Lewis
* Ace Member *
The course owners that I've talked to recently that have been able to make it work say they're about able to break even on greens fees, but are able to put the business in the black through alcohol sales.
Ultimately, I think it is impossible for a disc golf course to turn a profit, if you include the land costs, and the property does not also generate income from other uses.
These discussion always make me wonder if many disc golfers are actually sovereign citizens or just the tightest people on earth. $10 is nothing to play a well groomed course but many gripe if everything in dg is not free due to the precedent set early on...
One of the most successful p2p disc golf enterprises in Oregon is Horning's Hideout. There are three courses, but disc golf is not the big income generator at Hornings. They also have fishing and camping on their grounds. However, they make the bulk of their money on weddings, concerts, and the warrior dash.
Reading through this, I'm reminded of a scene in Spaceballs:
I'm not saying you should sell a bunch of tee shirts, mugs, and other schlock with your private course's logo and such on it -- the lesson here is that disc golf may be the vehicle you can use to bring people in to shop at you "pro shop," where the real money from the land could be made. I don't know if you have Quick Trip or Racetrac in your neck of the woods, but there's almost certainly a brand of convenience store in your area like them. They only make a cent or two a gallon on the gasoline, if that, but they turn a profit by having a nice convenience store that draws you in when you're at the pump buying their 2-cents cheaper gas, and the convenience store is where they're able to turn their profit.
Just installing a disc golf course on vacant land may be far cheaper than building a decent pro shop on the same land, but if the local zoning allows it and you can get a business license and even a liquor license, and you have the money or can get a loan to build a pro shop, or if you can find land that has a building on it already, you could end up making more money selling food, drink, discs, etc., than you lose on the cost of building and maintaining everything. That is, however, a lot of ifs, and if you don't have any experience running a business like this, you may find you get laughed out of every bank you go to for a loan.
The best case scenario would be if you already own a valuable, large piece of land outright, that already has a building you can convert into a pro shop, and you can make enough selling discs, etc. to pay for the cost of maintenance. The general theme here is that disc golf in itself is not a viable money-maker on its own, but it could become a draw that you can use to sell something else to your patrons.