Paul McBeth goes to discraft.

[Dynamic_83]

Watching videos on disc golf and you see the commercials for Innova and you hear paul say he cant see himself playing for anyone else,what he should have said is,money talks and I will go where that is lol

 

[Jolt]

Well we will probably never see that Commercial again


I don´t Think the move was so much the Money but more what Discraft could do for Paul

 

[BeRReGoN]

In that commercial he was saying: ".... doing anything else" which obviously meant playing disc golf, not throwing a specific brand.

 

[storyboy]

Based on some recent comments by Paul, perhaps the lack of transparency regarding sales of his signature destroyers was a concern. I could be wrong, but it appears he did not get any sales data to verify his royalties.

This^^^

 

[Jolt]

In that commercial he was saying: ".... doing anything else" which obviously meant playing disc golf, not throwing a specific brand.

I thought the quote was someting like

"i have always thrown innova. . i can´t see myself doing anything else"

English is not my first language but I interpret it as " i don´t see mysef throwing anything but Innova"

 

[hartigan5279]

In that commercial he was saying: ".... doing anything else" which obviously meant playing disc golf, not throwing a specific brand.

This is the way I always took it as well

 

[lenfantsuave]

This is the way I always took it as well

Yeah, I mean the broadest interpretation is that he's talking about his disc golf career. But it's a commercial for Innova champion discs, not disc golf. Paul saved that for his "It's my job" spot with the pdga.

 

[Grippenripp]

That seems crazy. I suppose if it wasn't in his contract to know the numbers...but not telling him would make it seem like they had something to hide.

I'll also take this opportunity to plug an article I wrote for Ultiworld absinthe switch. Posted it in the sponsorship thread, so ignoring you saw it there.

https://discgolf.ultiworld.com/2018/11/21/mcbeth-wants-build-brand-will-pay-off-discraft/

Good article, interesting perspective. A fun little read.

 

[BeRReGoN]

I thought the quote was someting like

"i have always thrown innova. . i can´t see myself doing anything else"

English is not my first language but I interpret it as " i don´t see mysef throwing anything but Innova"

English is not my first language either so I can be wrong.

I assumed Innova used this quote of McBeth to kind of pretend he meant "I can't see myself throwing anything else (than Innova discs) but it always felt wrong to me.

 

[pjhayes7]

I thought the quote was someting like

"i have always thrown innova. . i can´t see myself doing anything else"

English is not my first language but I interpret it as " i don´t see mysef throwing anything but Innova"

This is the way I always took it as well

In that commercial he was saying: ".... doing anything else" which obviously meant playing disc golf, not throwing a specific brand.

Well we will probably never see that Commercial again


I don´t Think the move was so much the Money but more what Discraft could do for Paul

Watching videos on disc golf and you see the commercials for Innova and you hear paul say he cant see himself playing for anyone else,what he should have said is,money talks and I will go where that is lol

Paul said in a PDGA radio interview that this sound bite is quite old (I think he said before he ever won Worlds, but I am not 100% on that.) And he definitely said there were issues regarding his signature discs, whatever those may have been. So over time he changed his mind about his employer.

 

[skurf]

I don´t Think the move was so much the Money but more what Discraft could do for Paul

No offense, but I feel that's a bit naive. Innova would have made any mold he desired, but Paul seemed perfectly content throwing Destroyers and Teebird3's all day. Now, Discraft will have to make discs for him since they don't really have a Destroyer clone. Pretty sure it's about the money, which as a pro, is what it should be about.

 

[DiscJunkie]

Paul is an astute businessman.
He is looking out for his brand and his future.
He also realizes that he is, by far, the most marketable DG'er in the game.

My bold prediction:
He is leveraging his present fame and marketability to gain a future, vis-à-vis, his own line of discs.
I believe his long-term plan is not Discraft discs with his signature, but PM discs made for him by Discraft (like DGA, DD wit Lat64, Millennium & Discmania with Innova).

 

[Brodysseus]

Paul is an astute businessman.

100% this. Paul is, as he should be do, doing what is best for him and his.

Money, years, incentives, disc line, whatever it may be... Paul is making the move that accomplishes his goals.

