Summary
This episode of Disc Golf Daily discusses the reasons why players might want to leave Prodigy, a disc golf company. The host explores rumors of bad faith dealings, poorly made discs, and contract disputes. The conversation highlights the experiences of players like Paige Pierce and Kevin Jones, who have had issues with Prodigy. It also examines the performance of players after leaving Prodigy and switching to other disc companies. The episode concludes with the suggestion that leaving Prodigy might be beneficial for pro disc golfers and a lesson for the company to improve.
Keywords
disc golf, Prodigy, disc golf company, contract disputes, player performance, disc companies
Takeaways
- Prodigy has had a history of contract disputes and issues with players
- Players who have left Prodigy and switched to other disc companies have seen improvements in their performance
- Leaving Prodigy might be beneficial for pro disc golfers
- Prodigy should learn from these experiences and make improvements
Chapters
00:00
Introduction
02:04
Issues with Prodigy
04:11
High Profile Players Leaving Prodigy
06:11
Player Performance After Leaving Prodigy
08:30
The Benefits of Leaving Prodigy
08:59
Conclusion
Music: Strange Bop by contreloup
(upbeat music) Hello, race fans, and welcome to Disc Golf Daily. It is Friday, June 21st, and today we are gonna talk about 10,000 reasons Kevin Jones might wanna leave Prodigy. We are the podcast to get you caught up with Disc Golf News and Growth in about 10 minutes. Here we go. Back in 2012, a new Disc Golf company showed up with Guns Blazing. They masked the most amazing roster of players Disc Golf had ever seen, and likely will ever see. Katrina Allen, Paige Pierce, Sarah Hokum, Kale Lavisko, Paul Yulebarri, Garrett Gerthie, Cam Cole Glaser, Niko Locastro, Ricky Weisocki, Jeremy Colling, and Will Schusdrick. At the time, with only a few notable exceptions, those were the best of the best. Five of the top 10 men, the three top women, led by Will Schusdrick, who would win two of his three USDGC's throwing Prodigy discs. Many major and national tour champions through Prodigy discs. But now it seems that they can't keep talent. There are rumors of dealing in bad faith, poorly made discs, and a seemingly never-ending parade of contract disputes. If I announced on a show next week that there was a player in a contract dispute, no one would be surprised if I said it was a Prodigy player. According to Paige Pierce on the Smashbox podcast back in 2016 when she left Prodigy, she relayed the following story. She was unhappy with things that the company and told them she was thinking about leaving. She had a meeting with management, discussed their issues, and agreed that she would sign for one more year and see if they were able to overcome their issues. This all makes sense, this is how you do things. The next day she went into the office and they had a contract ready, she signed it. A year goes by, and from her point of view, nothing is improved. So she says she's leaving and they said no you're not. The contract they had made up said two years, despite them agreeing to one year. She admits it's on her for not reading the contract and she's right, but she just assumed they were honoring what they agreed to on the previous day of the discussions. So she spent the next year technically sponsored by Prodigy, unable to accept other sponsorship, but she did not wear their clothes or throw their discs. She's got an ace on film from doubles at Worlds, throwing a dynamic disc's mold with a wiped stamp while sponsored by Prodigy. It turns out forcing people to stay under contract is not a good idea. Perhaps that's why DD was willing to let Page go without a fuss a couple years later. Treating people nice matters. If you mess up, own it. Let people know you care and when you say you will make changes, do it. Otherwise, people will leave and not on great terms. Remember that list of names at the beginning? Kayle Laviska and Will Schustrich are the only two that are left with Prodigy. Let's look at Prodigy recently. Perhaps they've learned from the lessons of the past. We all know about the lawsuit that Prodigy threatened Ganon Burr with. Ganon was forced to stick around for an extra year and my guess is that there's not a lot of love lost between the two. So yeah, Ganon's gone. Let's see if there's some other high profile names that have left Prodigy in the last few years. Chris Dickerson, Matt Orm, Katrina Allen, Alden Harris, Gavin Babcock, and sure, players leave teams all the time. But it seems like almost no one big stays with Prodigy. And there's probably a reason. Threats of lawsuit could be one. Catching a typo in a contract where you agreed on a one year extension and the contract says two could be another. Imagine if Paige had read the contract, saw the adjustment and called them on it. Does she even sign at that point? It's just bad business to say one thing and then put something different in the contract. It's going to catch up to you. And the players they do have, they definitely don't seem to be a good job promoting. A commenter on Kevin's post pointed out that Rachel Turton is sponsored by Prodigy. She even has an in the bag from last year with all of her Prodigy desks. But if you go to the team page, she's not even listed. How many Elite Series top 10 finishes do you need just to be listed on the team page? She's got three and I'll bet she gets more. A quick piece of advice for you, Prodigy. When a new player does well, let us know she's on your team. So maybe that could be another reason players leave. If there is not very good support or promotion, that's going to hurt a player's value. It's all got to work together or it just doesn't work. I don't know where Kevin Jones is going. I don't know why Kevin Jones is leaving Prodigy. I do know that since he signed his five-year contract extension, his rating has dropped 14 points. He's become a relative non-factor at Elite Series events. And he is a quality person. He's a true competitor. He plays with honor and wants to beat you when you play your very best. And he played even better. Some of his wins on tour were some of my most memorable moments. He is such a class act and he would be so, so good for the sport. I hope he manages to find greener pastures, gets his love for the sport back, and starts to challenge for wins again. I truly do. But looking at his ratings decline got me to thinking. I wonder how other players that left Prodigy have fared after they left. We all know that switching a bag can be tough. But maybe if you switch to a superior disc company, you can actually do better after you switch. I remember when Paul left Innova for Discraft and when Simon left Discmania for MVP, there was a lot of concern that their game would deteriorate. In fact, there was no drop off. They are all quality companies. What happens one year after players leave Prodigy? Let's look at Ganon Burr. He went from 1044 when he left to 1049 now. Chris Dickerson one year after 1045 to 1044. Matt Orem went from 1029 up to 1045, the gain of 16 ratings points. Katrina Allen 967 to 974. Alden Harris actually dropped from 1034 to 1025, nine points. But Gavin Babcock went from 1021 to 1031. With these six players on average one year after leaving Prodigy, their ratings averaged an increase of five points with a brand new bag. On average on the Pro Tour, there are about five rating points for one stroke. This means that switching from Prodigy to any other quality company allowed these players to gain one stroke per round. This actually reminds me of a funny story I heard. Someone told me that they overheard Johnny McCray or maybe it was Steve Rico miss a putt and say, well, there goes $50. Nowadays, he'd have to adjust that up quite a bit. On average, each stroke is worth about $250 on the Pro Tour today. For a three round tournament, if you're gaining one stroke per round, so three strokes overall, you're gaining $750. For a four round tournament, you're getting an extra $1,000 just for leaving Prodigy. Multiply this out over a season, and these players are earning well over $10,000 more. Hopefully, Kevin Jones is able to make a switch that writes his ship, gets his rating, back up where it belongs, brings him true happiness, and helps him bring us the joy we get by watching him play disc golf. Maybe leaving Prodigy is the best thing a pro disc golfer can do. And maybe Prodigy can use this as a lesson to write their ship. I hope you enjoy the preserve this weekend. It's brought to you by Microsoft Teams. That does it for us today. If you have any thoughts, news or opinions, shoot us an email, discolfdaily@aol.com. Otherwise, have fun, throw them straight, tell a friend about disc golf daily, and hit the thin gap. [MUSIC PLAYING] Thank you so much for watching. Please like, subscribe, comment, and share. It really does help us grow. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
