The Inevitable 2016 Pros Switching Sponsors Thread

[lyleoross]

You are either very drunk, Dave Feldberg himself, or both. You mention him by his full name 3 times, pointing out how he is an "exception" to the rule, but you fail to explain why. Because he does seminars? Funny, I've literally never heard of him giving a single seminar.

Also, your whole first paragraph seems misplaced, since pretty much nobody in this thread is saying that touring pros are living a lavish life. You simply reiterated what had already been said.

Sorry I was confusing, thanks for pointing it out. I mentioned Feldberg because he often speaks for the sport. And he spends as much time as any giving talks. Indeed, if you took the time to look up his talks, you will see that he spends a great deal of effort thinking about the mechanics of the sport, and how to go about preparing for play, more so than many. His talks aren't off the cuff, they are prepared, and quite good. Even more so, Dave has stated clearly his desire to teach and lecture on the sport and got a masters in education to help with that. Now you may think Dave is a donkey for stating this, or desiring to play this role, but personally, I enjoy his talks and have learned from them.

I felt that Dave's story was relevant because it seemed to me, perhaps incorrectly, that several posters had commented on Pros getting fees for giving such talks, and I'm guessing that they, that is Pro players, are required to give such by their sponsors, as marketing, or do them for free, and there isn't extra compensation involved. And no I'm not drunk, nor Dave, simply amazed at comments that suggest that pro players have multiple means by which to pick up money on the side while playing the sport. It seems a hard thing to do, and one that often only works if you travel with other players, i.e. the margins are that thin.

You are correct in one thing, my approach was overly stated, and a politer approach on my part would have gotten a better response.

 

[DanJon]

Not trying to threadjack, but c'mon...
Lot of gas money, but not going too far if you factor in rent, food, clothes, car payment, etc.
$200 a month may mean something if it's extra income, but if disc golf is how you pay the bills - $200 is peanuts.

The original point was about supplemental income.

Not the primary source.


Edit: Broken Shoulder beat me to it

 

[hugheshilton]

Has anyone brought up the fact yet that Bobby Musick is supposed to be Legacy sponsored this year, but he was wearing a Latitude64 shirt during the La Mirada Open (you can see it many times in the Day 3 coverage from SpinTV)? I'm not sure how Legacy would feel about him pimping a rival brand; seems a little fishy, but maybe they don't care. I'm assuming he wouldn't change sponsors right after the season has started, especially since he just changed to Legacy...

 

[damagedLIVER]

Bobby Musick to Lat 64 too.

Post #697. I was sad to see him go....

 

[cjman]

You are either very drunk, Dave Feldberg himself, or both. You mention him by his full name 3 times, pointing out how he is an "exception" to the rule, but you fail to explain why. Because he does seminars? Funny, I've literally never heard of him giving a single seminar.

Also, your whole first paragraph seems misplaced, since pretty much nobody in this thread is saying that touring pros are living a lavish life. You simply reiterated what had already been said.

Felberg is also running the Am Tour this year. It sounds pretty incredible.

 

[Reniger]

Kinda sad to see Bobby leave Legacy, but he KILLED it with L64! So happy to see him take second!

 

[hugheshilton]

Post #697. I was sad to see him go....

Thanks, sorry I missed that! It's odd to me because he is still on Legacy's webpage and he's not on Latitude64's. Also, didn't they ask Rico about picking him up in a recent CCDG interview? Or maybe they only asked about Peter McBride; I can't remember now. I do remember that Steve said that one of the primary attributes they are looking for in sponsored players is loyalty, so that's got to hurt. You don't find much loyalty to brands or sponsors out there anymore really. It's understandable though, given how little these guys make.

And no I'm not drunk, nor Dave, simply amazed at comments that suggest that pro players have multiple means by which to pick up money on the side while playing the sport.

I think your post mostly made sense up till this point. I'm not exactly sure what you mean. Of COURE pros have multiple means by which to pick up money on the side. They have to! Sponsorships and tournament winnings aren't going to pay all the bills for 98% of disc golf pros. You see them all the time on the facebook groups selling discs to help raise money. A lot of them play smaller tournaments that they know they can cash on whenever possible to raise money. They TD tournaments (Pure Hyzer Productions has videos of a series of tournaments TD'd by Nikko this winter on YouTube). They probably play in local leagues if they have the time. And a lot of them have part time jobs or jobs in the off season. I mean Steve Rico is a touring pro who cashes frequently in the tournaments he plays and part owner of Legacy, but he still works laying concrete for a living. I don't think the majority of sponsorship deals are paying a living wage, so certainly pros that want to tour full time are pinching pennies and picking up a little extra at every opportunity.

 

[DiscJunkie]

The original point was about supplemental income.

Not the primary source.


Edit: Broken Shoulder beat me to it

Thanks for the clarification.
That makes more sense.

