Paige Pierce to Innova for 2020

[jenb]

That was a clip from an upcoming Disc Golf Tourist video from Alyssa Van Lanen. I don't think it's indicative of anything.

It should not be a surprise to anyone that everyone on tour is friendly with everyone else. Sponsored teams aren't cliques that shun people who don't throw the same plastic. They all hang out with one another, regardless of "team". Paige hanging out and playing badminton with Sexton (and others) is only evidence that they were once in the same place at the same time.

Hopefully this is true, but I've read some posts on Facebook from pros complaining about other pros on a same team that, when carded together, gang up and make calls as a group to the disadvantage of the pro on a different team. If it's 3 against 1, the 1 can get completely steamrolled.

 

[biscoe]

Would be interesting to hear what Innova ( or Discraft ) could give her that DD could not. . .i don´t think she would move for a little more money.
It must be MUCH more money or her own line of disc ( with Discraft )

She will be on her 4th or 5th sponsor (for some reason i think millenium was in there prior to discraft but i am not positive) in not all that many years... don't know why you would think that.

 

[Flick Maniac]

"The future of FPO" sounds like Henna. . and maybe that video just happened to have a few milliseconds of Paige P in it and somebody took a screen shot at that exakt moment?

I can see that. Henna announcement video with Future of FPO title could easily have other FPO players in it. However, the length coinciding 1:1 with the one below it has me pretty well convinced the picture is a fake.

 

[JC17393]

Hopefully this is true, but I've read some posts on Facebook from pros complaining about other pros on a same team that, when carded together, gang up and make calls as a group to the disadvantage of the pro on a different team. If it's 3 against 1, the 1 can get completely steamrolled.

I didn't mean to suggest that some players aren't closer to each other than others, and perhaps team affiliation can play a role. I was more making the point that off the course, it's not a matter of DD players hanging with DD players, Innova with Innova, etc. Lots of people hang out together, even travel/tour together, irrespective of team affiliations. So the idea of Paige, while still on Team DD, hanging out at the same place (party?) as Sexton, a member of Team Innova, isn't foreign and suggestive of anyone changing teams or displaying any sort of disloyalty.

 

[Jolt]

She will be on her 4th or 5th sponsor (for some reason i think millenium was in there prior to discraft but i am not positive) in not all that many years... don't know why you would think that.

To me it always felt like she went back to DD to be with her "DD family" . .not for the money..to be around friends ment more than money. . so what changed?

But i´m probably wrong :\

 

[Jolt]

I didn't mean to suggest that some players aren't closer to each other than others, and perhaps team affiliation can play a role. I was more making the point that off the course, it's not a matter of DD players hanging with DD players, Innova with Innova, etc. Lots of people hang out together, even travel/tour together, irrespective of team affiliations. So the idea of Paige, while still on Team DD, hanging out at the same place (party?) as Sexton, a member of Team Innova, isn't foreign and suggestive of anyone changing teams or displaying any sort of disloyalty.

Nate Perkings is in almost every Paige Video. . so Discmania then ?

 

[perklc]

I can see that. Henna announcement video with Future of FPO title could easily have other FPO players in it. However, the length coinciding 1:1 with the one below it has me pretty well convinced the picture is a fake.

Plus there are 27k people subscribed to Innova, a good number of which I am sure have notifications, and it seems that only one person (wherever this screenshot came from) saw this video notification? Seems unlikely.

Plus I feel like if Innova was announcing Paige, they wouldn't have her in a DD hat in their video, but I could be wrong.

 

[JC17393]

To me it always felt like she went back to DD to be with her "DD family" . .not for the money..to be around friends ment more than money. . so what changed?

But i´m probably wrong :\

What changed? The money, obviously.

McBeth moving was a watershed moment. It raised the bar for everyone else. At this point, I think it's safe to say that whatever motivated players three years ago is irrelevant in the current environment.

 

[DanJon]

If it´s Innova she must know what Ricky had and what he got. . .was it worth it for him?

Idk, poor guy can't even afford a real doctor.

 

[JTacoma03]

I was wrong when I speculated about where McBeth ultimately landed (though I was right about some things, it didn't change his decision). I might be wrong again. I don't know officially (if I did know officially I wouldn't say).

I'm betting Discraft over Innova.

I think Innova would suffer a big gut punch to FPO team morale. They are clearly a frontrunner for Henna (as is Discraft), they signed Callie McMorran away from DD mid-season, the have Eveliina, and they have a steadily improving team (Allen, Weese, Fajkus, Walker, etc.) that can already make lead cards. I don't think that Innova's brand gets that big of a bump (relatively) by adding Paige's brand. I think their team gets more prestige certainly, but again that may have a collateral damage effect on a bunch of athletes that they've already invested in.

...side note. DD has dumped Callie, Jordan, and Paige's contracts within the past 4 months...are they headed towards a Lat64 style purge? Are they making a play for Henna?

