USDGC moving to every other year!

[1978]

There are several things that are frustrating to me after reading the blurb from Innova.

This is the biggest and best PRO event year after year. Alternatining years just flat out sucks!

I could accept the fact if they were getting burnt out. It happens when you run events. They are still going to run an event so that isn't why they are not running it.

If they want to focus on Ams, run the event the weekend prior. They had been running doubles there prior to the USDGC.

If it was financial I don't get that either. They are selling more discs then they ever have. They could run the Am event for a great value and with merchandise at their cost to manufacture. The next option is to take the Rocs that everyone else makes money on and sell them on Ebay. Heck, several just sold for $900 and $600 that J Poole listed. They could limit the production even more and make more money for the USDGC.

The European Open has nothing to do with the USDGC. I don't really understand why they even threw that in there.

Worlds is the most prestigious event, albiet lower purse. 2x 9x 10x 11x 12x 5x those are all worlds championships. They dont make a 3x Barry Shultz Champion Destroyer for his USDGC wins.

An Am event is easier to run than a tee time pro event with multiple spotters on every hole and a constant string of golf carts picking up people from parking lots, for 4 days straight.

Retailers don't make limited edition anything to sell at a high price. Baseball cards, beanie babies, etc. Limited edition things are marketing tools to create loyalty for "fanboys" or collectors. The discs J Poole listed were charity discs, I believe, for troops.

Innova is selling discs, but they are also sponsoring more events across the country. Its not about money, its about effort. Effort is the hardest thing to create.

The Charlotte Disc Golf club does most if not all the work for US Doubles and will continue to do so. Innova, aside from having Winthrop set up, does not run this event.

Innova sells baskets almost at cost, I know, I have quoted them out both overseas and domestically to see if I could source them. They do this to promote disc golf. The Innova CFR program is amazing. They just ask that you sell the disc for a certain price so that you can maximize your fund raising potential. Every one of the 100's of thousands of CFR discs produced every year directly benefit the growth of disc golf by helping local clubs raise money for courses or charity.

Disc golf can be promoted in better ways than a single non televised event that has 180 players and a few thousand visitors.

 

[billnchristy]

in our business we choose not to lose money as well.

This is very un-American of you. Haven't you been following the news? :clap:

 

[1978]

This is very un-American of you. Haven't you been following the news? :clap:

Isn't just owning a business anti-american?

 

[billnchristy]

Isn't just owning a business anti-american?

Good point...close your doors and get on the welfare train everyone! :gross:

Heeey....why doesn't Innova apply for some stimulus money for the USDGC?

The purse can be 2.2 billion.

 

[Sadjo]

Some folks go way out on a limb and create a unique tournament. Perhaps putting money in, certainly putting a phenomenal amount of labor into it.

Did they sign a contract commiting them to it for life?


So anyone else is free to duplicate their efforts. Steve Dodge is trying. I doubt we'll see many others doing so.

Very strange that someone can contribute so much and, when they cut back on their contributions, some people accuse them of being selfish.

I've run tournaments for years. Back in 1993 when no one in the MFA wanted to run the Majestic, I stepped to plate and a group of AM players with no TD experience ran a 1-day event to ensure the tourney didn't die.

Running events is a lot of work and mostly what you get back is a lot of people complaining about different little things. Yet I continue to run events. I can see if the work load grows and the complaining grows along with it, I can see putting an end to it or just scale back.

 

[Cgkdisc]

Adam, we've been trying to track down the winner of the 1993 MN Majestic. Who was it?

 

[DavidSauls]

I've run tournaments for years. Back in 1993 when no one in the MFA wanted to run the Majestic, I stepped to plate and a group of AM players with no TD experience ran a 1-day event to ensure the tourney didn't die.

Running events is a lot of work and mostly what you get back is a lot of people complaining about different little things. Yet I continue to run events. I can see if the work load grows and the complaining grows along with it, I can see putting an end to it or just scale back.

Imagine if you quit doing it, and people complain about you quitting.

The scale of the USDGC is amazing. I TD or co-TD 3 events a year, assist with 1 or 2 others.....but even that is peanuts to the USDGC (as with some other big events). Just the fact that it runs all week, so you need plenty of staff to leave their jobs for a week, is a tough place to start.

 

[Three Putt]

I'm not sure that this has anything to do with anything, but the marketplace is changing. Innova is still the big dog, but there is a lot more competition out there now. In particular I'd be concerned about Vibram. Vibram isn't your usual "disc golfer making discs in his basement" new disc company. Vibram would have me a bit worried if I was Innova. Running USDGC takes a lot of money. Maybe in the face of new competition they don't feel like they can dump that money into that event every year anymore.

 

[Sadjo]

Adam, we've been trying to track down the winner of the 1993 MN Majestic. Who was it?

I believe it was Phil Harper out of Iowa.

 

[Cgkdisc]

That would be Jeff Harper. We asked him and he couldn't remember. Let me know if you have actual docs in your files showing the winner. We thought maybe Greg Rife would know but he didn't have anything either. We've been trying to fill in this one blank in the Majestic history for a few years now.

