League Competition with the AUDL

As Major League Ultimate has completed its very first season, the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) has completed its second. Naturally these two leagues are becoming a sort of rivals with each other, with both trying to bring ultimate to where it has never been before.

Not many people know that the MLU actually stemmed from the AUDL. In 2012 the AUDL held its very first season, with two conferences, four teams each, very similar to what the MLU has. One of the teams, the Philadelphia Spinners won the inaugural championship in their first season in the league, which would turn out to be their last season. The leaders of the Spinners had some sort of a falling out with the front office of the AUDL and did not agree with the way the league was being run and what direction it was heading. The Spinners then decided to create their own league, the MLU.

After a full season of both leagues competing in their own way, it has started to become clear the vision of both of the AUDL and the MLU.  The AUDL are forcing the teams to be run independently, sell their own gear, create their own sponsors, etc. It is running a business that allows for if it does not work in one city, they can allow another team to join in another. On the other hand the MLU is supporting all of its teams and not allowing, if it ever got to the point, for one of the teams to fold.  The league has created partnerships for the entire league, keeps the pay consistent for every team/ player, and is very conservative when it comes to taking risks as a whole company.

Right now the AUDL has expanded to 17 teams across three divisions for the 2014 season, while the MLU has decided to keep the league at eight for the next couple of years. Both leagues respect their players jobs outside of ultimate, understanding that neither league is at the point to pay their athletes a full living wage. For instance I spoke with DC Current captain, Daniel Kantor, whom is a mechanical and aerospace engineer for a small defense contractor. If there was ever a scheduling conflict with his job, his coaches would "understand that [they] have jobs outside of the Current and are pretty receptive to that." 

Both the AUDL and the MLU are bringing professional ultimate to world of sports. Only time will tell to see which league will have more success. Maybe 10 years on down the line there will be a merger similar to the one between the NFL and the AFL, maybe the two leagues can grow and coexist like they are doing now. However both want to see each other succeed, because that is good for ultimate.

Expansion into the 2014 Season and Beyond

After the initial success of the very first season of the MLU, fans and prospective ultimate players began to discuss the possibility of expansion. Due to the MLU's major competition being the AUDL, often times the leagues are compared to each other (see League Competition with the AUDL blog).  In this being the AUDL's third upcoming season, they have expanded to 17 teams throughout the United States and Canada after also starting with an initial eight teams. There are plenty of cities that would love to raise a team, on the East Coast, the West Coast, and even in the Midwest, and after the success of the inaugural season many are wondering where to next.

The current criteria for certain locations to foster an MLU franchise, according to the MLU's website, are based on the following:
1. Metro Population
2. Ability to support multiple sports franchises
3. Relative distance to other conference teams
4. Strong local ultimate community and youth ultimate programs

Currently the MLU is content with the eight team, two conference league they have right now. Their focus for the next couple of seasons will be to expand their fan base in the eight current cities they have now before they try and move into different areas of the country. The league is more concerned with creating a professional league and having a foundation for it before trying to grow it into something bigger. It is confirmed for the 2014 season that there will be no new teams entering the league. In fact it is not expected for new cities to be slated to join the MLU until 2017, in which hopefully the new Central Division will be added. Also the league hopes to add an additional team in each conference, one in New Jersey and one in San Jose, but also neither of these teams are expected to join until at least the 2017 season.

So sorry to all potential players not in the Northeast or Northwest corners of the county, no new teams will be added to the league in the next couple of years. However your time will come and new franchises in new cities will be established.

(Below is a picture from the MLU's website for potential expansion loctaions)

Even though there will be no expansion for the next three years, in an email interview I had with the commissioner Jeff Snader, he said that "[the league] is slated for cross-conference play in 2015." So who knows maybe these cross-conference games will take place in a neutral location, like Denver or Chicago, or maybe they will simply give the both conferences a look into the different teams in the league. One thing is for sure, big things are coming for Major League Ultimate.

Growing The MLU Brand

 10/15/2012

— MLU (@MLUltimate) October 7, 2012

October 15th, 2012, the day that the Major League Ultimate website launched.   One of the advantages that the MLU has that the other main sports leagues did not, is that the MLU was founded in a world with the Internet.  The Internet has allowed the MLU to gain more nationwide recognition in its very first season than any other sport has. It has allowed fans of ultimate to follow the sport even when they are not in an area where there is a team and also given new audiences a chance to see other teams perform.

Each week in the regular season the MLU would broadcast at least one of the weekend's games online on Youtube.  It was broadcast for free so anyone could see it and enjoy it to introduce the sport, in a interview with DC Current captain Daniel Kantor, he mentioned that fans are commenting "how great it is to see professional ultimate, and it is hard to really grasp how crazy that is".  Some weekends the MLU had the opportunity to put on more than one game, one on the East and West coast. On Conference Championship weekend, both of the games were streamed free online and the MLU Championship was also free. They allow the replays to be accessed online and are available for anybody.

One of the risks that the MLU took when the league was originally announced was the use of Pulsar discs. Now for years the main company for ultimate players and USA Ultimate was Discraft discs. Discs that were the standard for playing ultimate due to their quality and weight. Now Pulsars are a little bit different, they are created by a disc golf company INNova, and the weight distribution on the disc isn't the same. Its very similar to how Wilson footballs are different than Nike footballs, they are still footballs but are different and are more comfortable to certain people depending on who you ask.  Nathan Slade, first year professional ultimate player for the DC Current, described it best as "the muscle memory being just off" and was simply "different from what [he] was used to" and eventually began to favor the disc. As more and more ultimate players became to grow fond of the new Pulsar discs, the MLU began a partnership with Dicks Sporting Goods and now are making a new standard for discs.

Dicks Sporting Goods + MLU = Pulsars on sale at stores across the nation. You heard it here first.
— Jeffrey Snader (@JeffSnader) October 18, 2013

As the league grew throughout the year, its sphere of influence began to spread. Numerous occasions there were plays featured on Sportscenter's Top 10 plays, other portions of the MLU were also seen on SportsNation and other popular shows on ESPN. Towards the end of the season, Comcast would replay games in the nearby areas of local teams but the highlight of the MLU season came when it received national prime time attention from the "Jones and Mosley Show" on Fox Sports 1. The show featured the MLU at its finest giving outsiders a look into the sport and also gave a quick recap of the MLU Championship Game.



Perhaps the most signature partnership for the MLU so far has to be the new deal with the nationally known brand, Puma. For the 2014 season, Puma has designed and will provide jerseys for the players and for teams to sell.  This deal is huge for the ultimate community, giving the sport a national stage but allowing it to keep its identity at the same time. Pictures can be seen at the following link
---> MLU 2014 Team Jerseys Released 

Needless to say the MLU has had a lot of success in building a brand in just it's first season.  As far as a comment from the Commissioner of the MLU, Jeff Snader, on the potential partnerships coming in the next season and beyond he simply stated "[l]ots. You'll just have to wait and see."