Pay to play fees

[CJ1998]

I'm just curious how common this is. I noticed today that Hudson Mills Metropark here in Ann Arbor is instituting a pay-to-play fee. The thing that gets me is the annual fee is more than twice as much as the vehicle pass to get into the park. Pretty much, it means that it would cost upwards of 100 dollars just to play casual rounds at my local Metropark and county parks. (20 for MP vehicle pass, 50 for annual bag tag, 25 for county park pass 105 total) . Then there's any tournaments I'd potentially enter.

It really kind of irks me, but I imagine that you'll see this at the best courses. The daily fee is 2 bucks, so maybe I'll just pay that 5 or 10 times. There are plenty of free courses including Cass Benton withing 20 minutes of my house.

[timg]

I've never seen it at a public park like that. I think the fee may hurt the course more than help it.. Players that want to play a casual round will probably lean towards the near by free course rather than deal with not only the parking fee but also one to play DG.

[corey115]

I live in Minnesota and there are a few courses that are pay-to-play.

One of them is built on a ski resort (Hyland), another is this 27 hole course (Blue Ribbon Pines) that is well worth the money, anyone who has played there would agree.

They are both private, so I can understand why they need to charge, but it is annoying.

[Fritz]

I'm just curious how common this is. I noticed today that Hudson Mills Metropark here in Ann Arbor is instituting a pay-to-play fee. The thing that gets me is the annual fee is more than twice as much as the vehicle pass to get into the park. Pretty much, it means that it would cost upwards of 100 dollars just to play casual rounds at my local Metropark and county parks. (20 for MP vehicle pass, 50 for annual bag tag, 25 for county park pass 105 total) . Then there's any tournaments I'd potentially enter.

It really kind of irks me, but I imagine that you'll see this at the best courses. The daily fee is 2 bucks, so maybe I'll just pay that 5 or 10 times. There are plenty of free courses including Cass Benton withing 20 minutes of my house.

You might want to ask them if the pass includes parking. But look at it this way, in a year how many rounds of disc golf do you play? Let's say you play 3x a month that's 36 rounds @ 2$ a pop = 72$ If they maintain the course and keep the baskets nice and trees trimmed etc.. it's well worth it.

Why would you need a country park pass? what's an MP vehicle pass?

[Timko]

I've played 2 private courses in my time. One was Horseshoe Canyon in Jasper, AR. Privately owned ranch land with rock climbing, camping, horse riding, etc. $5 a day, and TOTALLY WORTH IT. The Canyon is in my top 5.

The other was a ball golf course in Austalia. I wish I could have thrown rollers back then .

[sleepy]

Why would you need a country park pass? what's an MP vehicle pass?

An MP vehicle pass is an annual parking pass to the local Huron/Clinton River MetroParks here in Michigan...$20 annually vs. a $4 daily fee. You can also pay $42 (if I'm remembering this number correctly) and buy a combo pass that will cover your parking at all participating Oakland County parks, some of which have DG courses.

I for one welcome our pay-to-play overlords and hope that the current trial run at Hudson Mills takes off and is MetroPark-wide next year. The destruction and theft at our courses has become rampant, and paying a fee to play is a much better alternative to having a course pulled or constantly trashed/vandalized or having baskets stolen.


sleepy

[CJ1998]

You might want to ask them if the pass includes parking. But look at it this way, in a year how many rounds of disc golf do you play? Let's say you play 3x a month that's 36 rounds @ 2$ a pop = 72$ If they maintain the course and keep the baskets nice and trees trimmed etc.. it's well worth it.

Why would you need a country park pass? what's an MP vehicle pass?

There's a very nice county park course 10 minutes from my house, and that's the one I'd play the most. The county pass is for that course.

The only reason I wanted to play the course in question is that it's about 10-15 minutes from work. It's a Metro Park http://www.metroparks.com/index.php (that's where MP comes from.) You need a pass to park your car inside the metro park and then you pay the extra money for the tag or wrist band. It's 30 minutes from my house, so I'd only play it after work during the summer. (maybe 10-20 times). Thing is, I live close to 5 free courses, the county park I mentioned before, and two other Metro Park courses that are not pay to play. It really doesn't make sense for me to do it. Maybe if I lived closer.

I was just curious about pay to play courses. I've seen pics of Blue Ribbon pines and it looks like a great course. I know mostly private courses do that, but this is not a private course.

As for the vandalism, the worst I've seen is some beer bottles left on a basket. All the baskets were there when I played at Hudson Mills. Thing is, charging extra money won't stop the vandalism. It just punishes the disc golfers for it. I recognize that it also gives the park system another revenue source to pay for the repair/upkeep, but that should be part of operating expenses anyway.

[Fritz]

ahh ok gotcha, wow it's weird you have to pay to go into parks, only parks in Colorado you have to pay to enter are National and State Parks like Cherry Creek Res, or Colorado National Monument. Is it possible to park on the outside of the park and walk in to the course?


I'd totally pay to play on a course if it's worth it. Most of our mountain courses (which are truly Real Mountain courses ) here are pay to play mainly because you have to buy a lift ticket to get to it.
There is a dude ranch in Northern Colorado that is sick! it's 5$ to play or 10$ and you get lunch, it's amazing, it's #2 on my top courses.

If there was a sweet course on the Colorado National Monument, I would be buying a pass to play it along with a National Parks Pass.

[sleepy]

To all Michigan golfers (and anyone else who's curious):

If you haven't already, I'd suggest checking out a thread in the Ann Arbor club section over on the PDGA boards: Hudson Mills Pay to Play: Some Answers.

I think it might help shed some light on a few of the finer aspects of the situation.


sleepy

[CJ1998]

To all Michigan golfers (and anyone else who's curious):

If you haven't already, I'd suggest checking out a thread in the Ann Arbor club section over on the PDGA boards: Hudson Mills Pay to Play: Some Answers.

I think it might help shed some light on a few of the finer aspects of the situation.


sleepy

Thanks for the link!