SUMMARY
USA Guts has been extended the opportunity to demonstrate Guts Frisbee to a captive audience at the 2022 OTB Open (part of the Disc Golf Pro Tour) in Stockton, CA on Saturday, May 21st. The Tournament Director has offered us an area of the venue (with bleachers) to showcase our game in a timeslot after the competition has finished for the day. This invite is an opportunity for USA Guts to promote our game at an event full of disc enthusiasts and possibly begin a very beneficial relationship with the Disc Golf Pro Tour (DGPT).
THE DEMO
The OTB Open will add the Guts demo to their weekend itinerary to spur interest and draw a crowd. In addition, USA Guts will create a promotional video for OTB and DGPT to share on socials in the weeks leading up to the event. These posts will possibly be seen by hundreds of thousands of people interested in disc sports.
At the event itself, the USA Guts emcee will start with a brief description of the game and its history before introducing both the players and the teams that will be competing. Next, we’ll play a 3v3 game with uniformed players up to 21 points while providing amplified commentary and a description of what the audience is watching. We’ll toss some Frisbees into the stands during switches and provide chances for the audience to interact with what they are witnessing (e.g., “Who’s rooting for Team Red?”, “Should he throw the thumber or the fish hook?”, “Let’s choose the game MVP based on crowd noise!”). After the game, we’ll invite everyone to come down to the field and throw at our guys and give away Frisbees to anyone who does. After the demo, Team USA will continue to hang around to teach interested parties the game's finer points. We’ll give instructions on certain throws and defensive strategies. We'll coach 'em up, and we won’t leave until everyone has left us.
TEAM USA
Selected individuals will be high-level players who can make big plays for a big audience, personable players who will interact with the crowd and professionally represent USA Guts, and players who are comfortable coaching newbies. Click here for the application to represent USA Guts. The board of directors will determine which six players are chosen based on attributes and budgetary concerns.
FUNDRAISING
Raising funds will be our biggest challenge and is why this GoFundMe was created. Our goal is to raise enough funds from the Guts community that transportation and lodging are taken care of for our players. Each player will be responsible for their own incidentals on the trip. Potential donors, please note that this COULD turn into a long-term relationship with the DGPT if all goes well this year.
We have researched flights into Oakland from Albuquerque, Ogden, Appleton, Chicago, Detroit and Marquette to cover the biggest Guts hotspots in the U.S. We have also factored in a train from Oakland to Stockton, lodging for our players, and a transportation allowance for the weekend that they are on-site. We figure that we will have to raise at least $4500 to make this work, whereas players will only be responsible for food and incidentals. If we can find five or six generous people or businesses to donate $500 each, then we are well on our way to making this a reality.
THE POSSIBILITIES
- When we knock it out of the park, we can discuss having Guts at future events with the Disc Golf Pro Tour. The DGPT staff member who brought up this idea is in charge of sponsorships, so between him and USA Guts, we can formulate a plan to find a brand sponsor to cover our costs for future demos.
- A pro disc golfer takes some footage and shares it on social media.
- Famous disc golfers rip shots at us, and we post that on socials.
- Audience members share footage on socials.
- USA Guts documents the event and shares footage on socials.
- Something incredible and unexpected happens and goes viral.
- A new Guts site is developed and running, and that site gains traction as people interested in playing Guts go there to look for other people near them to start a club.
- Discovering the World sells lots of Guts Frisbees as interested parties take up the sport.
- MVP Disc Sports (the presenting sponsor and a Michigan-based disc sports company) sees the potential and offers support to grow Guts.
DONORS
Every donor will be placed into a drawing to win one of three prize packages. While we don't have the specifics yet of the prize packages, we do plan on having them include a mix of mint condition Guts Frisbees from 70s and 80s tournaments, OTB Open swag, and special edition MVP-brand discs. These three prize packages will range in value from $100 to approximately $300 and will only be given away if we hit our fundraising goal.
Every donor will be placed into a drawing to win one of three prize packages. While we don't have the specifics yet of the prize packages, we do plan on having them include a mix of mint condition Guts Frisbees from 70s and 80s tournaments, OTB Open swag, and special edition MVP-brand discs. These three prize packages will range in value from $100 to approximately $300 and will only be given away if we hit our fundraising goal.
THE CONCLUSION
Opportunities like this for Guts don't come around that often. Now is the perfect time to capitalize on the popularity of disc sports and to introduce Guts in-person to a crowd of disc enthusiasts while also showing the Disc Golf Pro Tour staff the possibilities of what a partnership could look like. Now you, as part of the Guts Frisbee family, have the unique opportunity of providing the sport that you love so much with the ability to be showcased in a way that it's never been showcased before. Please donate whatever you can to make this event happen, so that we take full advantage of this unique opportunity that has been presented to us. This could be the big break that our sport needs.
This is our time to GO GET IT!!!
Thank you for your consideration,
USA Guts