Disc Golf Pro Tour

[Jenga54]

Does that make me a visionary for only running non-sanctioned events in my 4 year TD career?

 

[JTacoma03]

I envision the conspiracy theorists growing annoyingly louder over the next month or so.

I mean it must be a conspiracy...there's literally THOUSANDS of dollars at stake here!

 

[discgolfer25]

DGPT Championship Unsanctioned: PDGA and DGPT breaks up

https://www.dgpt.com/news/tour-championship-unsanctioned

Tour Championship: Unsanctioned
SEPTEMBER 13, 2016

We have decided to unsanction the Tour Championship. It will not be a PDGA event.

This process of not sanctioning may need to continue into 2017 unless positive steps are taken toward working together. This is mostly meant as a shot across the bow of the PDGA.

Note: Discraft's Green Mountain Championship will remain sanctioned.
Note: Any players that would like a refund due to the unsanctioning of the Tour Championship will receive a full refund no questions asked.
Note: Non sanctioned DGPT events will forward money to a Pro Tour charity effort (instead of paying PDGA sanctioning fees).

Our goal is to work together. The PDGA should treat the Pro side of the sport fairly. Some may view this as divisive. We are sorry that it has come to this.

The Pro Tour is laying the foundation to be disc golf's PGA Tour in North America. The players and venues will have representation. The spectators will have live coverage, great stats, and an amazing Tour Championship (date and location to be announced in the coming months as details are finalized). The Pro Tour has tried, in good faith, to work with the PDGA on scheduling, co-branding events, and even discipline. The PDGA's actions have consistently demonstrated that there is no desire to work with the DGPT, which is viewed simply as a series of PDGA events.

We are taking this action to demonstrate that the DGPT is an independent organization. We have put our umbrella around a series of events and are growing the Pro side of the sport in ways the PDGA never has. We have announced the 2017 Pro Tour, which was scheduled with the PDGA and World Tour events in mind.

———-

Working Together

When the Pro Tour and World Tour were announced in the Fall of 2015, Jussi (DGWT), Steve (DGPT) and Brian (PDGA) made it clear that we would all work together regarding scheduling. An initial calendar was worked out between the DGWT and the DGPT and was shared with the PDGA.

Since then, the PDGA has

Scheduled events that directly conflicted with our original proposal
Caused the tour to cross America in one week
Stated paperwork was lost
Explained that dates were written down incorrectly
Apologized for schedules not being referenced
The PDGA never reached out to the DGPT with proposals on scheduling. It has become clear that "working together" means the PDGA will setup the schedule as it always does, PDGA Majors and NTs first, everyone else next. That is not what the DGPT envisioned when we said "work together".

————

No Communication, No Co-Branding

The Vibram Open, an NT for eight straight years, was not considered for NT status because it was a Pro Tour event. The PDGA never reached out.
Discraft's Green Mountain Championship, which had been told that it was in line to be the North East's NT in 2017, was not considered. When the GMC reached out to the PDGA, they claimed that they had "lost the paperwork" that the GMC had submitted. It was later found, but alas, it was too late. The GMC was a Pro Tour event and therefore was not considered for the NT.
The Ledgestone Open, presented by Discraft. The Ledgestone and Hambrick had been told that they would alternate being the NT for their region. 2015: Ledgestone. 2016: Hambrick. 2017? Neither. The Ledgestone was a Pro Tour event so it was not considered for the NT. The PDGA never reached out.
Is this a conspiracy? No. The PDGA staff was instructed to schedule no Pro Tour events as NTs by the PDGA Executive Director. The PDGA Executive Director serves at the pleasure of the Board of Directors (BoD). The BoD is either complicit in or directive of this instruction.

————

The BoD, the Summit, the brushoff.

The DGPT reached out to the PDGA to be a part of the Pro Tour/NT discussion, which was slated for four hours. The DGPT was told that the BoD would prefer to not hear from us nor have us involved in the conversation. This was when it became clear that the Pro Tour was, in the eyes of the PDGA and the BoD, not worthy of being involved in the discussion. Eyes wide open.

