Profitability: disc golf physical store / pay to play course?

[TimSyl]

It is so busy, many people have stopped playing?????????????

Like one of my favorite Yogi quotes: "That restaurant is so busy, no one goes there anymore."

 

[davistd0]

By "many people" I meant the die-hard discers who would rather travel 45 min to the next closest course. P Hill got so busy that the crowds drove away a specific demographic. It still gets 400 players on a sunny Saturday, they are just mostly rec players. Contrasting many other courses which get a lot fewer players, but the majority of those are people with a few years experience who consider themselves disc golfers.

Which brings up another point. What is the balance between appealing to the masses ($$$$$) and appealing to the disc golfers ($$)? Another thread maybe.

 

[MrHighlandPark]

I agree Pleasant Hill has the perfect location in a densely populated area with not a lot of other viable disc golf property available nearby. I think it's just an average course but location trumps that. If they raised their price and deterred a few players, it may make the course more enjoyable. I know that when I'm passing through Portland the difference between $5 and $10 is meaningless, but I don't have time to wait around at each hole. After all, if I have a half day available for golf, I'm driving am extra hour to the significantly better courses further north.

 

[burdphil]

Hm? Pieradise is still up and running, I play there quite often. From what I gather, Alan doesn't make much profit if any. He charges $4/day and $80 for a season pass (march-October). He also has a proshop and his prices are usually the lowest you'll find (he even gives a $2 discount to season pass holders on certain discs.) He's clearly not running pieradise to make money, if he was it probably wouldn't be for sale. But depending on where you are, I don't think you're going to have much luck getting disc golfers to pay more than $4/day.

Is this the Corey that aced #20 in my group at the Pieradise Open? :thmbup:

Absolutely loved playing Pieradise. Great course, great pro shop, great people.

 

[Technohic]

By "many people" I meant the die-hard discers who would rather travel 45 min to the next closest course. P Hill got so busy that the crowds drove away a specific demographic. It still gets 400 players on a sunny Saturday, they are just mostly rec players. Contrasting many other courses which get a lot fewer players, but the majority of those are people with a few years experience who consider themselves disc golfers.

Which brings up another point. What is the balance between appealing to the masses ($$$$$) and appealing to the disc golfers ($$)? Another thread maybe.

Apparently 3 $s

 

[Brokensaint]

I've pondered this very question, ad nauseum. Disc Golf is still too much of a niche market to support a DG only proshop. Now, I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but overall pretty obvious. Even if you saw 50 people a day, everyday, who bought 1-2 discs a day, everyday, you'd struggle mightily. And there's no way those numbers are anywhere near possible. As far as a pay-to-play...same answer, I fear.
Now, being a bar/restaurant manager, I've thought "Why not a small pub and grill built on a beautiful pay-to-play complex? Disc Golf themed, simple menu, cold cheap beer, pro-shop in the front. I can totally do that!" Here's what I've come up with. A beautiful DG complex will not draw enough people. At least here in and around St. Louis, to find the appropriate land, you are too far away from commercial areas to be a successful business. Bar/restaurants and niche market shops are a very risky proposition with the best locations, let alone something off the beaten track.
But I am keeping my eye on the mass appeal of the sport, because I think there is a very good chance that it is growing in such a way as to make this option more viable somewhere down the road.

 

[Guurn]

What you would need to find is an area with a semi active community that is under-served badly with reasonable land prices. If it is a larger community this can mean that one side of the city is under-served even if the other has good courses. With gas prices already high, driving far quickly exceeds the cost of paying to play. Having a hut or bar that also serves regular drinks would be needed also.

I think we need Steve West to search these places out.

 

[Hampstead]

I've pondered this very question, ad nauseum. Disc Golf is still too much of a niche market to support a DG only proshop. Now, I'm sure there are exceptions to this, but overall pretty obvious. Even if you saw 50 people a day, everyday, who bought 1-2 discs a day, everyday, you'd struggle mightily. And there's no way those numbers are anywhere near possible.
.

The shop here in town is DG only (except for some Ultimate discs), has been there for 4 years and seems to be doing solid business. It's about a mile from a course, a few miles from a college campus and always seems to have customers whenever I go in there.

 

[coreyzd]

Is this the Corey that aced #20 in my group at the Pieradise Open? :thmbup:

Absolutely loved playing Pieradise. Great course, great pro shop, great people.

Hah yup that's me! Too bad my round went to sh!t after that...

And yeah, pieradise is one of the nicest courses I've played. Very well maintained and a great atmosphere. Even so, many people don't play there often because $4 a day is "too expensive." Disc golf is just not very profitable, at least not on my area where there are so many free courses nearby.

 

[Pwingles]

@OP

Imo, a course can be profitable if it has a lot of help. A pro shop would help tremendously, start up capital for initial inventory dependig on what you wanna stock quantitycould be a problem, but its doable.

Low overhead, lots of volunteer work, and a solid course all combining for a good experience for the customer is the way to do it, but its also the hard way.
Trotter is also correct, without networking with local clubs, running local events or doing payout for either of those things is going to be a huge key to your potential success as a DG retailer. An online presence in addition to those things would be a big boost assuming your site was functional, well designed, aesthetically pleasing, and easy to navigate/use, that would go a long way towards your success, imo.