 

[Sadjo]

That would be Jeff Harper. We asked him and he couldn't remember. Let me know if you have actual docs in your files showing the winner. We thought maybe Greg Rife would know but he didn't have anything either. We've been trying to fill in this one blank in the Majestic history for a few years now.

Right. I know it was someone from Iowa that came up and won. I'm 95% sure it was Jeff Harper. It was a last minute kind of tournament. A one day at North Valley. Small field. I still have a few of the promo light weight birdie putters with the tournament stamp.

 

[DavidSauls]

Great thread drift.....from the future of disc golf to its distant past....

 

[Sadjo]

Great thread drift.....from the future of disc golf to its distant past....

Yeah..us old timers...always taking about the glory days of the sport...

 

[cooker]

While I don't like this move personally, I'm sure the decision is 100% about selling more products and has nothing to do with their capability to handle the event or the cost of running it. Hasn't innova expanded their operations to include at least one branch of their company in Europe?

In terms of disc golf potential, Europe is ripe....kinda like america was 10-20 years ago. And the huge events that sprung up here a decade or so ago (USDGC and MST/Vibram) have gotten an insane amount of loyal customers and done an outstanding job marketing our sport. Same thing should happen across the ocean. That, and they'll get the opportunity to blow up a huge AM event.

This will probally be a win win for INN.

 

[DavidSauls]

I must have missed something. How does cutting back on the USDGC to every other year increase disc sales in Europe?

Isn't the European Open, which will alternate with the USDGC, occuring irrespective of the USDGC changes? Is Innova crossing the pond with 8 miles of yellow rope, to put their current USDGC efforts into the EO?

 

[Three Putt]

I'm sure Innova would do it all if they had the resources. USDGC costs a lot of money to put on and gets really zero exposure outside the disc golf community, and everybody in the disc golf community already knows all about Innova. It seems more like a vanity event that they like to host than an event that provides a solid return on investment. What I have to guess is that in a hard-line assessment USDGC has not provided the ROI that Innova would like to see, and they are going to invest some of those resources that had been allocated to USDGC to the Discmania effort in Europe. Innova has the U.S. market tied up with a bow. They are going to face tough competition in Europe from Latitude 64, so if they hope to hold the monopoly on the market there that they enjoy here they need to be on it now.

Of course that is all speculation. I'm not really sure why they are doing it, I just figure they have decent reasons.

 

[cooker]

I must have missed something. How does cutting back on the USDGC to every other year increase disc sales in Europe?

Isn't the European Open, which will alternate with the USDGC, occuring irrespective of the USDGC changes? Is Innova crossing the pond with 8 miles of yellow rope, to put their current USDGC efforts into the EO?

From the INN announcement:

.............In recognition of the growth of disc golf around the globe, we have decided to move the USDGC to a biennial schedule. Effective immediately, the USDGC will alternate years with Europe's major event – The European Open. The USDGC will be held in even numbered years and the European Open in odd numbered years. This will enable better global promotion of professional disc golf, as well as afford us an opportunity to serve another important segment of the disc golf population. ............

IMPO, it sounds to me like not hosting the USDGC every year will free them up to collaborate with (or just take over) the EO. If things go there the way it went for the USDGC here, it should get them the same kind of luv from euros as they get from us.

 

[MikeK]

Worst blunder in the history of disc golf is this decision.

A huge setback for the credibility of the sport.

Innova has done a lot for the sport over the years, but this decision only highlights the fact that Innova has way too much control over the sport. A corporation should not have the final say on how often the championship of a country is played.

The pDGA, if it had a backbone, and wasn't the puppet of Innova, should cut ties with the USDGC, and find a way to host the official championships of the US every year. Call it the USDGO (US Disc Golf Open) if they have to---whatever it takes to crown a US Champion every year.

I'd much rather see the pDGA Worlds moved to Europe every other year or Japan or Canada than this boneheaded arrangement with the USDGC.

Either cancel the USDGC forever or keep it an annual event.

Mike Kernan
Cashed at the 2003 USDGC

 

[DavidSauls]

From the INN announcement:

.............In recognition of the growth of disc golf around the globe, we have decided to move the USDGC to a biennial schedule. Effective immediately, the USDGC will alternate years with Europe's major event – The European Open. The USDGC will be held in even numbered years and the European Open in odd numbered years. This will enable better global promotion of professional disc golf, as well as afford us an opportunity to serve another important segment of the disc golf population. ............

IMPO, it sounds to me like not hosting the USDGC every year will free them up to collaborate with (or just take over) the EO. If things go there the way it went for the USDGC here, it should get them the same kind of luv from euros as they get from us.

Good point. I stand corrected. I don't really understand how much they can do with the European Open---certainly not on the scale of what Innova does with the USDGC---but it's their business model, not mine.

 

[billnchristy]

Everyone who is crying (including all the big name pros on facebook with their petitions)

STEP UP and make something better.

That is all.