Well, here's a project that wraps a lot of the ideas about top events and spectators and publicity all together. It'll be interesting to see how it goes:
http://www.discgolfworldtour.com/
http://www.discgolfworldtour.com/
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Disc Golf World Tour
- Thread starter DavidSauls
- Start date
Royalhghnss
Double Eagle Member
Innova, according to this article:
http://allthingsdiscgolf.com/announcing-the-disc-golf-world-tour/
Ball Golf is a relevant comparison since it seems to be the well from which many of Meresmaa 's Ideas are drawn. However in this case the cart is before the horse and that is the very trick he has to pull off. Money (or lack there of) is a massive issue in the small sport of Disc Golf. And its one issue that ball golf didn't have to deal with at this stage of its growth. The PGA tour started over a dispute over how to distribute funds from growing television coverage. The big money was already there.
The Dew Tour is also analogous and perhaps a better model. They were able to attract big money into sports that had not yet reached a big audience since they had a valuable demographic. 18-30 year olds.
I hope this is a trick he can pull off. Good Luck Jussi!
The Dew Tour is also analogous and perhaps a better model. They were able to attract big money into sports that had not yet reached a big audience since they had a valuable demographic. 18-30 year olds.
I hope this is a trick he can pull off. Good Luck Jussi!
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There are things I like about the concept and some things I'm "meh" about. I like that (at least some of the events) will be rolled into existing PDGA events like the USDGC. I'm not sure I agree with the "open" format. Cuz its not really open (to women that is)
This will be a fascinating experiment. A lot of people thing the PDGA could/should/whatever be raising a lot more money for the top events. This assumes that there is an actual demand from which to fundraise for, which I'm not sure is true. This series will see who is correct; if the money is their to sink into events Jussi is probably the best person to find it.
This will be a fascinating experiment. A lot of people thing the PDGA could/should/whatever be raising a lot more money for the top events. This assumes that there is an actual demand from which to fundraise for, which I'm not sure is true. This series will see who is correct; if the money is their to sink into events Jussi is probably the best person to find it.
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Jussi pitched this to me and it was a very elaborate presentation. The fields will be very limited and events will be tough to get into. Manufacturers may also be able to "buy" their players into the events for players that are not qualified. He also mentioned 25% as a potential payout option for the percentage of the field. He asked me if I was interested in including Ledgestone in the Tour as the September event, but it just wasn't going to work out.
Innova is giving six figures to support the tour and he anticipates spending a lot of money on each event for the production of the event (not the payout). He also said the tour would be able to be bid on after two years for other manufacturers to be the primary tour sponsor instead of Innova. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out!
Innova is giving six figures to support the tour and he anticipates spending a lot of money on each event for the production of the event (not the payout). He also said the tour would be able to be bid on after two years for other manufacturers to be the primary tour sponsor instead of Innova. It will be interesting to see how it all shakes out!
onemilemore
* Ace Member *
Something I would like to see addressed: Why not sink all of this money into expanding disc golf at the youth sports level? Why divert all of your efforts to a handful of professionals when there is a massive base of recreational players and even more who can be attracted at the school and youth level?
It all sounds impressive, but I can't help but think that getting more young people into the sport would make more of an impact.
It all sounds impressive, but I can't help but think that getting more young people into the sport would make more of an impact.
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Based on what I read there, this looks like putting a new facade on an old practice and calling it something different.
I wish him and Innova well, but....
After his presentation at the players meeting tonight I expected something that might actually compete a bit more with the National tour. Thus is a great opportunity for the Top pro that makes his living doing this, but to me it seems less impressive than the National tour and if we can run events and get them to the size if the Ledgestone this year then this becomes a nice series of events for the touring pro with the hopes of maybe generating some spectators? I think you will get more spectators doing what NT events do now that have combined am and pro fields.
DirtyMeathook
Birdie Member
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If Innova is primary sponsor, and their funds are being put towards production, where is the prize pool coming from? Is each event responsible for generating their own prize pool via sponsors and fundraising? Is Innova allowing for other disc manufacturers to sponsor individual events?
DiscLoser1
Birdie Member
That's referred to as a Sponsor's Exemption in ball golf...works well for up and coming dudes struggling to maintain their tour cards...
Not sure how limiting the field and making it more difficult to qualify will all work out, considering we see the same handful of MPO players at every NT, with regional and 'semi-pro' players rounding out those fields. Is he expecting to only field 20 or 30 players per event?
Jussi def has his own vision, and I hope it works. It doesn't affect me and my 900 rated golf game, but if the sponsors step up and give more $ to pros to compete and media awareness increases, I guess that's cool. Not cool if there's no FPO tho. Not cool at all.
I guess I am not sure what it does. More exposure? Pehaps. More money? Doubtful. Give me a chance to see a high level competition? Doubtful.....I don't see a tournament stop in the midwest likely. (not much disc golf played there 
). Grow the sport? Doubtful. Diminish the National Tour? Likely. Diminish Worlds? Likely. Great for a small handful of pro men. Great for a handful of regional fans, living near the tournament sites. All the luck to them, I guess the bottom line is it have very little impact on me.
). Grow the sport? Doubtful. Diminish the National Tour? Likely. Diminish Worlds? Likely. Great for a small handful of pro men. Great for a handful of regional fans, living near the tournament sites. All the luck to them, I guess the bottom line is it have very little impact on me.This is a very good thing for pro players and the sport of disc golf. The focus on this venture is obviously about professional quality exposure through professionally run events. The sport needs something like this. For the rest of us, including myself, hey there's always the weekly minis and pdga events to play in.
I honestly think Jussi's doing all the right things to transform the sport into a more professional thing.
In Finland his company has gotten municipalities to buy designed courses, which has exploded the number of players. With the growing number of players and other interested folks disc golf can achieve the thing you need to become a pro sport: audiences.
It's really simple: without audiences there will be no commercial interest or sponsorship money - almost no money at all. But when there's hundreds of thousands of people watching live coverage of a quality event - and finland has shown it's possible - things are completely different. This is clearly Jussi's goal, and he's right.
In Finland his company has gotten municipalities to buy designed courses, which has exploded the number of players. With the growing number of players and other interested folks disc golf can achieve the thing you need to become a pro sport: audiences.
It's really simple: without audiences there will be no commercial interest or sponsorship money - almost no money at all. But when there's hundreds of thousands of people watching live coverage of a quality event - and finland has shown it's possible - things are completely different. This is clearly Jussi's goal, and he's right.
If we're drawing comparisons to ball golf, this strikes me a bit like the World Golf Challenge. "Elite", independently supported events that get wrapped into the bigger "tour" of the PGA/PDGA. Nothing is getting diminished. We're not big enough for anything to be diminished.
Disc golf is not and will never be a spectator sport, despite the growing popularity in Scandinavia.
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