How to revitalize a disc club.. or new ideas for a stagnant disc league

I know I am being long winded, I apologize. I do think sharing our club experiences and efforts is beneficial to all of us and this discussion though.

Our membership starts each season with a 1 Disc Challenge. We usually charge $30 for a membership. You usually get a polo shirt, 10% discount to our local disc store and sponsor (CJ's Party Store), PDGA membership discount, exclusive access to our leagues (a sanctioned singles, a handicap singles, a beginner/intermidiate singles, a random draw dubs. a fall singles and a winter putting league) We keep entry to a couple bucks for members (not including CTP/Ace) and access to our end of the season members tournament. We buy beer/soft drinks and pizza or subs, for a random draw tournament and we have all of our league champs play off for our King Bastard Cup!! Really a thank you to the members. Minus the last few years, the 1 Disc Challenge has historically been a rare/OOP/single, small run of Discraft, a few times premiering a new disc. COVID seemed to have put a stop to this...though, we are discussing this with them now.

Not sure this is the answer for a league template, but it is pretty well received here. Pumping out merch with our logo is part of the strategy. Recently, dri fit polo shirts with cool art is a pretty popular item. Other clubs have taken notice and we are now getting some nice shirts in the area, for tournament play. We are also seeing a bunch of small start up companies. Making shirts, selling disc..... We have been able to partner with some of them. We get a decent deal, they get some advertising and visibility. This kind of ties back to what Chuck has said earlier about the future of clubs and different enterprises entering the game.
 
Do you guys have a Facebook page? I guess that's the first thing to get up and running.

Something where you can post chatter and get in touch with the community but also weekly/monthly events.

We all know the weekly and seasonal events. So that's not an issue. Sunday league ("Church"), Wednesday night glow disc, Friday $1 skins. Our club has been around for over 40yrs.... But some of the hardcore crowd is dwindling and changing. We really don't have space for a second club (about 14-18 players on avg)

Yeah we have a Facebook page for the course, set up by a newer tech savvy partner of a discer :D. It's a good thing. She's also gone the extra mile to bring goodies and stuff on holidays and maple syrup whiskey from a family farm they visit when it's sap season. She does sign up and tourney administration. She's an absolute gem :) :) :) it's made it viable to continue the legacy and easier for the founding members to enjoy the annual tourney and not have to put in as much work.

They have slipped in there to help and it's appreciated, someone needed to do it but it's hard to wrestle control from your friends, it needs to be passed down to the new folks. Flip side is there is another fellow doing his share as well, a precise kind of person that has helped with bigger projects like bringing provincial/ local tournaments to us. I like him and support his effort, he is unjustly vilified because he is consistently one of the guys to beat and he plays clean (no drinks or doobies). He wins often, but he also has tried to figure out a handicap system.

The aging and growing out of it has been interesting to watch. This guy has 2 kids, she has to work Sundays...
"Where does the fundraising money go? Why don't we put in concrete tee pads?",
" I want to play in a big group of 10 like the old days (and have it take 4hrs)" ,
"I miss when we had 10 week carry over ace pots" ,
"why is everyone so good now?, I can't compete anymore" ..
"Its not fun like the old days" . Stuff like that.
 
I know I am being long winded, I apologize. I do think sharing our club experiences and efforts is beneficial to all of us and this discussion though.

.

I really appreciate the long winded discussion, the more ideas we share across country and countries it's just going to help us all as a group of disc loving folks. :)
 

Latest posts

Top