How sustainable is the post-Covid boom?

[BogeyNoMore]

Starting in the spring of 2020, millions of people turned to disc golf as a safe, affordable, easily accessible activity, where social distancing is easy to achieve.

The beneficiaries of this wave were disc manufacturers, along with the DGPT, post production companies, content providers, and most definitely... touring pros, as $ponsor$hip money reached levels previously beyond players' wildest dreams.

My question is: how sustainable is this boom? Particularly the sponsorship money, but other aspects of the industry as well?

One would think it depends on how many people who picked it up over the last few years, actually stick with it for 5 years, 10 yrs ...or longer.

Would like to hear from players old and new, because people will surely have a variety of perspectives and opinions. But as I write this, I recognize that many of the folks I'm reaching on DGCR were already long time enthusiasts well before this boom, which in and of itself, will skew what we're likely to read, as people respond to this post.

Not saying that's a good or a bad thing. Simply acknowledging that this audience isn't representative of a truly "random sample" of people currently playing disc golf.

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

I'm optimistic that a lot of those who took it up will play more into the future. I believe anybody who likes throwing things will love this sport. It checks all the boxes.

 

[autocrosscrx]

Things have slowed down around me. To a really healthy level.

It had gotten to the point where it wasn't uncommon to see 20 people waiting on a tee pad. You'd go in the local disc golf store and it was too crowded to look at anything. The popular Monday doubles that starts at 6 was getting filled before 4 pm.

Now, it is popular, but it is a healthy popular. Those of us that want to play league or play a tourney or play a casual or buy a disc or feel all the putters at the store have room to do so.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

Our local league has seen a decent bump in attendance in the past couple of years. Quite a few new faces, and a bit more diversity.

 

[DiscJunkie]

When I started playing, 2008, the average age of a DG player was probably in the 40's.

Now, the average age of people that I meet is younger.

However, if we want to sustain the sport long-term, we need to be in the schools and YMCAs and Parks Depts getting kids involved and familiar with the sport.
My off-the-cuff prediction is that we have a few years remaining on the gravy train.
If the disc companies and PDGA keep all the money going to the players and media and nothing to grass-roots recreational growth, the decline is inevitable, but will be slow.
For all its downside, Covid did the sport a great service.
Either we build on that and invest in the sport or milk it like the cash cow it has become.
Not seeing much investment, but maybe I'm missing it.

 

[WD09]

One of the things I have noticed around here is that there are people who got really excited when they got into the sport in 2020 and have since stopped playing, but during their time of peak enthusiasm they introduced others (family members, co-workers, friends, and anyone else who would listen) to the sport. Many of those people have stuck with it longer than the original over-the-top enthusiasts, who have now moved on to other things. I think this pattern is how a lot of the exponential growth has happened.

So it isn't just how many of the new people stick with it, but how many of those they brought along (who might bring others along) who stick with it.

Reminds me of an old shampoo commercial.

 

[ray1970]

I may be kind of the odd man out, but I'm kind of hoping the boom kind of fizzles out.

I know it's selfish but I kind of miss being able to play a round on a Saturday morning on a course that wasn't full beyond capacity. At least when some of these new players get a little better maybe play will flow a little better. I literally watched a guy take a 12 on a simple 260' hole the other day. I just patiently waited on the pad and watched him throw his seven shots to get within putting distance and then proceed to five putt. The girl playing with him wasn't any better. I bet between the two of them they threw twenty two shots just on that hole. I'm usually on hole eight or nine before I've thrown that many shots.

 

[nothinbuttree]

I may be kind of the odd man out, but I'm kind of hoping the boom kind of fizzles out.

I know it's selfish but I kind of miss being able to play a round on a Saturday morning on a course that wasn't full beyond capacity. At least when some of these new players get a little better maybe play will flow a little better. I literally watched a guy take a 12 on a simple 260' hole the other day. I just patiently waited on the pad and watched him throw his seven shots to get within putting distance and then proceed to five putt. The girl playing with him wasn't any better. I bet between the two of them they threw twenty two shots just on that hole. I'm usually on hole eight or nine before I've thrown that many shots.

Get off my lawn.

 

[nothinbuttree]

I think growth will definitely keep happening, just not at the crazy COVID pace. One limiting factor is what some here have mentioned already. Someone new to the game who has to wait 20 minutes to then throw their triple bogey may get discouraged pretty fast.

The lack of available courses I think will be a self limiting factor moving forward.

I am self employed so luckily I can play during the week, but I have seen these issues the times I have wanted to play on the weekend..

 

[Moose33]

It's kind of hard to gauge since the landscape of my immediate scene has changed a good bit since pre covid.

Before I had three 18 holes courses within 15 miles, one with very heavy traffic, one moderate but steady and one near deserted.

