Sports To Watch
‘Alternative’ Sports Go Mainstream
In 2007, the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) announced the addition of the 2,500th official course to its worldwide directory. While this was an important milestone, it was just one of many indicators that the sport—once an athletic activity with a small number of enthusiasts in only a few regions of the United States—has gained widespread popularity throughout the world, drawing thousands of competitors.
Jonathan Poole, who once competed in disc golf competitions and now works for Innova Disc Golf, a manufacturer of precision molded discs that are similar to the Frisbee, said there are many ways to measure the growth of the sport, including the pace of equipment sales. “The thing that has never ceased to amaze me, as an employee of a major manufacturer of discs, is that in 25 years the company has never had a year when it grew any less than 15 percent,” he said. “The same percentage of growth applies to the number of courses that have been installed, and the percentages get much higher when you look at the number of people involved in the sport.”
One event that demonstrates this dramatic growth is the annual United States Disc Golf Championships, a tournament that Poole developed in 1998. The first tournament in 1999 featured 68 players and a total purse of $10,000. By 2007, the event included 180 players—“as many as we could handle”—and the cash prizes totaled just under $90,000, Poole said.
Disc golf, bicycle motocross, or BMX, and Ultimate, a football-like team sport using high-tech discs, all took off in the 1970s. Once considered alternative or unorthodox, these sports have gained such high levels of participation, spectators and sponsorship support in recent years that they are now becoming part of the mainstream sports culture. Also among those sports experiencing an emergence from relative obscurity into the spotlight is one of the newest types of competitions—Major League Gaming (MLG), or video gaming—and the oldest-known competitive sport in North America—lacrosse.
A look at the numbers provides ample proof that these sports have come into their own. According to the 2006 Participation Survey by U.S. Lacrosse, the national governing body of men’s and women’s lacrosse, lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing team sports in the United States. Statistics show that the number of people playing lacrosse grew by 68 percent between 2001 and 2006, from 253,931 to 426,022 participants. The Ultimate Players Association (UPA), the national governing body for the sport of Ultimate, reports a membership of 24,600 members in the United States and a 62 percent increase in overall memberships in the past five years. On a worldwide scope, Ultimate is played in more than 42 countries by hundreds of thousands of men and women, girls and boys, according to UPA. BMX racing, which began with groups of kids racing Stingray bikes in vacant lots, now draws thousands of participants to high-profile competitions held in cities throughout the world. PDGA demographics indicate that more than 8 million people have played disc golf at some level, with nearly 60,000 having competed in sanctioned amateur and professional events around the world.
And then there is the phenomenon of MLG. According to Todd Unger, executive vice president and general manager, digital operations, in the past two years MLG has grown from a small, grassroots movement into a large, mainstream and organized league with hundreds of thousands of competitors playing live and online, and millions following the league and its competitions online and on TV. “The league literally started with the founders, Mike Sepso and Sundance Giovanni, holding small events across the country; 18 months ago MLG’s website had about 35,000 unique users,” Unger said. “By 2007, MLG had grown into the leading pro-gaming league with nearly 275 pro gamers under contract, thousands of players at its live events, a TV show following the season and an online competitive gaming network that reached about 4 million users in October.”
Why The Upsurge?
While the various sports now gaining the limelight are different, organization officials and event planners reveal similar reasons for the sports’ growing participation and public interest.
Accessibility and low cost of entry-level involvement stand out as key reasons that many alternative sports are becoming so popular. Some of the newly emerging sports are multi-generational, as well. “Our competitive events include classes of 5 and under, 56 and over, and everything in between, with skill levels ranging from beginner to veteran pro,” said Shannon Gillette, advertising, marketing and sponsorship manager at the American Bicycle Association (ABA), the national sanctioning body for BMX racing. “It’s a sport that entire families can do together.“
Similarly, disc golf offers competitive categories for kids 9 and under and for adults 50 and over, at all skill levels, said Brian Graham, PDGA executive director. “Disc golf offers physical conditioning and the same mental challenges as traditional golf, but entry into the sport is much easier because almost everyone has thrown a Frisbee at some point in their life,” he said.
Growth is often somewhat circular. While lacrosse has historically been a collegiate sport most popular in the Northeast, participation at the youth level—age 15 and under, non highschool affiliated—has exploded over the last several years, according to U.S. Lacrosse statistics. As more youth lacrosse clubs form in more communities, more kids become interested and often remain involved as they get older, according to Sarah Oglesby, director of special events at U.S. Lacrosse. Oglesby said the opportunities are steadily increasing for all age levels in all parts of the country, allowing athletes to continue playing as they grow older. The skills are fairly easy to learn and there is not much equipment involved, especially for women (who are not required to wear face masks, due to the low contact level of play),” she said. “It is a fast-paced game that is much shorter but typically higher-scoring than soccer.” In lacrosse, the length of play is about 1.5 hours and a typical score is around 10-13.
