Chart: Appearances at AUDL Championship Weekend

The AUDL Madison Radicals (12-2, 1-0), Los Angeles Aviators (11-3, 1-0), New York Empire (8-6, 2-0), Dallas Roughnecks (13-1, 1-0) have advanced to the AUDL 2018 Championship Weekend (August 11-12) in Madison.

Madison advances to their (AUDL record) 6th straight appearance, while Dallas makes their 3rd consecutive appearance. New York Empire also has 3 appearances, returning to 2018 Weekend after competing there during their first 2 seasons (2013, 2014). LA Aviators advanced to their first ever AUDL Championship with last week's win in the West Division Championship.

AUDL Championship Weekend Appearances [2013-2018]

NOTE: AUDL 2012 Championship game (Philadelphia Spinners vs Indy AlleyCats) not recorded because "AUDL Championship Weekend" started in AUDL 2013 season.

Women Players on AUDL 2018 Rosters

First there was Jessi Jones (Raleigh Flyers; May 17, 2015), then Jesse Shofner (Nashville NightWatch) played the AUDL 2017 season. In 2018, five different AUDL teams (out of 23 total teams) currently have rostered at least one woman player. The following are the Class of 2018 "Jessies" - women ultimate players rostered on American Ultimate Disc League teams for this year's season.

Atlanta Hustle
Maddy Frey

#MeetTheHustle @maddyfrey Maddy Freyhttps://t.co/kWRonyfkKD pic.twitter.com/1Lk1izRqYw

— Atlanta Hustle (@atlantahustle) April 2, 2018

Madison Radicals
Robyn Wiseman

Full Radicals roster announcement #RaRa⚡️

New additions for the 2018 season include:
Nate Bosscher
Thomas Echols
Glenn Poole
Sef van Kan
Kyle Weigand*
Anson Reppermund
Robyn Wiseman
Tarik Akyuz
Elliot Mawby
Colin Grandon

*Played for Madison in 2016

>>>https://t.co/6z92ogVwkY pic.twitter.com/cY0VLD6h9q

— Madison Radicals (@MadisonRadicals) March 15, 2018

New York Empire
Lauren Doyle

Number 32, Lauren "LD" Doyle signs on with the Empire for the 2018 Season. LD has strong throws as a handler and utilizes her keen eye to navigate the disc downfield. #NYEmpire18

— New York Empire (@empireultimate) March 9, 2018

+ Lexi Zalk

San Francisco FlameThrowers
Jackelyne "Kobe" Nguyen

Signing spotlights are now live on our website and the first feature is Nightlock / Pie Queens athlete Jackelyne Nguyen! Welcome to the roster, Kobe! https://t.co/SmxEYkwuPk pic.twitter.com/fUSWxj68H2

— SF FlameThrowers (@SFFlameThrowers) March 20, 2018

Seattle Cascades
Charlie Eide
Stephanie Lim
Qxhna Titcomb

[h/t AUDL Tuesday Toss]


============

[UPDATED 5/11/2018]

Los Angeles Aviators
Veronica (Ronnie) Eder and Stephanie Pritchard

Proud to announce #28 @ronnie_eder and #88 @pritchard_steph to the 2018 Aviators roster!! Both will make their season debuts this weekend against the @SeattleCascades #aviatorsdominate pic.twitter.com/e7mTpN9EpY

— Los Angeles Aviators (@laaviators) May 11, 2018

San Francisco FlameThrowers Finally Win a Postseason AUDL Game

Top-seeded San Francisco earns their final four spot with a decisive victory over Los Angeles in the 2017 West Division Championship game.

The FlameThrowers are arguably one of the most successful franchises in American Ultimate Disc League history. In their 4 AUDL regular seasons, the FTs have won 40 of their 56 games.; a .714 blazing winning percentage in the West Division. And, the San Francisco AUDL team has posted a winning record in all 4 regular seasons and also made the playoffs all 4 seasons. They have claimed the regular season division title twice - in 2016 and in 2017.

The AUDL postseason is a different story; the FT's fizzled in the division final in 2014 to San Jose, petered out a first round playoff game in 2015 to Seattle, and got doused in 2016 - again - in the division final to Seattle. The FlameThrowers had never won a postseason game until yesterday's 33-22 win.

