Disc golf is currently a niche sport experiencing huge growth. This growth will bring an influx of money into the competitive side of disc golf from outside companies looking to capitalize on the success of our sport. As long as the disc golf community is thoughtful with how this money is spent we can nurture healthy growth. This money could have the potential for great progress and could be spent on programs for schools and course implementation.
On the contrary, this money from big business could bring unwanted influence from outside the core of disc golf. Do we want disc golf to look like other sports with huge logos of multi-state corporations on their shirts? On large banners around courses? Our players speaking on behalf of these companies? Time will tell.
This article is meant to shine a light on what may come from corporate investments to a sport that has never experienced this type of money or growth. This issue is not whether this is positive or negative. Rather it is a situation where we hold our future in our own hands.
Disc Golf Finances
Disc golf does not pay its players as handsomely as many other sports in this country. This is understandable as there is simply not enough money in the sport at this moment to sustain masses of professional players. There are maybe a few dozen players in this country that can put “professional disc golfer” as their full-time occupation. This makes our sport susceptible to outside influence as money has begun to pour into disc golf. How will disc golf deal with the outside monetary influences that arrive with more interest in the sport?
To illustrate this point, let’s take a look at the top tournament earners on the PDGA tour from 2019:
- 1. Paul McBeth $57,273
- 2. Ricky Wysocki $40,581
- 3. Eagle McMahon $40,431
- 4. James Conrad $37,340
- 5. Calvin Heimburg $34,948
Is this enough money to live on with all the travel and expenses that come along with the lifestyle?
Now let’s break down some numbers from the best disc golfer in the world, Paul Mcbeth. We’ll stick with his numbers from 2019 due to a COVID shortened 2020 season. As mentioned above and according to McBeth’s PDGA player page, he brought home $57,273 over 23 tournaments. This means he averaged a take-home check of $2,490 per tournament in 2019.
Now let’s compare this to the number one ball golfer in the world, Dustin Johnson. Let’s use the numbers from the 2020 COVID shortened season to see the disparity between the two sports.
According to Golf.com, over the course of 18 tournaments, Johnson won over $24,000,000 (Yes, 24 million dollars!). He averaged a paycheck of $1,333,333 per tournament in 2020.
Obviously, ball golf has huge money in the game due to its partnerships with massive multinational corporations. Due to these partnerships, the players are paid handsomely for their performance and the money circulates throughout other businesses associated with ball golf. Disc golf may never achieve these numbers and we may not even want the money to get to this point. However, we must be diligent in how we continue to grow the sport. Let’s make sure players and disc golf-specific companies get paid first.
Endorsements
In 2017, Paul McBeth inked the first deal with a major shoe manufacturer; Adidas. The contract has since expired and McBeth has moved on. But what came from this endorsement was an official shoe for disc golf. For myself and the circles that I frequent, the Adidas Terrex is the official shoe of disc golf. I am not saying that everyone wears this shoe. But I am saying a vast majority of players that are privy to the PDGA tournament scene know about this shoe. This aspect of big sponsorships excites me for future collaborations of disc golf-specific equipment with manufacturers bringing progress to our sport.
Endorsements? Let’s talk ball golf endorsements. Back to Dustin Johnson. According to Frontofficesports.com, Johnson makes over $11 million annually in endorsements from 7 sponsors. On the contrary, disc golf sponsorships are held tightly to the vest. However, we do know that McBeth signed the first-ever $1 million contract in disc golf history with Discraft in 2018. This was a 4-year deal worth $250K per year. This is an incredible accomplishment for the sport but the monetary discrepancy between the two sports is seismic.
These numbers are presented to show you that professional disc golfers are dependent on sponsorships and other channels of revenue to make a living. Beyond tournament earnings, players have various options for income. Some of these include sponsorships, tour series discs (many disc manufacturers will feature a player for a signature disc and give a percentage of sales directly to the player), Youtube channels, and clinics. The vast majority of professional disc golfers earn more income from these channels than from tournament earnings.
Media Influence
The media side of the game will also bring outside influence. Up until the Summer of 2020, all of the PDGA tournament coverage was filmed, produced, and released in-house. Most of the content is released on YouTube with a subset of tournaments released through the DGPT on their pay-per-view Disc Golf Network (DGN). Then it happened. In the Summer of 2020 disc golf was aired on both ESPN2 and CBS Sports Network. While they were filmed and edited by disc golf-specific media outlets, they were released via big market sports tv channels. They were both great successes and are sure to be only the tip of the iceberg for where disc golf is going.
Will bigger media outlets have ideas for disc golf to make it more exciting? Will they want to bring in their own camera crews and commentary teams? Will they change the core principles of the sport to make it more marketable? Who knows. But as long as we are aware of these possibilities we can be cognizant of the direction disc golf continues to proceed.
Conclusion
Big money is coming to disc golf. This trajectory can be a huge boon for the sport if we walk forward with purpose. Infusing capital into disc golf-specific companies and professionals, helping create programs to promote the sport in schools and to the general public, as well as supporting course implementation are only a few of the ways growth may proceed. Professionals and disc golf-specific companies are already the beneficiaries of such growth. It is my wish that this trend continues into a future where disc golf flourishes in unimaginable ways.
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