Discraft is where Paige came from (everyone remember the "PP Stalkers"?), and remember she won her first Worlds with them. Val Jenkins really only gave them a half of a season in terms of full-blown grind before Bevel Brewing lifted off, and with Hailey King not ready to take the throne, as well as Vanessa Van Dyken's season being stymied by her trigger finger injury, and also Elaine King's departure for MVP...it just seems like the better fit to me personally.

 

[JC17393]

...side note. DD has dumped Callie, Jordan, and Paige's contracts within the past 4 months...are they headed towards a Lat64 style purge? Are they making a play for Henna?

I think characterizing Callie and Paige's departures as DD "dumping" the contracts is incorrect. Dumping implies it was DD's call to make. I have no doubts both deals would still be in place absent another sponsor coming along to poach them. Jordan, on the other hand, seems like it was a straight declination to renew his deal and therefore DD's decision (perhaps fitting the "dumped" descriptor).

Given the signing of Nikko (yes to Westside, but DD is 50% owner and employs the folks running the team...po-TAY-to, po-TAH-to) and the extension to Clemons announced today, it doesn't appear to be a purge to me. Re-configuration, re-allocation, but not a purge.

 

[JTacoma03]

I think characterizing Callie and Paige's departures as DD "dumping" the contracts is incorrect. Dumping implies it was DD's call to make. I have no doubts both deals would still be in place absent another sponsor coming along to poach them. Jordan, on the other hand, seems like it was a straight declination to renew his deal and therefore DD's decision (perhaps fitting the "dumped" descriptor).

Given the signing of Nikko (yes to Westside, but DD is 50% owner and employs the folks running the team...po-TAY-to, po-TAH-to) and the extension to Clemons announced today, it doesn't appear to be a purge to me. Re-configuration, re-allocation, but not a purge.

Good take. Maybe "dumping" is a bit of a strong word, but also remember it was one year ago that Paige "signed" a 3-year extension (in quotes because she confirmed to Benn Winneka in his article that she didn't have a formal contract). Nov 16, 2018 it was announced. Nov 18, 2019 she asks them to break it off.

I lumped Callie in because maybe she saw the writing on the wall and just went ahead and made the change? A mid-season switch has been kinda uncommon in the new world we're in with disc golf contracts. That's pure speculation though.

 

[biscoe]

I think characterizing Callie and Paige's departures as DD "dumping" the contracts is incorrect. Dumping implies it was DD's call to make. I have no doubts both deals would still be in place absent another sponsor coming along to poach them. Jordan, on the other hand, seems like it was a straight declination to renew his deal and therefore DD's decision (perhaps fitting the "dumped" descriptor).

Pretty sure 2 of the 3 leaving were player initiated as opposed to other companies "poaching". No clue on the third.

 

[JC17393]

Pretty sure 2 of the 3 leaving were player initiated as opposed to other companies "poaching". No clue on the third.

Player initiated would be the same in my mind, at least in terms of characterizing the separation as DD "dumping" contracts. That said, even if the separation is player initiated, it likely doesn't happen if there isn't another sponsor waiting in the wings. Maybe that's not strictly poaching, but it comes to the same end.

Certainly in Callie's case that is true. I don't think she's quite at the level where she can leave her primary sponsor without having another lined up. By level, I mean she's not quite in a the same position as Val when she left Innova or Elaine when she left Discraft (i.e. leaving one sponsor without the safety net of a new sponsor). Paige probably can do that, but I would imagine such a breaking off of the deal wouldn't be so mutually amicable. But that's just my speculation from the sidelines.

 

[UhrigDG]

My guess is page is going to Infinite. Now that she's had all that photography training with Allyssa Van Lanen, she will take their disc sales to the next level with multiple pics per disc.

 

[F. Howl]

I was wrong when I speculated about where McBeth ultimately landed (though I was right about some things, it didn't change his decision). I might be wrong again. I don't know officially (if I did know officially I wouldn't say).

I'm betting Discraft over Innova.

...

Hampstead commented that a friend saw her buy up some old Discraft on some auction sites...

 

[oddjob]

Can't help but laugh at DD given she **** all over prodigy her last year, they really think it was about family? My guess is Innova then gateway, not many more bridges left for her to burn.

 

[Dr.Smooth]

To put things in perspective:

-First female to get this amount attention on changing sponsors.

-Her new contract will be the benchmark for all future, up and coming female pros to shoot for.

-Could this be a turning point to greatly increase percentage of new female discers?

 

[Aylien]

Val leaving Innova had just as much if not more attention than PP leaving DD.

 

[ThrowBot]

-Could this be a turning point to greatly increase percentage of new female discers?

Probably not. The majority of people who care about this are already disc golfers.

Let's say PP gets a contract for somewhere north of $100,000. (Which is not a crazy notion, depending on the length of the deal.) "Female Disc Golf Pro Inks 6-Figure Contact!" is not a headline that will garner a whole lot of attention outside the world of disc golf. It's just not a big enough amount to turn heads, when you consider the order of magnitude of pro athlete compensation in other sports.

It's a big deal for frolf but not a big deal in general, so not a game changer in terms of growing the sport. (Would be my guess.)