————

The final straw. Bradley Williams' 18 month suspension.

In no way does the DGPT condone the actions of Bradley Williams.

I (Steve Dodge) emailed the Disciplinary Committee the day after the Ledgestone, where Bradley's infraction occurred: "I want to be available to you all … and I want to work closely together and present a unified front when / if disciplinary actions are taken." I was never contacted. The PDGA removed a player from the Pro Tour without any inclusion of the DGPT in the process.

I did reach out to the Disciplinary Committee after the fact and it was explained to me that they were talking to me ONLY because I happened to be the TD of an upcoming event that the suspension would affect. As the Director of the Pro Tour, I would not have gotten my call answered. Once again pointing out, the PDGA does not consider the Pro Tour a worthy partner.

So we have one player (Bradley Williams) suspended and two players (Paul McBeth and Cam Todd) who are boycotting PDGA events due to the PDGA disciplinary process. The players have every right to have representation in the Disciplinary process and understand what types of actions warrant what types of punishment.

Being a PDGA event is hurting the DGPT Tour Championship.

————

Time for the split

In good conscience, knowing that the goals of the DGPT are to build a professional Pro Tour throughout North America, we cannot continue to pretend to work together with the PDGA. The PDGA has consistently failed to communicate, put roadblocks in our way, refused to have discussions, and has suspended Pro Tour players without consulting the Pro Tour or the players.

Today I have renewed my PDGA membership for 2017. The PDGA is our governing body and does a very good job of defining the rules of the game, creating ratings for events, and executing the PDGA Majors. These are the exact same things that the USGA does for golf. The USGA is a worthwhile and good organization. It does not run and govern the Pro side of the game, except for hosting the US Opens.

The Pro Tour's goal is to become the PGA Tour of disc golf in North America. The PDGA will continue to be the USGA of disc golf. Arguably, the PDGA never meaningfully supported the Pro side of the sport in the way the Pro Tour (and DGWT) does and will. It is not in the PDGA's DNA to do this. 98% of its members will never play at this level and it is a member organization.

It is time for the split to happen. And it starts this weekend.

———–

One Parting Thought

We would like to work with the PDGA on the Pro side of the sport as a respected partner. In order for this to happen, the BoD needs to direct PDGA HQ to work closely with the DGPT. If this Board is not up to the challenge and if you would like the PDGA and DGPT to work together for the betterment of the sport, then during the next BoD election cycle, the relationship with the DGPT should be a topic of discussion.

We would like to see the following actions taken:

Bylaws written stating that disciplinary action taken on an MPO or FPO player at a DGPT event will be left to the DGPT Disciplinary Process.
The Board of Directors issue a directive telling PDGA HQ to treat the DGPT and DGWT as equals in the scheduling process of MPO & FPO level events.
The DGPT and DGWT be invited to each Summit to present updates on progress and potential scheduling conflicts.
With these simple changes, we will be able to work together going forward and schedule 2018 in a way that is best for the players, the PDGA/DGPT/DGWT, and the spectators. The sport is growing. It is time for our governing body to do so too.

 

[discgolfer25]

Will a mod please fix my grammar mistake in the title? Lol

 

[DiscLoser1]

Ha. Love it.

In one of these BW threads, I referred to the PDGA as Brian Grahams personal fifedom.

Time to step down.

 

[corin_brown]

I mean it must be a conspiracy...there's literally THOUSANDS of dollars at stake here!

Lol, even our conspiracy theories are #discgolfrich.

 

[Stable]

Big money

 

[BionicRib]

Meh....

Starting to get tired of the drama

Dodge, the pdga, and any other parties involved need to lock themselves in a room and all be adults till they reach a common ground.

If that can't happen then dodge needs to cancel his pdga membership and have the "pro tour" be its own thing completely separate from the pdga. Adgt part 2.

....all of the drama played out on blogs, smashboxx and social media needs to go. A lot of it looks so rehearsed this year.