 

[McCready]

This is a weird move for me because no one person or thing is associated with Innova's brand in my mind as strongly as McBeth, and it seems like such ineptitude on Innova's part to let him get away. Paul's account of it certainly sounds like they were inattentive at the very least, and possibly dishonest at worst. Slow to return emails? He has a financial stake in disc sales but they wouldn't share sales numbers?

Another thing that is nuts, Paul says repeatedly that Innova is reluctant to work with agents. Seriously? I'm guessing they change that stance after this debacle. We all say "Grow the Sport". We get excited when the USDGC has record attendance, new courses get announced and highlights pop up on Sportscenter. So umm, professional athletes have been hiring agents for like 60 years, you dolts. You don't work with agents? The best player in the sport is your homegrown talent, and he effing "grew the sport" to your great benefit as a lot of plastic was sold just because his name was on it. Take care of that asset and negotiate with him like it's the 21st century. Recognize that this sport is growing in popularity and obviously the top pros will be more marketable. They should absolutely have agents when this kind of revenue is at stake.

 

[lyleoross]

Lies, damn lies, statistics.

A phrase written by someone who didn't understand statistics and was given an answer he didn't like.

 

[lyleoross]

There's been a bit of bashing of Innova in relation to Paul. Yes Paul is an astute businessman, I might argue the same about the Innova boys. As a senior manager at a company, I would have said no to Paul on some of his "requests," also. Of course, he did manage to leverage a nice paycheck out of Adidas.

As always, Paul, the businessman, would have listened to DD, I've never seen Paul not look at an offer. He'd also be careful to display his loyalty to the company that signed him.

Somehow, I think Innova will survive. I also think DD will do just fine. The only company I've seen take on a substantial risk is Discraft. I hope that it turns out to be a non-issue for them.

Paul is a great spokesperson. He understands image and perception really well. He's still the best in our sport at that.

 

[ericb45696]

Anyone want to put money on whatever the first disc specifically made for McBeth will sell out like crazy no matter what it is ?

 

[tbird888]

A TeeBird

 

[dehaas]

To play devils advocate here, if you're the biggest in the sport and haven't dealt with agents in the past why would you start now?

There is leverage to be had in being the biggest. Why would I invite a professional negotiator into the conversation when I have the upper hand?

As everybody else has said, he's by far the most marketable disc golfer out there and business savvy. I honestly don't think the money itself was the issue with Innova. If the end goal was always a separate product line, I would guess that's where things fell apart. Either they wanted to keep him 100% under their own branding or they couldn't agree on how much would be paid for them to run plastic, or they wanted a stake in the new company, something along those lines. You'd have to assume whatever Paul was looking for just simply crossed the line in the sand that Innova had drawn. At that point somebody else would eagerly step in and make it happen.

This is a weird move for me because no one person or thing is associated with Innova's brand in my mind as strongly as McBeth, and it seems like such ineptitude on Innova's part to let him get away. Paul's account of it certainly sounds like they were inattentive at the very least, and possibly dishonest at worst. Slow to return emails? He has a financial stake in disc sales but they wouldn't share sales numbers?

Another thing that is nuts, Paul says repeatedly that Innova is reluctant to work with agents. Seriously? I'm guessing they change that stance after this debacle. We all say "Grow the Sport". We get excited when the USDGC has record attendance, new courses get announced and highlights pop up on Sportscenter. So umm, professional athletes have been hiring agents for like 60 years, you dolts. You don't work with agents? The best player in the sport is your homegrown talent, and he effing "grew the sport" to your great benefit as a lot of plastic was sold just because his name was on it. Take care of that asset and negotiate with him like it's the 21st century. Recognize that this sport is growing in popularity and obviously the top pros will be more marketable. They should absolutely have agents when this kind of revenue is at stake.

 

[McCready]

To play devils advocate here, if you're the biggest in the sport and haven't dealt with agents in the past why would you start now?

I don't know, but he just signed the most lucrative deal ever, so it would seem to be a well considered and executed move.

There is leverage to be had in being the biggest. Why would I invite a professional negotiator into the conversation when I have the upper hand?

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