Plastic Thunder
Eagle Member
yup....
That was more words than I've ever heard you speak in person Eric.
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That was more words than I've ever heard you speak in person Eric.
I joined this site in 2010, the PDGA in 2011.
47,200 numbers had been given out between the inception of the organization, and the day my application registered in 2011.
We are in the 110,000's 8 years later.
Yet some people refuse to see the change right in front of them. McBeth doesn't make 7 figures because people don't care about pros, coverage, and tours. It's fine if that doesn't suit your fancy, but let's stop pretending like it doesn't suit the majority.
Vote with your dollars, but understand that us 20- and 30- somethings are laughing if you would pull your support for the PDGA over a couple extra bucks a month.
What if the PDGA took control of all the elite events, hired the best disc golf media crews, gave them long term contracts, etc, etc. All of the elite events had live coverage, guaranteed next day post coverage, etc, etc. No more diversity and potentially dividing the fan base by having to choose your favorite "media content provider". Perhaps the clear path has been here all along. They gobbled up UDisc, maybe it's time for the PDGA to step up and proclaim it's namesake as the unified central source for all things disc golf media?
Would the ams (who are probably the majority of the disc golf media viewing base) be upset if they knew a big portion of their membership was funding this? I surely wouldn't. Again..assuming we get guaranteed live coverage and next day footage of all the elite events.
If I was a betting man, I would bet the PDGA has been contemplating this. Let everyone else grow the sport, and then at some point announce they will be moving toward controlling all of the elite events. Right now PDGATOUR.com re-directs to the PDGA events page btw.
I would fully support it because I'm honestly a little fatigued from having to subscribe to multiple channels, pages, social accounts, to get my disc golf fix. I would prefer to just go to one source to get my pro disc golf coverage.
Would you support this? Would love to read more than just a yes | no response.
I joined in 1995 and there had been under 10k memberships sold at that point. So roughly 5 times that number had joined by the time you did over the course of 16 years. Since you joined it has done slightly more than double over 8 years. My old fogey math tells me we were adding players at a greater rate over the 16 years before you joined than we have over the 8 years after. Is media coverage depressing PDGA growth? (jk) Common sense tells me the whole thing has been growing pretty darn quickly both before and after.
I could be wrong, but all of the stuff with DGWT/DGPT was pursued due to a lack of pdga involvement. There were the NT events, but nothing that stood on its own as a viable season long tour.
And of course a privately funded tour means the potential for money to be made.
Pdga focus was on growing membership at the time. I do agree though, it would be much more streamlined to have it all in house. But that goes back to ye olde debate of who the pdga caters to, the ams or the pros?
Mr. Fifty, I beat you to it by a month. C'mon.
https://discgolf.ultiworld.com/2019/03/21/steve-dodge-single-entity-theory-pro-disc-golf/
Following this logic, the PDGA was growing fastest the second Ed Headrick signed up member #002. The growth rate was halved when Dan Roddick became #003 and continued its rapid decline from there.
Interesting that everyone knows who #001 is, I know who #003 is off the top of my head, but have not one clue who got #002.
Before there were so many NT events the schedule, it was what is now mostly the Pro Tour events. At least events were the NT like Jonesburo Open, One in Texas, Great Lakes Open, one in Minnesota that the actual event has died off, one in California the old San Francisco Open, ECT. The NT then grew from 2003 with 10-15 events each year to a too many events in the 2010's that the Pro Tour came about in the 2010's as a result to find the top events in the NT as it was supposed to be a tour and bring them back out as a tour for the pro players. The top level Pro players did not have anything resembling a Pro tour anymore the way the early NT was.
Is that right? I don't remember the NT ever being more than a dozen or so events, never with any cohesive routing. I could be wrong; perhaps it just didn't make much of an impression on me.
Slow day, JC?
Thanks for the research. That's more or less how I recall. Except, at least the initial year, not quite as hopscotch as I thought. I guess, outside of the last two Majors, it was set to wind up before Worlds.
Which is one of the things I've imagined when I've been off in my own fantasy planning world---some sort of major league pro tour crammed into about 4 months, a time of intense focus, with the rest of the year being a bit of an off-season. Quite impractical, I know. But the oddity we've involved in is a season stretched over 8 months or so, with a World Championship right in the middle.
True. I was really just making a tongue in cheek point about interpreting numbers. Was Stancil Johnson number 2? (edit: nope- Victor Malafronte)
Two years later, after lobbying the PDGA to essentially turn the NT into the DGPT (and being justifiably turned down), the DGPT itself was born.
Great work tallying those early years. Very interesting, so thanks.
I'm curious why you say it was justifiable for the PDGA to turn down Steve's proposal? Is it because he was proposing that he run the NT?
Fantastic read, thank you for bringing that to my attention!
From that same article, btw..everyone should go read it, regardless what side of the fence you are on:
"The best way to accomplish this goal is for the PDGA to buy the DGPT. This move, executed correctly, would complete the efforts toward cohesion and professionalism started by the National Tour and advanced by Dodge and Meresmaa. The PDGA would then run a 20-event professional tour for MPO and FPO players that started in Las Vegas and ended with the United States Disc Golf Championships. Each stop on this tour would feature live coverage and post-produced videos. At the outset, the PDGA would control all branding, scheduling, advertising, and content distribution for the new schedule. As the tour matured, the single entity structure would be gradually loosened. The goal, as with any successful sports leagues, would be for the PDGA to host events while media teams, spectators, and companies pay to watch, advertise, and be associated with the Pro Tour."
Not sure I agree they would need to buy the DGPT, not sure Dodge would be the guy to run things either, but the article is a great read. Thx! :clap:
However, the more this gets tossed around, the more I like the idea of the PDGATOUR and the PDGA being 2 different entities.
Pretty much, yes. I believe he approached the PDGA with an offer to take over the NT. This was before the DGPT existed and his credentials were only that of a former Board member, the TD at Maple Hill, and a promoter for Vibram. So I can understand where the BOD and staff were hesitant to hand off their brand to him.
I said at the time the DGPT was announced that if it was successful, I could envision a time when it and the NT more or less merged into a unified tour. That the DGPT is basically a proof of concept model that, if it lasts and grows steadily over, say, 5-10 years, it could absorb the NT or vice versa. Since year two of the DGPT, Steve and the PDGA have worked together to coordinate the schedule to the point where things are about as good as they would be if it was a single tour. So a merger may not ever be necessary.