If anyone knows anything about Hi-Top it’s that we are ideas guys. We have the biggest and best around.
The other thing everyone knows is that we are big time Ultimate Frisbee supporters. Been on that train since jump street.
The major players in the professional Ultimate world just had their Fall Owners Meeting and not surprisingly they got EVERYTHING WRONG:
But have no fear Ultimate Frisbee fans, Hi-Top is here to save the day and we proudly present our 5 Simple Steps to Making Ultimate Frisbee the Ultimate Sport of the Future
Step 1 – Embrace the F Word
Currently the professional league operates under the excruciatingly unwieldy acronym – AUDL – American Ultimate Disc League. Now we get it, hardcore players like to use the word “disc” and not “frisbee”. Too bad. If you want to attract an audience and expand the sport you need to use terms the Average Joe can relate to like “frisbee”. EVERYONE HAS THROWN A FRISBEE! People love tossing the bee around. Use that.
UFA – Ultimate Frisbee Association
Three letters. Every successful sport league uses three letters. If you want success you need to start with a three letter acronym.
Step 2 – Mixed Gender Teams
The world is in the middle of giant Battle of the Sexes. Be the uniting force. Be the first professional sport with mixed gender teams (ok I guess tennis was technically first but…). This will be the UFA’s calling card – exciting sport action featuring amazing male and female athletes PLAYING TOGETHER.
Ultimate already has major mixed championships:
The AUDL Fall Owners Meeting offered up a halfhearted promise of some future Women’s League. Well that’s just not good enough. And also not the way to go.
Make mixed gender teams the standard for the Professional League.
Step 3 – New Team Names
The current team names stink. They fall into the traditional trap that every new American sport league falls into. Weird, stupid and just plain dumb nicknames. Currently the AUDL sports some real sucktastic stinkers – Growlers, Alleycats, Chill, Mechanix, Sol – listen I don’t want it to seem like we are picking on some teams so here it is – they are all bad.
Get rid of the nicknames.
Time to think outside of the American Sport box and look international.
Just use the city name like soccer clubs do.
Boston Ultimate. Phoenix Ultimate. San Francisco Ultimate etc etc etc.
You have a super cool word imbedded into your sport so use it. Individual clubs can have unofficially nicknames that grow organically but get rid of the stupid stupid really bad official nicknames.
Step 4 – Free Live Streams
This one is a no- brainer. Get every match available for free on whatever platform you can.
Step 5 – Put us in charge
We don’t even want any monetary compensation. We’ll do it strictly for the love of the ‘bee. Now we can’t run day to day operations, we’re already running one empire here. Just make sure all big decisions go through us first. You obviously need the help. And we want to help. Help us help you.
That’s it. Five easy steps and the AU…make that the UFA will be the #1 Sport League in America.