 

[spinachd]

Regarding the Paige Pierce thing: Are Prodigy pros required to throw all Prodigy? They certainly were not in the beginning. Maybe her's is an extension of the same contract and she can technically have a mixed bag and still be Prodigy sponsored.

All of these sponsorships are pretty small time stuff are they not?

 

[sidewinder22]

Paige P wasn't even included in the Prodigy commercials, but Catrina was.

 

[brandocommando9]

Regarding the Paige Pierce thing: Are Prodigy pros required to throw all Prodigy? They certainly were not in the beginning. Maybe her's is an extension of the same contract and she can technically have a mixed bag and still be Prodigy sponsored.

All of these sponsorships are pretty small time stuff are they not?

Prodigy did not have a full line of discs in the beginning which is why people were throwing mixed bags. I remember a bunch of prodigy pro in the bag videos once they had a full lineup.

 

[mfcastillo17]

Regarding the Paige Pierce thing: Are Prodigy pros required to throw all Prodigy? They certainly were not in the beginning. Maybe her's is an extension of the same contract and she can technically have a mixed bag and still be Prodigy sponsored.

Yes, we are required to throw all Prodigy

 

[sidewinder22]

Yes, we are required to throw all Prodigy

Was PP throwing Prodigy at the Memorial?

 

[Horsman]

Was PP throwing Prodigy at the Memorial?

Here and there

 

[mfcastillo17]

Was PP throwing Prodigy at the Memorial?

No clue. I wasn't there and I have no idea what her situation is.

 

[Star Shark]

Paige was still throwing a few Prodigy discs <I'm guessing the ones she had super beat in already>, but the rest of it was Trilogy that I saw.

 

[DamtheMan]

Speaking of Pros and sponsor swaps and all that, we're past mid-March and there have been very few ITB videos from them. Drew Gibson is probably of interest, how he swapped Rocs and Destroyers after going Trilogy. Feldy hasn't been pimping Trilogy products either like in the past couple of years with his ITBs. Prodigy's YT channel has quite a few of their players featured in What He Throws videos, but others don't seem to be following suit, at least for now. Still too early in the year for those switching to have gotten fully in-tune with their new stuff?

 

[mark996]

I'd suspect so. I think we'd see a lot of "this is what I'm trying right now" kind of videos. They may even be throwing mixed bags until they can get up to speed with their new line of discs. I'd be curious in Gibson's ITB video as well, should be interesting to see if he changed anything else besides discs to suit his needs and style.

 

[Apoth]

All of these sponsorships are pretty small time stuff are they not?

I don't know that anyone outside of sponsored pros themselves know this answer for sure. Several years ago, we had some players who talked a little bit more about their sponsorship deals on here. This was in the time of innova/discraft dominance and, if memory serves, most of the deals ended up being essentially an allotment of discs and, if you placed 1-3 in a tournament, some cash bonus. The bonus was usually tied to how high you placed and the level of the tournament. I can't fully recall the bonuses, but I don't remember them being huge, a couple hundred bucks by and large. Maybe pushing a thousand if you ended up taking a bigger tournament/NT/Major/Worlds. I do recall that some of the discraft deals for their lower end players ended up changing those win bonuses from cash to discs with the idea that you would turn around and sell those discs yourself.

Now keep in mind that all of this was several years ago before Trilogy and Prodigy were really on the scene. Word for a while has been the prodigy gave its pros some share of the company or potentially a monthly salary. I also suspect that with the increased competition has also come increasingly more favorable sponsorship deals. For instance, McBeth in his recent Smashboxx interview was talking about getting health insurance through Innova and how Innova was looking for a way to offer that to all of their pros.

With that said, though, I don't think any of them outside of McBeth are making pretty good money. McBeth's tour winning alone last year were $72,000 and that's more than I recall ever seeing any player ever make before. Usually, the top guy is making around $40,000-$50,000 (mcbeth was low to mid $40s in both 2013 and 2014). Couple that with sponsorship bonuses from last year (prior to his big endorsement deals that kicked in this year) and he might have pushed the six figure mark. By contrast, the number 2 player in the world (Ricky) only made $35,000 in tournament winnings and the number 3 player (Will) only made about $33,000. I doubt either of them had sponsorship deals that pushed them up to $50,000 but I could be wrong. Even if that were the case, though, they are still having to pay travel expenses and that can add up quite a bit even with staying with people when possible and splitting gas.

I don't think you have to look any farther than the fact that most of these guys are really active on DG auction/sales groups selling things from their personal collection to see that they aren't making a killing.

 

[Anon]

I don't think you have to look any farther than the fact that most of these guys are really active on DG auction/sales groups selling things from their personal collection to see that they aren't making a killing.

Ehhh... I think most of the top players realize they are sitting on a goldmine of old plastic and are striking while the iron is hot.

I don't think its indicative that they are living check to check (although I'm sure plenty are).