History of Pro Ultimate Leagues

Professional ultimate is not necessarily new, but the proliferation of pro Ultimate leagues is. Almost a 20-year gap since Ultimate players played without financial incentive. 

NOTES: "Professional" is defined as playing Ultimate for money, or prize money.
Cuervo Ultimate Championships ran from 1990 - September 1992.
American Ultimate Disc League: announced in October 2011; started play in 2012.
Major League Ultimate: announced in October 2012; scheduled to play 1st season in 2013.
Triple Crown Tour: created based on USAU's 2008-2012 strategic plan; launched in October 2012.
Nex League: announced in December 2012; scheduled to play 1st season in 2013.

Sports Marketing for Ultimate

Still trying to make sense (cents) out of which entity would best draw intere$t into the sport of Ultimate? Here's a look at the known backings of each pro/elite Ultimate leagues:

American Ultimate Disc League
Sponsorships:
Savage
Skyd
UltiCards
Video: Go Live Ultimate (in 2012)
Info: AUDL sponsorship

Major League Ultimate
Partnerships:
Five Ultimate
Video: not posted
Info: MLU partnerships

NexGen
Sponsors:
Discraft
Patagonia
Elemental
Video: NGN
Info: not posted

USA Ultimate 
Sponsorships:
CORT Furniture
Discraft
Likewise skincare
Recharge sports drink
Rudy Project eyewear
Wyndham Hotels
Event sponsors: Florida Sports Foundation, Sarasota County Sports Commission, FiveUltimate, UltiPhotos, Discraft & VC Green programs
Video: NGN (Club championships in 2012) & CBS Sports Network (College championships in 2012)
Info: USAU sponsorship

B.O. in 2012

After 365 days and 300+ posts in year twenty-twelve, what better way to reflect on the yesteryear? Based on reader enjoyment, here is 2012's ‘"Best"-Of’ listing from each month of SLOG postings.

* January: Ultimate Board Game & THE Ultimate Frisbee problem

* February: Master Frisbees & "ultimate" etymology

* March:  iPad3 vs Frisbee & Line Chart for an Ultimate field

* April: Recap of AUDL Team Logo Reviews & LA Beaches love flying discs

* May: AUDL stats & Ultimate Disc Test

* June: Borrowing Odds at an Ultimate game & Measuring Ultimate yards

* July: CT + RI vs AUDL & Call UP, Maybe?

* August: Intimidation Styles [Chart] & Speeding up on the Pull

* September: Keep Calm & President Obama speaks "Ultimate Frisbee"

* October: How To: Be a Spectator at an Ulti game & [chart] Club Team Age/Seed: Open . Women . Masters . Mixed.

* November: Must-Have Mustache Jersey & Flying Saucer Patent

* December: City Overlap in Pro Ulti Leagues & Holiday Spirit Gift Guide

Past Best Of's:  2011 .. 2010 .. 2009 .. 2008

Gots more? Post your favorite(s) in Comments.

Ultimaception

Wow, I wish all Ultimate pickup games had such a sweet info-mercial.

As the video sez: Playing ultimate Frisbee feels like a dream; it's only when you wake up that we realize it actually wasn't.

AUDL v2.0

Last week, the American Ultimate Disc League released huge news!

...Earlier this week, Mr. [Josh] Moore entered into an agreement to sell the majority interest in the AUDL to Ultimate Xperience Ventures, LLC (UXV, LLC) a company recently formed for the purpose of expanding the footprint of Ultimate at every level and developing new capabilities to optimize its core model...

Five teams, unfortunately, used the very same talking point "Today, the AUDL announced major changes charting a new and exciting direction! To learn more, visit...". See below how each of the 12 AUDL teams tweeted about the gigantic news about their professional league. Detroit Mechanix and Madison Radicals were first to tweet the news on December 22nd, while Philadelphia Phoenix were last on December 23rd. New York Empire chose to retweet Ultiworld in lieu of tweeting about the breaking news themselves. FWIW, no teams RT'd the AUDL tweet.

Merry Discmas

Q: Which Ultimate offense does Santa prefer to run?

A: Ho - ho - horizontal.