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Comment by nickmonad | Hacker News Reader

It does make me wonder when that will flip though. "Ball" golf (as disc golfers like to say) seems to be at a point where you can make a serious living without much to do on the social media side. Companies dump so much money into the purse because there are enough eyes on the game, and I think disc golf can get to that point.

But then again, maybe disc golf is coming of age in a different era, where social media will just be ingrained moving forward, and it will continue to be just as important, if not more, than your performance on the course.

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There's definitely been a move towards social media promoters making sports, versus yesteryear's slower moving partnerships of manufacturers, league bodies, and sponsors. "Esports", though it has various early history, has fallen into being predominantly a construct of this kind of hustle; if you can get some bodies in the same in-game space and on a live feed, you can come up with a way to build events out of it, offer prizes and all the rest. Thus even some relatively obscure stuff like speedruns of modded NES games will boast a small scene.

I think of it not as one type of thing overtaking the other, so much as it is something like an unbundling of the traditional sportsfan experience. The individual athletes will have one set of content, the leagues will have another, and you can participate in either with fewer commitments. Sponsors get a smaller but more focused niche market to tap into.

> Companies dump so much money into the [golf] purse because there are enough eyes on the game, and I think disc golf can get to that point.

Maybe, but traditional golf also has the image, historically, of being a sport for the wealthy. I think this becomes sort of self-perpetuating, since it automatically attracts new wealthy people to the sport.

I think the spending power within the group of people that practices the game also affects the size of the total purse.

Ball golf has massive tv contracts and a wealthy (but shrinking and aging) fan base who doesn’t live on social media. That’s a big part of why the sponsors contribution to the purses is so big. Guaranteed TV time for the brand in front of the right people who will be watching.

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