Good info for installing new courses

[Tim]

It's always good when trying to present a course proposal to have some actual testimony of where a disc golf course has improved a park in one way or another. I just saw this article about New Quarter Park in Williamsburg, VA. I've gotten to play this course a handful of times when visiting family, and it's definitely one of the better courses I've played...think a somewhat scaled down, but more "professional" version of Milo, set on an old Civil War battlefield. It seems like each time I've revisited it, it's improved in some way or another too (signage, benches, bag hangers, etc.), assumedly because of the revenue it's generated. Basically, it's a good example of a course being a win-win situation for everyone. It is pay to play, but I think that's where the future lies anyway if we want to see the sport progress (I'll save that discussion for another thread.)

Anyway, pertinent info that'd be good to show city councils and such:

But it's the disc golf course that has proved to be the crowning jewel — one that recently won accolades from the National Association of Counties...Park-generated revenues have grown by 300 percent in recent years, according to the figures...
The county figures show that 3,342 golfers played the course in the first six months of 2009, a 226 percent increase over the 1,475 who played in all of 2008. Food, merchandise, rentals and usage fees those golfers paid have totaled more than $42,000, or about double the cost of the course's construction, in just 26 months of use, according to the figures.

And the real kicker:

County officials say that accounts for 92 percent of the park's total revenue — even though disc golfers represent only 10 percent of the park's total visitors.

Link to the article: http://www.dailypress.com/news/dp-local_parkboom-side_0718jul18,0,2206553.story

[Adam Schneider]

I saw that article the other day and saved it in my archive.

The only thing that makes it less relevant to most of our efforts is that city/county parks are typically NOT thinking about pay-to-play, because they really have no way of collecting the money if the rest of the park is already free.

[Tim]

That's true, however, I'd encourage people to try to think outside of the box as to ways that it could be pulled off. One of the biggest roadblocks in trying to get a course in is that many cities have a "that's nice, but what do we get out of it?" attitude. Sometimes a park superintendent or some other official will be knowledgeable about disc golf, to the extent that it brings profanity and litter to a park (among other things.) Becoming an actual source of revenue can shine a lot of positive light onto a course.

At a course nearby to New Quarter, it's also pay to play, but the place you pay is at an office detached from the course. They have rangers that come around periodically to check to see that people have paid--I think if you get a season pass, you get a bag tag to put on your bag so the rangers can see from a distance that you're good to go and leave you alone. Not a perfect system, but it does work.

Also, there's always the potential that somebody may own a sweet piece of land that would be perfect for a private course. They might be indeed interested to learn that it can become a source of revenue.