💳 Can DD afford $4M+ contracts?
Blockbuster Moves, Sponsorship Evolution, and Fish & Tips
Hello and welcome to week 9 of the off-season.
2022 started off with a bang. Lots of sponsorship content in this edition, but the moves will taper off.
Let’s get into it.
Contracts Watch
🚨 NEW 🚨
Player moves are amazing for players & manufacturers. The hype generates huge sales across the board. And like everyone predicted, Dynamic Discs is cashing in this year. But the jury’s still out if they’ll move enough plastic to afford these contracts.
Ricky Wysocki - To no one’s surprise, Wysocki is the decorated MPO player that Dynamic Discs signed. He’s walking away from Innova 3 years in to their 5-year contract. Matching Mcbeth’s contract, Wysocki’s partnership with DD is worth $4M guaranteed over 4 years with a $250k signing bonus in bitcoin ₿.
Wysocki was also in talks with Discraft, but in the end chose to continue his rivalry with McBeth.Kona Panis - To everyone’s surprise, Panis left Innova for Dynamic Discs despite her father (Jeff Panis) being Innova’s Marketing Director. But this move could be her way of showing everyone that she’s valuable on her own.
Her new contract (4-year, $500k guaranteed) matches Kristin Tattar’s largest ever announced FPO deal. Her partnership with DD makes sense, as both highly value social media.Kyle Klein is now officially the 3rd Crush Boy. He just got promoted to the Discmania Sky Team for 2022.
Catrina Allen announced her departure from Prodigy after 9 years. Her new sponsor is still unknown. But maybe Austin Hannum will be promoted to her tour manager.
Hailey King ended her 2-year contract with Discraft early. King was competing with Paige Pierce AND Missy Gannon for the spotlight. She would be the FPO star of any other company, so she has reason to leave.
Nate Sexton continues his Innova Team Captain duties through 2025. By the end of this contract extension, Sexton will have repped Innova for 19 consecutive seasons.
Ella Hansen - The 2021 PDGA Rookie of The Year got promoted to the Discmania Tour Team with a 2-year contract extension.
Mason Ford & Valerie Mandujano both announced they were parting ways with Innova. The touring couple then followed it up with 2-year contracts with Dynamic Discs. Stack ‘em up.
Kevin Jones - Prodigy has extended Jones’s contract another 4 years which will make him a team member for a total of 7. The deal was a “no brainer” to Jones, so this must be big. Anything more than 2 years is uncommon with the sport constantly changing.
Missy Gannon announced a 2-year extension with Discraft. She described the new contract as major, although numbers weren’t mentioned.
Zach Melton (Auto-correct stuns the world) - Extends contract with DD.
PREDICTIONS
I don’t think we can handle any more player moves. Let’s call it.
Here’s the final recap of everything that happened in this off-season:
MOVES MADE
Adam Hammes - Extension with Discraft (3 years)
Andrew Marwede - From Innova to DGA (3 years)
Matt Bell - From DGA to Thought Space Athletics/EV-7 (1/3 years)
Michael Johansen - Extension with Discraft (3 years)
Cole Redalen - From Discraft to Infinite Discs/EV-7 (1/3 years)
Gregg Barsby - Extension with Innova (3 years)
Matt Orum - From Prodigy to Westside Discs (2 years)
Eric Oakley - From Dynamic Discs to Infinite Discs/TSA (1 year)
Gavin Rathbun - From Discmania to Dynamic Discs (2 years)
Kristin Tattar - Extension with Latitude 64 (4 years, $500k)
Drew Gibson - Extension with Infinite Discs (1 year & lifetime deal for discs)
Note: 1-year extensions weren’t included. Nobody has time for that. If your favorite player isn’t on here, then they’re still throwing the same discs as 2021.
Is Winning Actually Valuable?
Before Wysocki’s blockbuster contract, he and Nate Sexton could’ve been making the same amount of money. But Mr. 2x World Champ wins so much more than Sexton?
“There’s value in other areas not just winning.” - Paul Ulibarri
Ulibarri shared this insider tip on the latest Player Sponsorship Roundtable with The Upshot podcast. Joining Uli were Jonathan Poole (former Innova Team Manager) and Sara Hokum (MVP sponsored).
Player contracts back in the day (really not long ago) used to be no more than registration fees, plastic allotment, and performance bonuses. Players were “signed” by a phone call and hand shake. But we’ve come a long way: NDAs, player agents, and lawyers are becoming common for all parties.
Now more than ever, what a player does outside of tournaments matters. Player brands & social media are king. Wysocki’s value comes from his performance. But Sexton’s comes from his media presence, being team captain, and a little thing called the Sexton Firebird.
So if you’re looking for a sponsorship… Being 1050-rated on Instagram could pay off.
Listen to the whole roundtable for tons more insight.
New Plastic
This week Drew Gibson unveiled Finish Line Discs, his own signature line (through Infinite), and showed off its 1st disc. It’ll be a mix between the Innova Teebird and Leopard. Basically a Gibson FD.
Did you decide to skip out on the Discmania Black Mystery Box? Still curious about McMahon’s Rainmaker? Then follow Birdie Disc Golf Supply Co.’s release of their Marvel putter. It just got PDGA approved and has near identical specs to the Rainmaker.
If you want shiny new plastic, check your health insurance & you might qualify for free or discounted discs/equipment. It’ll make those bigger purchases (practice baskets, mystery boxes, etc.) easier to swallow.
Random Triples
FOLLOW Gatekeeper Media on YouTube or their socials. They’ve collaborated with Andrew Fish to release short, easy to digest, and extremely useful tips/drills every single day of this month.
SPONSORED
FIND your next disc backup or replacement at TryDiscs.com. Type ANY disc (plastic too) you’re looking for into the ISO Disc Finder. And it’ll show you every online retailer that has it in stock with details like shipping cost, available promo codes, and store location.
I finally found the elusive Jawbreaker Zone and even got 20% off!Måns Von Rudfeldt from Sweden shows off a trick shot even Simon can’t do. 360s are a thing of the past.
Instagram: @30s.crisiscorksson
Meme of the Week
Thanks for reading today. Get out and Be Dynamic this weekend!
- Charlie
Great work as always Charlie! They have kept you busy with all the sponsor switching this week
I've never followed sports at any level until getting into disc golf a couple years ago. This content is terrific and I appreciate it a lot.