would players pay a third party to represent their needs when they could do so for themselves?

Because the third party is better at it than they are? Worked out pretty well for McBeth over the winter.

Although i actually agree with your first paragraph and don't believe they have much leverage or much to gain at this point.

 

[ru4por]

Because the third party is better at it than they are? Worked out pretty well for McBeth over the winter.

Although i actually agree with your first paragraph and don't believe they have much leverage or much to gain at this point.

Good point. I should have thought about agents before speaking to unions.

 

[Royalhghnss]

A union isn't the right move for many reasons, tax issues probably the biggest one. Being that our game has a lot in common with golf, reading up on the PGA and PGA TOUR is pretty interesting:

The tour began 90 years ago in 1929 and at various times the tournament players had attempted to operate independently from the club professionals.[1][5] With an increase of revenue in the late 1960s due to expanded television coverage, a dispute arose between the touring professionals and the PGA of America on how to distribute the windfall. The tour players wanted larger purses, where the PGA desired the money to go to the general fund to help grow the game at the local level.[6][7] Following the final major in July 1968 at the PGA Championship, several leading tour pros voiced their dissatisfaction with the venue and the abundance of club pros in the field.[8] The increased friction resulted in a new entity in August, what would eventually become the PGA Tour.[9][10][11][12] Tournament players formed their own organization, American Professional Golfers, Inc. (APG), independent of the PGA of America.[13][14][15] Its headquarters were in New York City.[10]

After several months,[16] a compromise was reached in December: the tour players agreed to abolish the APG and form the PGA "Tournament Players Division," a fully autonomous division under the supervision of a new 10-member Tournament Policy Board.[17][18][19][20] The board consisted of four tour players, three PGA of America executives, and three outside members, initially business executives.[18][19][21]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PGA_Tour

 

[SD86]

I come out of auto racing. In every form of racing ( and many other sports) at some point the driver or athletes have started there own series. Every single time it's a disaster. Talented drivers and athletes are one thing. Managers and promoters are a whole different thing. Not harder not easier just different . Let the players do what they do best and leave promotion to people who do that well. Just like promoters should leave video to people who do that well.

Ditto that in chess when Garry Kasparov attempted to create the PCA and have a World Championship to compete with FIDE. Just did not work out well.

 

[DavidSauls]

Also, there's a significant difference between a "touring" pro and the majority of those 326 players you identified. I don't think we have a total of 100 truly "touring" pros between MPO and FPO.

How many actually making a living at it?

 

[brutalbrutus]

How many actually making a living at it?

Tourney winnings probably aren't the best way to tell but last year, 17 players made 20K or more in winnings. 3 of those were women.

 

[DavidSauls]

I'm always surprised at just how poorly many view the PDGA. And I'm always amazed at how well they've guided the sport.

Not to mention that it's a player-owned, player-run organization. Sort of like a union, but with broad membership. And as best I can recall, at times its board has had significant pro membership, if not pro majorities.

 

[DavidSauls]

Tourney winnings probably aren't the best way to tell but last year, 17 players made 20K or more in winnings. 3 of those were women.

My impression is that it's not: that the true professionals are making as much or more from sponsors than prize purses. Then again, I doubt many are raking in big sponsorship money without winning enough to bring in prize money too.

 

[scarpfish]

Every major professional sport has a players union to look after their interests. Why not disc golf?

Because disc golfers aren't employees.

 

[Chaz58]

I just don't think there is enough money involved to worry about union aspects. The major pro sports have become more business than sport, imo, and as where those "businesses" are dealing with billions of dollars and ridiculous contracts of upwards of 20 to 30 million dollars a year to many players, disc golf isn't even on the radar when it comes to $$ in comparison. Never will be. I love to play the game and am as addicted to it as anyone (even if I can't get out as often as I would like) but that is just the reality. Just my 1 1/2 cents worth.

 

[DavidSauls]

They could bring back Smashboxx, Jomez, and CCDG. They could rearrange the schedule to best suit the touring pro.

Assuming, of course, that players want this, and want it bad enough to do anything about it.

Right now they're showing up for Dodge's events, and know that the others will cover, what, 5 times as many, anyway? They have plenty of coverage.

The touring schedule has been greatly improved in recent years, with coordination by the PDGA, DGPT, and (for a while) DGWT. It no longer flips back and forth across the country, and there are more big events to support them. What else would pros want---and would TDs change their schedules to suit? Could they?

I sense more hand-wringing over the current state of disc golf video, and wishful thinking that the pros might force a change in it.

 

[scarpfish]

As far as arranging the schedule, it bears mentioning that the entities that currently run said events, may have limited ability to move them to when an assumed group of touring pros might prefer them. A great number of our venues are still multi-use, and may not be able to be reserved at other times.