Just throwing this out to the PDGA BOD.

How about giving TD's a free PDGA membership to give away at each of their events?

We have many non PDGA members that continue to play our PDGA events. For whatever reason they don't join. What do others think about this idea?

not that the idea doesn't have merit ..but wouldn't it be better if each td gave one away as part of the prizes at their events, than the pdga spending 2800-4000 to have a free membership for all of the approximately 700 pdga sanctioned events???

where would that extra money come from??

spread out through each of the td's,40-55 dollars per event would be one extra t-sign sponsorship sold...

i would rather see the pdga spend money on other things...

hell...even the pdga idgc in augusta is raising money to put courses in the ground versus just spending willy nilly to put them in....

just my opinion

I would like to get an actual number on how much the PDGA pays for the magazine and the rest of the membership package.


We give out free club memberships as CTP's and other prizes. They are valued at $15.00 but we actually just pay for the $6.00 bag tag.

I'm assuming a PDGA membership does not cost the PDGA $40.00 am or $50.00 for pro.. They are taking in some $ from that membership.

If half those members join the next year they make back the $ and end up hopefully in the futre keeping them as members.

it may not cost them 40 or 55(not 50)for am or pro ....
BUT it means they are not GETTING 40 or 55 if a td gives it away...

the idea of giving away memberships is a good one and i commend you for doing it as a td....

just think if all the td's did it and those players talked their friends into playing so they could have a chance to win a free membership or get a bag tag if they already if they already were a member, etc...
the goodwill goes alot further on a LOCAL level than it would coming form the top in my opinion....
it would also be one more thing the [i wanna know what the pdga is wasting my money on folks] would get upset about,instead of seeing it as a good thing....again just my opinion as a td AND a player
keith

Don't forget the lost $5 per tournament they would keep playing after getting a free membership :D

In the TD package the PDGA recommends giving away memberships as prizes.

This could go to the highest finishing non-member.

Although, they do not specify if the TD is to send the entry fee to the PDGA to cover the cost of membership.

One reason that there is a lot of non-members is that these players only play one maybe two PDGA events per year. They do not see the value in paying $40+ instead of the $10 the would spend in extra fees at tournament time. You would have to track if these players, if given a PDGA membership, would renew the next year to deem it worth while to give away memberships in the first place.

i wonder what it costs to crate a new member. and what it costs to get them to renew the second year. if we knew that then we could say whether or not giving one membership away as part of an A or B tier would make sense.

my guess is that it would be a very cheap way of gaining a few members. of course, with the current 40% non-renewal by Am players, perhaps the pdga simply doesnt believe it could retain the members, and fears it would be wasting money to give away memberships.

i wonder what it costs to crate a new member.

UPS or Fed Ex?

Retail prices for 1st year new membership:
sticker: $1
mini: $3
disc: $10
rules: $3
magazine: $20
no $5 fee for that tourney: $5
Total: $42 (retail prices, w/o admin costs)

thats good info on the retail prices, but that aint what it costs. to know the true cost, we'd need to add in whatever costs of marketing are incurred on average for each new member.

I don't know those precise figures, Pat, but I know that four years ago a *new* amateur member did cost us a lot more than their initial dues payment for their first year. And you are right that there are administrative and fulfillment costs beyond retail/wholesale for things.

There have been some changes to dues and other things to make that a little better, but I don't know how much better. We're doing well enough financially, that I think we got past that break-even point, but I haven't seen recent stats.

A little analysis:

Amateur Membership $40
PDGA Non-Member Fee $5

Cost to TD for Amateur membership $35
Profit Not Realized by TD $8 to $15

There is no need to buy a membership in the Advanced div, because if they are bagging in Advanced, then there is nothing anyone can do to change that. By definition a player cannot bag in the Open division and if a non-member is checking the wind and then making their decision about playing Open or Advanced, sooner or later a TD will notice this switching around. So the only divisions that "need" a PDGA membership would be the Intermediate or Recreational divisions.

From above, the most a membership would cost the TD is $35 per division. If the first place players wins at least $35 in value the most the TD would realize in loss as reduced income, would be 1/4 to about 1/3 of that value (times two if both divisions). This is dependent upon wholesale disc prices. If a huge number of discs were purchased, the loss of income could be as much as $15, but is probably closer to $8. As a TD I know that a lot of time is put in that is never recovered and this is one more thing to do, but it could be very helpful in stopping lower tier bagging.

Maybe the PDGA could offer a reduced renewal to the TD's if they get X memberships at their tournament. This would be an incentive for the TD and since the TD is already a member, renewing should be cheaper than making a new membership. This would also get TD's to push memberships at tournaments.