SF FT W-L History [as of 8/14/2017]

With San Francisco's win, they advance to American Ultimate Disc League Championship Weekend VI with a chance to add to their postseason win total. The #4-seeded FT's play the #1-seed Madison Radicals in Montreal on Saturday, August 26.

LA LA AVIATORS

Pro Ultimate Costume Ideas

What started as a finding the perfect Halloween costumes for Casey (the mascot of Seattle Cascades) turned into project involving a few more AUDL West teams.

Costume ideas from other West Division teams:

 L.A. Aviator minion! Putting those goggles to good use.

San Diego Growlers? San Diego gr-OWL-ers.

Cowabunga, San Jose!

Crowd Funding in Pro Ultimate

At the start of the 2014 pro Ultimate season, two teams from the American Ultimate Disc League started a crowdfunding campaign via Indiegogo. Both teams were new to the league, and neither team met their campaign goals.

Salt Lake Lions started their campaign in March, and ended up with less than 10% ($2477) of their goal ($25,000).

Montreal Royal's campaign started in April and took in over 12% ($1835) of their $15,000 goal.

L.A. Aviators - a new team for the 2015 AUDL season - just started their campaign for $35,000! As of today (December 4th), L.A. reached over 15% of their goal, and has surpassed the combined total ($4312) of the other two pro team's campaigns.

UPDATE: At the campaign's close, L.A. brought in $23,407 - 66.8% of their goal.

++++++++++++++++++++++++

The plea for money from professional ultimate teams smells of desperation. As if the team owner(s) bought a team yet cannot afford to properly run the team without additional funds.

Ticket sales, merchandise sales and concessions are the typical revenue generators from individuals, but require game attendance. Look at the UAB college football program which was recently canceled because it was not fiscally sustainable without the proper fan support. A Division I College football program! While team turnover has not been seen since the completion of AUDL's first year, teams in markets with other professional sports teams must find ways to bring in revenue.

Getting company sponsors and advertisers - a spectrum of local, regional and national entities - is important for any sports team. Crowdfunding is today's popular method to gain financial support from both individuals and companies. The advantage of online campaigns is it doesn't require in-person attendance, so there can be armchair supporters.

If I owned a pro ulti team, I would adopt the Green Bay Packers idea of offering stocks for fans to become shareholders. This model is more congruent with the community feel which Ultimate is known for.

Top 5 Pro Ultimate Team Halloween Costumes

Let professional Ultimate Frisbee teams inspire your Halloween costume.

1. L.A. Aviators

This costume has character, plus provides an opportunity to don a mustache. Feel free to add a bomber jacket to punctuate your costume.

SUPPLIES: Goggles, pilot aviator hat, scarf, mustache.

TIP: Bring along a battery-operated portable fan to create a wind effect so your scarf flaps in the current.

2. Nashville NightWatch

This costume is for those looking to dress up wearing a mask, yet still be able to enjoy breathing (or a drink).

SUPPLIES: Wide-brimmed black hat, mullet, goatee, eye mask.

TIP #1: Avoid being mistaken for Dread Pirate Roberts (Princess Bride), don't wear a puffy pirate shirt, or carry a sword.
TIP #2: Avoid being mistaken for The Undertaker (WWE), don't body slam anyone.

[UPDATE: Nashville upgraded from this identity, but the ghost of the original Nashville Nightwatch is still an option.]

3. Seattle Rainmakers

This is a truly minimalist costume. To stay in character, you must wear the hood over your eyes.

SUPPLIES: A rain jacket with a hood.

TIP: Bring a water spray bottle and occasionally squeeze some mist into the air like you just don't care.

4. Indianapolis AlleyCats

A cat outfit is kind of cliche for Halloween, so it will take some dedication to nail this one.

SUPPLIES: Only the head, tail & one paw of a cat costume, green contact lenses.

TIP: You're a American Wirehair breed alley cat, not a domesticated black cat.

5. San Jose Spiders

There can only be so many Spider-Man costumes. Geek out to reboot this spider costume.

SUPPLIES: Four black socks/stockings, black pants and shirt, labels of search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo!, etc).

TIP: You're to be an internet world wide web crawling bot, not a web-slinging superhero nor arachnid.