Now we have 6 courses and the players are more spread out. Pre covid our Thursday league was pulling 15-20 people, during it was 30-50 and now it's 20-30.

We have a disc golf dedicated store now which is cool. And I hope they do well.

I think we have way more casual players, but I've also seen a good amount of people cold Turkey stop for a variety of reasons. Even some pretty good players.

 

[wolfhaley]

It never really took off that big during covid around my area, thankfully. There were 2 other individuals out on my local course today. It had rained all night and was stupid humid, but it was also a sunday afternoon. It's generally not much busier than that in perfect conditions. I prefer it that way tbh.

The disc companies are probably going to see the bubble burst first. All these rare, signature, limited, etc. discs just can't be sustainable if things slow down. I loved my Stags, which they stopped making except in X plastic for awhile. Those aren't Stags for a noodle arm like myself. I would've started throwing some Mantis's. Loved the Big Z one I had, lost it over the winter though. Not interested in stock Z or whatever cryztal, sparkle, glo whatevers for ledgestone that'll be impossible to replace. Stock star Roadrunners are easy enough to find though. And cheap. I thow Roadrunners a lot now

 

[R-Ogre]

Our local annual tourney drew 50% more players this year than any other. We had to do pre-registration with limited slots and a cut for the final round. Unfortunately I played more rounds in the last 4 days than I have since mid May so I don't know about routine course traffic.

 

[Shallows]

Beyond my own anecdotal experiences which seem to mirror the other posters, JomezPro's viewership numbers seem to have settled into the summer 2020 numbers of ~5 million/month while staying far below last summer's 7-8 million views/month. I imagine some (or most?) of that midsummer boom in 2021 should be attributed to world's and Conrad. Curious to see if this week's competition hits last year's highs in terms of viewership.

DGPT's channel is showing a bit of an increase this year which I guess I would attribute to them bringing Silver Series in house?

 

[Countchunkula]

I don't know what will happen in dg, but the pandemic boom is already over in many industries. The company I work for supplies components to companies operating in a wide range of markets. People were buying fancy grills like they were going out of style for a couple of years there, but our biggest grill customer went from taking 50k units per month to 0 for the last few months. We were also working on a new product with a customer in the fitness industry that was projecting huge growth and has now killed the project and massively downsized. Both of those companies convinced themselves that the pandemic growth was here to stay and are now paying for that optimism. Plenty of other smaller examples.

Like I said, I have no idea if that pattern will translate to dg, but I would be really cautious if I was a company in the industry and was considering expanding production (or making any investments in the business, really).

 

[biscoe]

It is over in some ways in dg- tournament registrations are close to back to normal for instance. In other ways dg will see benefit from it for a long, long time- the influx of kids playing as their families were looking for something to do will do a lot to broaden the base even if many of them leave.

 

[flatflip]

Even if the sport returns to it's pre-covid trend, the future of the sport looks bright.

The game is addictive. I don't know if we'll get the same retention rate with the folks who have joined the sport in the past couple of years but I know for sure we've gotten quite a few people hooked recently.

Agree with the idea that there is a lot more room for growth in the junior divisions stateside — I know EDGE is doing good work but it pales in comparison to whatever the disctributors have figured out in Finland. There are mobs of (well-mannerred) kids there on every just about every course. Much as I love having the course to myself to practice my upshots or whatever, this is the future of the sport.

 

[dmoore1998]

I think the volume is sustainable, the growth is certainly not. I don't necessarily know if the tournament volume is sustainable...because I don't know how many of the folks picking up the sport actually care about sanctioned tournaments (around here, the answer is very few, even with people picking up the game more and more). Here, at least, it has turned into a cheap golf replacement. A way for buddies to get together, have some beers, and get outside to relax for a bit.

 

[Moose33]

One thing that has slowed ever so slightly is tournament sign ups. Events were straight selling out in 90 seconds 18 months ago and not you have a couple of hours, maybe a day for a big event.

Smaller ones were selling out in a couple of days now aren't filling until they are about to close.

 

[nothinbuttree]

Beyond my own anecdotal experiences which seem to mirror the other posters, JomezPro's viewership numbers seem to have settled into the summer 2020 numbers of ~5 million/month while staying far below last summer's 7-8 million views/month. I imagine some (or most?) of that midsummer boom in 2021 should be attributed to world's and Conrad. Curious to see if this week's competition hits last year's highs in terms of viewership.

DGPT's channel is showing a bit of an increase this year which I guess I would attribute to them bringing Silver Series in house?

I wonder how much of the change in Jomez views is due to how DGN is attempting to grab a larger share? I haven't looked, but is there as much coverage from Jomez this year across the board?

 

[autocrosscrx]

My personal Jomez viewing has dropped. There is only a finite amount of post event coverage that I care to watch, and Gatekeeper and others are taking some of that share.