PDGA Membership?

[NPCTour]

Will the PDGA Membership price tag ever decrease? Anyone remember paying $5-$20 for a membership? Now your paying $75 (Pro) max price.

They just started promoting a PDGA Member increase. How many are returning players?

My guess would be a spike in members if a fee changes were made: decrease in costs and penalties to the players. What do you think?

 

[smyith]

^^dead horse....sigh

the non-pdga member fee should be addressed over anything. $10 turns ALOT of people off.

 

[Horsman]

Doesnt bother me at all to pay $75 a year.

 

[TheWCG]

There are a lot of benefits with having a pdga membership. If you play tournaments on a regular basis and travel, it benefits the player in the long run. If you don't play tournaments and don't travel, it's worthless.

 

[RippinDs]

I don't mind paying it, the PDGA does a lot for our sport. Also if you play in enough tournaments it pays for itself avoiding the $10 fee.

 

[Grungedude42]

One of the cheapest national clubs for any sport I've ever seen.

 

[scarpfish]

My guess would be a spike in members if a fee changes were made: decrease in costs and penalties to the players. What do you think?

My guess is whatever uptick in membership a decrease in fees might bring in is going to be more than offset by lost revenue.

Stats show 23,317 current members. Granted, there's probably some early 2014 renewals on that list.

7716 pros x $75 = $578,700
15601 ams x $50 = $780,050
Total membership revenue $1,358,750

So if we backed off on those membership fees say just $5 per am and $10 per pro we would get

7716 pros x $65 = $501,540 (-$77,160)
15601 ams x $45 = $702,045 (-$78,005)
Total membership revenue $1,203,585 (-$155,165)

You would need 1188 more pros, and 1734 more ams to become members just to break even on the existing numbers. Could that possibly happen? Sure. But there are fulfillment costs for each membership, so why would the PDGA want to make that much more work for themselves to get the same amount of money? They would have to see much more of an increase in membership than those numbers to make a decrease in price worthwhile.

You're also forgetting that there are thousands of people like myself who choose to "join" the PDGA on a pay as you go basis, by simply paying the $10 add on fee at each event we play. That's still revenue in the PDGA's coffers without the member fulfillment costs.

 

[NPCTour]

The part about memberships are good for those tournament players and benefit those who travel is great!
What about the local players who don't travel or play many events? How can a PDGA Membership help them?

Think about local clubs: players support them for two reasons: just to support or to participate in ace pots, CTP's, etc......

How many players are just supporting the PDGA? My guess is not as many as there could be.

 

[smyith]

the non-pdga member fee should be addressed over anything. $10 turns ALOT of people off.

Also if you play in enough tournaments it pays for itself avoiding the $10 fee.

that right there is the only real reason to join the PDGA....to avoid the fee. but what about the non-member players who are thinking about trying a tournament and then find out there is an additional fee because they are not a member...most people at least that I know of, have an issue with that and never end up trying it out.

membership retainment probably has more to do with the frustrations of the PDGA (small % but a notable one) and people not really digging the tournament scene. for that latter group i think the PDGA should do more to keep those people in the association but have a different level for them....like a non-competitive membership or something (gets you the magazine and forum access) and considerably cheaper. It could also allow for 1 fee-free tournament a year.

the PDGA could also learn from the most successive aspect of our sport...the Club scene. as it operates now the PDGA isn't much of a "club" atmosphere. and seemingly to me, dgers like being apart of a club/group. as it is now, DGCR is more of a club than the PDGA (good for DGCR bad for PDGA) and that is an issue I see playing a big part in membership retention.

Think about local clubs: players support them for two reasons: just to support or to participate in ace pots, CTP's, etc......

actually i dont think the latter is it at all. to support yes, but more realistically its to belong and be apart of the community. clubs really bring the community of dgers together. i dont think the PDGA does that outside of sanction tournaments.

 

[DavidSauls]

Probably very few paying the $75 (Pro) price, not playing tournaments and just supporting the PDGA.

You're only talking $50---$4 per month---for someone who plays few or no tournaments.

Seems like these fees aren't new, but have been unchanged for several years now. It's not like it's a sudden issue.

 

[smyith]

has the PDGA ever done a members event that you don't have to pay extra (besides the membership fee) to be apart of? Do they ever host get togethers for the sake of just getting the community together to have fun? and if they do, is there favoritism shown to a certain locale that alienates others who cant travel as far?

even the people who don't rejoin the PDGA still maintian their local club memberships by and large....so whats that say about the PDGA and what they offer for your membership....is that what the players actually want?