 

[DavidSauls]

Doesn't bother me, but I think the timing is poor.

Disc golf is still at the stage where multiple people are making separate efforts to build it, and that's fine. It allows for a sort of Darwinian evolution, as opposed to being directed from the top.

I'd have made the change for 2017. As it is, it looks like they've caved to McBeth, and set themselves up to be the Bad Boy tour.

It'll be interesting to see their governance model---their disciplinary process, how much control the players will have over the entire enterprise, and which players will have that control. Unless they're going with the Benevolent Dictator model.

*

In the meantime, I wonder if they'll change the 2017 schedule, now that they're independent of the PDGA, to make it more of a single tour?

 

[MrDarkHorse]

I think this is great. I completely agree with all of Steve Dodge's reasoning. There's a very strong parallel in ball golf for how the PGA and USGA operate together.

I think Dodge is going to bring in that sponsor money that the sport needs. He's a smart businessman, and he loves the game.

Hope this all works out.

 

[CaptainAnhyzer]

Awwwwww, what will we ever do with ourselves????!!!

The game will not "suffer".
The PDGA will still sanction THOUSANDS of events in 2017.
The planet will remain in its orbit.

 

[SonicGuy]

Small time players making small time moves. Steve Dodge is as small time as it gets and if he thinks he can make a cash grab off of the same old tired "play for each other's stack" format he is sorely mistaken. I bet he thinks this is his time to crawl out of financial obscurity but he will be ground into the dust of disc golf economics soon enough.

Everyone in disc golf should recognize this as a cash grab and nothing more.

 

[sprintermatt]

I don't think it was done FOR McBeth. I think it was done against the PDGA.

 

[sprintermatt]

Small time players making small time moves. Steve Dodge is as small time as it gets and if he thinks he can make a cash grab off of the same old tired "play for each other's stack" format he is sorely mistaken. I bet he thinks this is his time to crawl out of financial obscurity but he will be ground into the dust of disc golf economics soon enough.

Everyone in disc golf should recognize this as a cash grab and nothing more.

Not even close.

 

[DinosaurThunder]

The last step in Steves plan, now that he has Paul on his side, is to use Williams to crash Pauls adidas deal so he can get him wearing Vibrams. McFiveFingers anyone?

 

[wims]

Small time players making small time moves. Steve Dodge is as small time as it gets and if he thinks he can make a cash grab off of the same old tired "play for each other's stack" format he is sorely mistaken. I bet he thinks this is his time to crawl out of financial obscurity but he will be ground into the dust of disc golf economics soon enough.

Everyone in disc golf should recognize this as a cash grab and nothing more.

A cash grab? Care to elaborate on why it's a cash grab?!?

 

[zj1002]

Small time players making small time moves. Steve Dodge is as small time as it gets and if he thinks he can make a cash grab off of the same old tired "play for each other's stack" format he is sorely mistaken. I bet he thinks this is his time to crawl out of financial obscurity but he will be ground into the dust of disc golf economics soon enough.

Everyone in disc golf should recognize this as a cash grab and nothing more.

Nope. Cash grab? Given his past as head of Vibram and running premier events, he knows exactly where the cash is(or isn't). He is building the DGPT brand. Publicly saying something that would of eventually come out in the next year or two anyways. This was just a platform to escalate the tours and evolution of professional disc golf.

 

[zj1002]

I envision the conspiracy theorists growing annoyingly louder over the next month or so.

I mean it must be a conspiracy...there's literally THOUSANDS of dollars at stake here!

I heard he is going to build a wall around Maple Hill. Not let the PDGA in.

 

[Brodysseus]

I heard he is going to build a wall around Maple Hill. Not let the PDGA in.

It's going to be HUGE. And the PDGA is going to pay for it.

#makediscgolfgreatagain

 

[Happablap]

Professional disc golfer? I think you mean Professional frisbee thrower.

So I would assume the PDGA would be even more vigilant about scheduling their events with no regard to the DGPT. Is the DGPT going to be able to sustain its payouts with AM money? It will probably be added cash I guess.