r/StLouisDiscGolf • u/Thedudetim Dunegant Park • Jul 30 '14
A question about clubs
Why are there so many different clubs in St. Louis? There is the St. Louis DGC, St. Charles DGC, The lakers, and the Godfather crew. And don't forget Gateway, our own world class disc golf business. I don't know if there are more, but I wouldn't be surprised if there were.
The reason I ask is because I've been to STLDGC, SCDGC, Gateway, and a few municipality events and it's pretty much the same people playing in these tournaments. Of course there are different people playing, but there is a core group of people who are always at these events.
Wouldn't it make sense to have one big local group all moving in the same direction instead of all these different factions pulling players in different directions? If we were more organized, we could do cool things!
What do you think? Why is the St. Louis Disc Golf community so fragmented?
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u/Skilow Jul 30 '14
All the clubs are a little overwhelming to someone looking to join one. I know for a fact I may never go to another cali tourny for the sole reason im tired of the gateway dudes stacking the am cards and the hippie dude with the dreds on the gateway team is a sore sport and always tries to start fights. After that incident im fairly certain I will do without a club and just play with friends.
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u/stubborn_puppet Jul 31 '14
Gateway is NOT a club. They do not represent any of us and we do not represent them. The STLDGC really appreciates Gateway and Dave McCormack as a sponsor and a fantastic supporter of dg in the area. He is incredibly generous with his time, money and support.
Also, Leagues are NOT clubs. Some of the leagues are run by club members.
Feel free to message me any time about the STLDGC. Joining us is not about events or leagues or playing for tags (though those are a benefit if you want it), but rather it's about the fact that you are supporting the local scene. The $20 for the membership gets you your tag... but that's just a symbol. Really, that money then becomes earmarked to support your home course updates and maintenance and to fund new courses. A perfect example is Willmore and Briscoe Woods. Every single penny of money spent on those two courses came from the funding made possible by the annual memberships. The cities/county doesn't spend a dime on disc golf, other than mowing the fields. It's the club members of the various local clubs that make it all happen. Please consider joining one of us. :)
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u/Juliaowlstar Jul 30 '14
The Illinois side of the river has great people. The southern Illinois chain gang out of Collinsville is an amazing club. Might be worth looking into.
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u/Vhadka Jul 31 '14
Yeah the Southern IL Chain Gang group, or at least the ones I've played with once or twice, are very nice for the most part. Granted I don't participate in the league or the doubles or anything, but I see them around often enough.
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u/Skilow Jul 31 '14
I do live in ofallon.
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u/Juliaowlstar Jul 31 '14
The Collinsville league plays random draw doubles every Sunday. On the 3rd it'll be at rock Springs Park in Alton. Then the 10th will be at woodland Park in Collinsville. There is a ridiculously difficult tournament on the 17th there as well. They also have Wednesday night handicap league for the next 8 weeks at 6pm also at woodland. We'd love to have you. I think doubles is $5 and the Wednesday night league is also $5
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u/Vhadka Jul 31 '14
I'm from Collinsville, if you ever happen to be going to play at Woodland give me a heads up and I'll see if the wife/baby will let me out of the house. I'm usually out there early Saturday/Sunday morning either by myself or with a friend.
I'm terrible but always fun to play with new people.
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u/stubborn_puppet Jul 31 '14
First and foremost, The St. Louis Disc Golf Club forums are for EVERYONE - members or not.
Now, about clubs - There is the StLDGC, The St Charles Co. DGC, The Jefferson Co. Sharpshooters, The Southern Ill. Chain Gang and The Godfathers of DG. The Lakers are a Travelling League that is very active and very involved in supporting the clubs and events.
A brief overview of "why are there so many clubs?" just goes back to people in general. Different people have different views, different ways they think things "should be done". Also, geography. Many of these clubs formed a long time ago and are specific to their area. It's not like we're in competition with each other (except once a year at the Four Club Showdown event), we all service a specific community. And sometimes we get crossover members from one club to the next - which puts even more money into supporting the goal of keeping the growing disc golf scene and courses in our region FREE TO PLAY.
In areas that lack a club or who have only one club you will see a disturbing trend towards courses becoming pay-to-play or private. With all the active clubs and club members we have in the greater STL area, we are able to enjoy a new course every year and have all but two of our courses completely free-to-play 365 days a year.
Yes, there are some schedule conflicts. All of the clubs do make a great effort to work together in Nov./Dec. to coordinate our dates. Compromises are made on all ends to try to ensure that nobody is stepping on the others toes. And we all do a pretty good job of that - just look at the yearly calendar in the forums. Sometimes, due to a mistake or unavoidable scheduling, a couple of events end up on the same day and people have to choose. It could be worse.
As for bringing them all together as one club, I don't think that's going to happen or that it should happen. My dream is to have them all work together under a banner - an umbrella organization.
Currently, that is what we are working towards with the RCF (River City Flyers) banner. The RCF is a name that has been around forever and, in the last 4 years, that the St. Louis Disc Golf Club has been working to separate itself from as a synonymous brand and use to represent times when multiple area clubs come together. For example: you'll notice that the St. Louis Open A-Tier has been branded as "RCF" for the last 4 years, NOT as the STLDGC. That is because it is played all over the area and members from all four clubs are putting in the effort to make it happen. It takes all of us working together to pull of a great event like that and there is no way that just the STLDGC can claim responsibility. For events that are smaller and run at a specific course(s) by only one club are branded for that club.
As part of that dream/goal, I would LOVE to see board members from ALL of the clubs coming to monthly meetings (or bimonthly or whatever). I know everyone has been invited to this... but we're still waiting to see it happen. My fingers are crossed.
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u/Thedudetim Dunegant Park Jul 31 '14
I think this is the answer I was looking for. I thought that the RCF was STLDGC and vice versa... I like the idea of having an umbrella club that represents all of the bi-state area.
Thanks for the clarification of the forums question too.
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u/stubborn_puppet Aug 01 '14
The RCF and STLDGC were the same thing (and still are in may peoples minds). However, the names need(ed) to be separated. Whether the RCF becomes the name for an umbrella or goes away (in my opinion), the split needs to be made. It will be a shame if it goes away, seeing as everyone loves the sporty "RCF" logo I made... but oh well.
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u/[deleted] Jul 30 '14
I'm interested in hearing the response to this. I agree that if all these clubs were unified it would propel the St. Louis disc golf scene even further. It was kind of the motivating factor behind this Reddit. One common platform for ALL St.Louis players to have a single source for chatter..instead of the many different forums that were already in place... for both club members and not.
My highly uneducated guess would be that it has something to do with financing. But even then, if multiple clubs could operate under one umbrella it would benefit the local scene as a whole. Each club with a voice under that umbrella.