I know what may be the first thought as I start this blog. People are getting paid to play frisbee?! Well, if you can get people to watch, why not? But anyways, this seems to be a logical progression to somewhat "random" sports becoming professional leagues. Ultimate is not just the same thing as flinging a frisbee around the backyard after school. The game has a structure, complete with rules, regulations, and field dimensions that should be consistent across all leagues.
The game features a combination of basketball and football, in some ways. The goal of the game is to move the frisbee down the field and score in the opponents end zone. However, there are strict rules to doing this. You must pass the disc after catching it, you cannot run with the disc (you get an allowed couple of steps like basketball). If the disc is thrown and not caught, it is a turnover to the other team. So it is imperative that offenses make good decisions on where to throw the frisbee so it does not hit the ground.
While frisbee seems like a sport limited to children and teenagers, players in the professional league feel that people will come to watch what they think is a growing sport. The inaugural league has 8 teams, playing at local high schools, colleges, or where ever there is room to host the sport. While the word "frisbee" is trademarked, the league has the name "American Ultimate Disc League" (AUDL). According to an ABC news article, the goal of the league is to gain popularity and fans, sell tickets, and sell merchandise, just like any other professional league.
Tickets for the games are priced between $8 and $20. The president of the AUDL believes that the league will gain in popularity because the sport has been increasing in popularity over the past decade. Can this sport actually succeed and make money, or will it just be another WNBA, which annually loses money? The biggest challenge will be to try and draw the college population, which is where the sport is probably the most popular. For those like myself who are fully entrenched in the sports I already love and are already mainstream, I believe this will be a hard draw. Hopefully for their sake, this sport is an exception.
Sources:
Goldmann, Russell (2012). Ultimate frisbee goes pro. ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/Entertainment/ultimate-frisbee-pro/story?id=16135771
Link to AUDL website: http://theaudl.com/
That is pretty interesting. An ultimate disk league. Where is this league located? When I think of ultimate "Frisbee", my mind always wonders back to the movie PCU that came out in 1994. More of an SNL movie at the time with the line up of actors and actresses and sort of a spoof on all college movies. Staring Jeremy Piven and David Spade. The part in question is where the "Stoners" are playing the "Womynists" in a game of Ultimate Frisbee. Just a funny movie and that part is what I always remember when I see people playing disk golf or talking about playing. If you haven't seen the movie, you should check it out.
ReplyDeleteYeah it's funny when sports like this go pro. I think its funny you mention PCU, it reminds me of the movie Dodgeball, and the magazine in it: Obscure Sports Quarterly. Sports like ultimate frisbee and disc golf belong in that genre I think, fun to play, but not really meritorious for full fledged professionalism.
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