Merger History: Pro Sports Leagues

A MLU-AUDL merger was mentioned in December and recently discussed by Ultiworld. More pro Ultimate is great, but having 2 pro Ultimate leagues can sure be confusing. Yes, it seems to help keep each league competitive (as a business), yet not being unified may be detrimental to advancing the sport.

Sports league mergers have happened in all the major sports. Not to mention some of the failed rival sports leagues. There have been 6 instances where a competing league actually merged to continue as an expanded league. The average length of time concurrent leagues existed = 8.5 years.

 

DATA SOURCE: List of major pro sports (MLB, NBA, NFL, NHL) league mergers

We will have to wait to see how long until one league merges with the other or goes out business...