Am Cash Payouts at Tourneys!

I've heard that it is acceptabe for Am division players to accept cash payouts at sanctioned and non-sanctioned events up to a certain dollar amount and maintain ther Am status. If true, is this per tourney, or is the dollar amount cumulative?

[Dookville]

First of all lets get off the discussion of wether I play well enough to go pro or not and thinking that this is about me wanting to get paid for playing disc golf so that I no longer have to work at Mercedes Benz, which i have done for the last 26 years very happily. There is no miopia on my part about where the money in disc golf is made. OK!

 

What it is about is me maybe wanting to put on a few tournaments in Socal and what I might want to do to attract people to come play in the tourney. It's about me wanting to help AMs have the best experience they've ever had at a tourney so they want to stick with it for a long time. Got that! Any problems so far!

 

For Petes sake. no wonder nothing ever gets done when disc golfers are involved. Rant over!

 

A recent tourney here in Socal had 107 AM players registered at an average of $50.00 per person, some more, some less. That is a total of $5350.00. All divisions totalled, they paid out in varying degrees to 38 of those 107 people. For the sake of the argument, lets say they spent $50.00 in payouts per player on average, some more, some less. That is a total of $1900.00. Question is, where did the other $3450.00 go?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Chuck Kennedy]

Based on typical retail-wholesale difference, the promoters likely made no more than 1/3 on the $50 entry fee to prize conversion. Let's say $1500. From what I understand, SoCal has course reservation fees in the $700-$1000 range per day. You didn't mention player packs and any club or PDGA fees? At best, they might have netted $500. Not much for the amount of work involved. If there was real money to be made running events, we would probably have 3-4 times as many to choose from even if the average attendance at each event was lower.

[Boom Boom Dino]

It's the typical retail to wholesale difference that makes the difference. Say Disc seller TD gives out prizes to ams .... a $20 Valkrie wholesales at $8 ...... the remainig $12 goes to the Pros to boost their prize winnings ...... the money you AMs pay to enter goes to the pros   thus the Ams are subsidizing the Pros so they can go on tour and make a living. TD's need to make something too,  putting on tourneys of size are a lot of work.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Dookville]

That would be part of what I'm getting at right there. Thank you.

[Dookville]

Thats maybe even worse than I thought. I didn't get to teepad and other sponsorship money they took in. I'm gonna have to be more careful about which tourneys I play in. Especially ones that obviously are using AM money to pad the Pro payouts. Whether the money went to any individuals pocket or not, I'm not sure. I'm not against people making money, I guess I just figured because our club is non profit that others in the area would be as well. Ignorant me.

 

I've seen much worse though at a non-sanctioned event. $5200.00+ taken in entrance fees total and the TD even said he paid out $4600.00 in Pro Payout. $600.00 went to the AMs plastic payout. No players packs where given out period. 186 total players, we where such a huge AM group that we where triple deep on many of the teepads. I won't be playing that tourney again. That, and the sandbagging was horrible, even with the crappy plastic payout at the AM level.

 

I'm not bitter. I just want to help AMs have a better time through them not feeling like they got taken to the cleaners.

[anhyzer1]

check out pdga tour standards on the pdga website it lists all of the fees and money you need to run a sanctioned event.

[Dookville]

Yup, saw that. Thanks

[Nate Nasty]

$500 is tons of money...  to some people

[Chuck Kennedy]

Not for the amount of time all the people setting up the courses, seeking sponsors and running the event put in.

[Nate Nasty]

i guess it matters what an individual is used to being payed

[Rob]

I use gift certificates from Marshall Street for my am payouts. I email them the amount the player won, they email a gift cert to the winner.

[David Sauls]

One benefit of PDGA sanctioning is more consistent standards.   Non-sanctioned events may be great---but you have less assurance of the standards that will be followed.

As both a TD and lifetime Am player, I can say that, at least around here, Am entry fees are not going to pro purses.  Ams are getting back virtually 100% of their entry fees in players in the retail value of players packs and payouts.

Wholesale/retail value of merchandise is earned by TD (or club) by handling the merchandise.  This funds fixed costs, sometimes added pro purse, and clubs---which ultimately goes back to the courses.