 

[DavidSauls]

Local clubs vs. the PDGA are apples and oranges. They serve different purposes. I know plenty of people who are PDGA members, but not dues-paying club members. Including some who are former club members but quit renewing.

 

[Horsman]

The part about memberships are good for those tournament players and benefit those who travel is great!
What about the local players who don't travel or play many events? How can a PDGA Membership help them?

Think about local clubs: players support them for two reasons: just to support or to participate in ace pots, CTP's, etc......

How many players are just supporting the PDGA? My guess is not as many as there could be.

You dont have to be a club supporter to get in on ace pools and ctp's. If your lagues are run like that then you have a wierd structure for how things are done that might make new people not want to play your leagues because the cant be included in on those things.

 

[bradharris]

The part about memberships are good for those tournament players and benefit those who travel is great!
What about the local players who don't travel or play many events? How can a PDGA Membership help them?

The PDGA isn't really there to help them. It's an organization whose focus is on disc golf competition.

 

[Stardoggy]

I'm actually on the fence about a membership (would be first time). I don't know how many tournaments I'd play...but I would like to see what kind of ranking I could muster. That's a pretty big benefit of membership, in my opinion.

 

[Kodachrome]

I'm actually on the fence about a membership (would be first time). I don't know how many tournaments I'd play...but I would like to see what kind of ranking I could muster. That's a pretty big benefit of membership, in my opinion.

that's the boat i'm in too. i want a real rating and that's worth it, potentially, to me.

 

[takman]

I look at how much I pay a MONTH for electric, phone, gas, etc. $75 a year is miniscule, stop whining.

 

[scarpfish]

membership retainment probably has more to do with the frustrations of the PDGA (small % but a notable one) and people not really digging the tournament scene.

I'd suspect that the #1 reason a lot of folks don't retain their membership is life happens. New job, new wife, new kid, loss of job, medical issue, or some other personal hardship. The great thing about this sport is that it is very accommodating when a PDGA membership isn't practical. My first year as a member, I played tournaments in five different states. Now, due to not having the time and energy to galavant across the region, I barely venture more than an hour from home for tournaments. Only three sanctioned events a year in that circle. I play two of them. $20 is cheaper than $50.

 

[Discslinger12]

Howdy, having worked with the org this past year, here's a few data points about PDGA membership - for what it's worth:

- Most folks don't know that the $25 difference between the Professional-level membership ($75) and the Amateur-level membership ($50) is used to to fund the National Tour. This generates around $96K that is used for the NT and pro-focused majors.

- about 25% of the active members do not play in tournaments

- The $10 one-day fee is required for insurance purposes (policy covers members of the org playing in sanctioned events). It was paid almost 17,000 times by approximately 14,000 unique individuals (for reference there's about 18,000 active members).

- 38% of first-year active members do not renew, 17% more go after the second year, 10% more after the third - then it settles down to 2-3% per year thereafter.

- Membership costs are in line with many comparable sporting, membership organizations. Unlikely the membership amounts will decrease - more likely to add more benefits to being a member.

- The draft strategic plan (submitted and currently under consideration by the board) recommends several changes such as a 'club'-level membership, creating a dedicated focus (using the new membership income) on serving clubs and their members, and a dedicated emphasis on education. Hard to argue that these aren't worthy of our support. As with all change and evolution, the pace at which the org can shift to add these areas is where the real questions now lie.

 

[JC17393]

has the PDGA ever done a members event that you don't have to pay extra (besides the membership fee) to be apart of? Do they ever host get togethers for the sake of just getting the community together to have fun? and if they do, is there favoritism shown to a certain locale that alienates others who cant travel as far?

The Directors' Cup, October 26-27, 2013 - free to TDs, coordinators and other volunteers. They handed us ~$50-60 worth of stuff when we checked in, gave us a day's worth of seminars and discussions (ranging from sneak peeks at the new website and behind the scenes tours of the offices to idea-sharing regarding running better tournaments and growing local clubs/courses), five meals, and two rounds of competitive golf. The plan is to not only to make it an annual event at the IDGC, but also do auxiliary events in various regions around the country. I drove 1000 miles to attend and would do it again. There was also international representation as two fellows from Sweden were also in attendance.