At the high school and collegiate levels, lacrosse can add another option for those who want to participate in competitive sports, Oglesby added.
As Oglesby mentioned with lacrosse, the relatively low cost of equipment is frequently mentioned as a reason that some sports are gaining ground. “If you want to get involved in BMX racing, you can start with pretty much any bike,” Gillette said. “The expense might be $200 to $300, or even less if the bike is purchased from a discount store. Of course, as you get better you will want to upgrade, but most of the bikes that kids have can be easily adapted to be race-ready without any major investment.”
Disc golf offers an especially low entry-level cost, because players can purchase a basic disc for about $8 and most courses are free, according to Graham. The investment gets a little steeper for serious competitors, who often carry a bag of 10 to 15 discs, each suited for specific distances; still, that doesn’t come close to the typical cost of greens fees for regular golf, Graham said.
But even when costs get high, participation often climbs in these sports. At the highest level of competition, technological developments in equipment and specialized training, while often costly, keep top-tier competitors involved in the newer sports and often generate sponsorships—another step to becoming mainstream. BMX racers and disc golfers who aim to become champions are always seeking the latest equipment and toughest courses.
Special event organizers and tournament planners help many sports gain wider geographic interest by bringing events to areas where they have not been previously held. “Much of the recent success attributed to the PDGA and the rising popularity of disc golf is due to the many event planners and local disc clubs that have been instrumental in getting courses installed in their communities for recreational and tournament play,” Graham said.
Tournaments and special events are driving up the skill levels of the top competitors, which in turn draws media coverage and sponsorships, Gillette said. This leads more and more cities and towns to develop facilities that allow them to host sports like BMX racing, disc golf and Ultimate. In the case of Lacrosse, host cities often simply have to make some alterations to existing soccer or football fields to bring tournaments to town, Oglesby said. “Many CVB officials are surprised to find that they can host lacrosse events. We try to move our national events around to locations throughout the country. This has helped establish strong groups of competitors in places like Georgia and Colorado, where the game does not have the history and tradition it has in the Northeast and parts of the upper Midwest.”
Just Getting Started
Perhaps the ultimate signs of success for any sports are large audiences, mainstream media coverage and competition on the world stage. Lacrosse is drawing record-level crowds to its National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) events, with nearly 50,000 spectators attending a Men’s Division I finals game in 2006. Lacrosse’s two professional leagues have deals with national television networks; Major League Lacrosse matches are on ESPN2 and National Lacrosse League games are on the Versus network. More than 20 countries on five continents now have organized lacrosse events. The International Lacrosse Federation holds world championships every four years, with the next one to be held in 2008 in British Columbia.
Building on the momentum achieved in 2007, MLG expects 2008 to be a “break-out year for professional gaming,” according to Unger. “In 2007, we added three new games to our Pro Circuit and expanded our online tournaments to cover more than 45 different games. We launched a major presence in user-generated video, where players upload and share their gaming footage and tips, and expanded our social networking capabilities.” All of these developments will help expand the gaming audience and serve the marketers trying to reach the young male target audience, he said.
The PDGA now sanctions more than 800 events around the world annually. This year’s world championships, to be held Aug. 8-16 in Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, Mich., are expected to draw 800 participants of all ages, along with their families and spectators, providing hundreds of thousands of dollars in estimated economic impact to the area.
Following a July 2006 retreat in Boulder, Colo., the UPA staff and board of directors began developing a five-year strategic plan to direct Ultimate’s growth and growing visibility in a positive manner. Programs like the UPA coaching clinics are training individuals around the country, college championships are now televised through a partnership between UPA and CSTV, and Ultimate has become a medal sport in the World Games.
For the first time, BMX racing will be included as a medal sport in the 2008 Summer Olympic Games, to be held this August in Beijing. Gillette is proud of the ABA’s involvement in this achievement. “BMX racing was created in America, but it has been a worldwide sport for many years. The racing standards that have been developed by the ABA, the development of the first national tour, the Pro purse, the first National Amateur Championships and the media attention we have helped generate have led to this important accomplishment,” he said. “BMX has been a legitimate sport for a long time, but now the world is acknowledging the fact.”