At the Utah Women's Championships, we are giving away PDGA memberships to the top 3 women in each of the AM divisions. They will have their choice of a full membership for 2006 or a developmental membership for 2006 that we will roll-over into a 2007 full membership on Sep. 1st. We have worked hard to get the extra $360 that it is going to take to pull this off. This will be in addition to the player's packs and normal payout in each division. I have wondered if this is going to generate some complaints from current members. A current member may feel that the non-members are going to be rewarded greater than the members. A non-member Rec woman is going to pay $7 and receive a player's pack (retail $35), and a chance to win a $40 PDGA membership on top of the normal payout.

Because the PDGA memberships cost the TD face value, it is much easier to give the normal AM payout and use the difference between wholesale and retail to pad the pro purse. If the TD's were given a discount on the memberships it may encourage more TD's to give them away as prizes. However, it may also lead to a TD promoting sign ups at the tournament for a discount. Then the PDGA loses money.

Rob,

I think that what you are suggesting is very commendable, but I don't follow what you mean by the PDGA losing money. I also do not use profit from Amateur winnings to pad the Open purse. I generally use it to cover the player's packages and expenses. Open cash is mainly from sponsorship.


Because the PDGA memberships cost the TD face value, it is much easier to give the normal AM payout and use the difference between wholesale and retail to pad the pro purse. If the TD's were given a discount on the memberships it may encourage more TD's to give them away as prizes. However, it may also lead to a TD promoting sign ups at the tournament for a discount. Then the PDGA loses money.

If the discount membership offered at the tournament is lower than the cost of that initial membership, the PDGA loses money. Terry stated above that a few years ago that was the case. If there is room in the margin for a $5 discount to tournament directors, I am all for it.

Our motivation for giving away memberships at the women's tournament is to get more women in our area playing competively. It will be worth the work to have 9 new female members in our area. I really hope that it will lead to more ladies at sanctioned events. Although giving away meberships is recommended in the TD report, this is the first time I seriously considered it.

thats true only if the freebie beneficiary does not renew. if they do renew, then there is probably a postiive return on investment - in both hard financial terms and softer memberhip development and "grow the sport" terms. dont forget to credit the $5 the guy paid to play that day. it could be paid for by the marketing budget.

you would be well on the way to proving it works if you get anything less than a 40% non-renew rate for the seeded memberships. throw in some gain from the fees paid by these players to play at later events and its not hard to believe seeding memberships (within reason, subject to some limit, etc) could be a good thing for all involved.

Rob,

I understand now. I was suggesting that the ONLY discounted membership would be a percentage off of the renewal for the TD. Full cost for all new Amateur players that win a PDGA membership. My estimates show that the TD could lose as much as $8 to $15. If the PDGA offered a $5 discount for every new member signed up then the most a TD could lose would be $3 to $10 per player.


If the discount membership offered at the tournament is lower than the cost of that initial membership, the PDGA loses money. Terry stated above that a few years ago that was the case. If there is room in the margin for a $5 discount to tournament directors, I am all for it.

Our motivation for giving away memberships at the women's tournament is to get more women in our area playing competively. It will be worth the work to have 9 new female members in our area. I really hope that it will lead to more ladies at sanctioned events. Although giving away meberships is recommended in the TD report, this is the first time I seriously considered it.

I have sponsored new-member memberships at several of our Icebowls this past February.

If you don't have someone to sponsor it... to help raise money to pay for the membership... you can run a raffle at $1 or $2 a ticket...(We did this anyway and since our events were Icebowls, we gave the money raised to charity). People were buying them fast! And current members were buying 5-10 tickets to get their friends a chance to become members. It was a great way to bring people into the PDGA AND raise money!

Here is a funny idea, have the raffle for New Memberships or renewals and you can buy tickets for someone else. I don't care for most raffles, but if the raffle was for a PDGA membership, there would be some players that would buy tickets for the top bagger, just to get them a membership and rating. :)



I have sponsored new-member memberships at several of our Icebowls this past February.

If you don't have someone to sponsor it... to help raise money to pay for the membership... you can run a raffle at $1 or $2 a ticket...(We did this anyway and since our events were Icebowls, we gave the money raised to charity). People were buying them fast! And current members were buying 5-10 tickets to get their friends a chance to become members. It was a great way to bring people into the PDGA AND raise money!

I like to think the world isn't like that. :( lol :D

The ones in our situations went to golfers just starting to play.

If the event is a C tier, you could give away Development Memberships. The cost to the TD would only be $5 (since the non member pays $5 to play)

They get a magazine and an intro to being a PDGA member.