Let me first say I am not anti PDGA, or against everything, but here is one ting I have been thinking about and I feel it is a real spot where we are hurting our own sport.

We should be seeking to grow the active members of PDGA. However, I think we are not doing a good job at this. Looking through several weekends of tournament reports there is an average of around 130 non members playing in tournaments every week, sometimes as many as 200 or more in a weekend. While at a C tier or higher they are paying at least the $5 fee, this is not helping to raise numbers in the PDGA, and also hurts overall because these players do not get kept track of with numbers, or ratings.

I see several problems that can cause this. 1. The cost to be a member at the Am level for a rec or even int player has almost got out of hand. I do not see the benefit for these players to be paying $50.00 a year to join the PDGA when I am guessing most play less then 5-6 tournaments a year. 2. The benefits for membership to lower then Am 1 players is not enough.

By having a cheap entry level membership for a rec level or even rec/int level player we could strengthen the PDGA greatly. If it becomes a cost vs. function issue then make it a striped down, dumbed down PDGA membership with only ratings and a number included maybe.

If we can get more members as active members by having a rec level PDGA membership at 10-15$ a year we could grow numbers by a great deal I believe, and with more member numbers we then also have the power to start looking at more sponsors and proving that Disc Golf is becoming a big deal.

This could also make it easier to get and keep people in divisions they belong and get competition ratings for all players.

Matt, go back & look at how many of the "members" are current, especially in the pro ranks. Retention is a big problem right now. There have been about 10k new members in the last four years & we don't have many more than that who are current members.

Also don't forget, that until this year, there was a developmental membership available for like $10 or $15. That apparently didn't translate to many new members as it's been done away with. I think as newer players start to play tournaments they see a value in a $50 PDGA membership, but it seems $75 is a bit too high to keep them current.

Somewhere in the PDGA tour information it says that "TDs are encouraged to give away PDGA memberships as am prizes". I wonder how many TDs do this? My guess is not many. I think the wording should be changed to say "TDs are encouraged to use $50 worth of sponsor cash to give a new PDGA membership to a non member".