The topic comes up from time to time about a pro-league for ultimate (specifically recently on RSD). What the discussion ultimately boils down to though is - would people come to watch, and more importantly would they pay?
So here are a few questions for you on the topic, given the following...
-The rules of ultimate would remain as is, utilizing observers with consistent uniforms across all league games, making the calls they do currently.
-There would be 5 divisions with 4 teams in each. For the sake of more specific discussion - lets classify them as such -
Northeast: Boston, New York, Philly, DC/Baltimore;
Northwest: Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Vancouver;
Southwest: LA, San Diego, Vegas, Phoenix;
Southeast: Atlanta, Florida, Raleigh, New Orleans?;
Central: Pittsburgh, Chicago, Minneapolis, Denver;
- Similar to the NFL, over the course of the season (summer into fall maybe?) each team plays those in opponents in its division at least twice, regular season record dictates berth into playoffs, culminating in a national championship.
- The games would be individual one on one contests, held in arenas at least as big as high school football stadiums (depending on ticket sales), either at night or on Saturdays to allow for attendance, there would be concession stands, half-time entertainment, merchandise available, announcers for the games, stats provided online (along with player profiles, pictures game highlight videos) etc. etc. - consider all the amenities provided by the most basic of minor-league baseball programs as requisites.
So given those basic constructs, as a high school ultimate player...
- would you pay to watch a local pro-team play another pro-team?
- would that be affected whether the games were to a certain number of points or timed?
- how much would you pay for a regular season game ticket?
- would you consider buying season tickets?
- how much would you pay for a playoff or finals game ticket?
- would you travel to another city to watch your home team play?
- how much would you pay for a replica jersey for your team?
- would you consider bringing your family, friends or others not involved with ultimate to a game?
- if a home game were televised would you go to the game or would you watch it on tv?
- would you support limits on who could play on these pro teams? (similar to NBA, must be over age 18, can't currently be playing for a college team etc)
- how much would you pay for a poster of a favorite player from your home team?
- would you aspire to play in such a league? even when salaries paid to athletes probably wouldn't amount to the median household income in the US?
- would you be interested in this idea at all or is it entirely unappealing to you?
I realize these are all highly hypothetical questions, and feel free to make suggestions that i do not specifically ask, but i feel like this is an important discussion to have among this community, without fans of some sort, no pro-sports league works. Additionally to even begin to produce ideas for such a league there must be some base level of interest, and while the comments here might not provide Nike with motivation to sponsor such a league, surely they will demonstrate whether this idea is appealing at all in the first place.
im interested to see the responses, feel free to leave them in the comments...
13 comments:
* would you pay to watch a local pro-team play another pro-team?
yes i would
* would that be affected whether the games were to a certain number of points or timed?
um yes it would probably be better if they were timed
* how much would you pay for a regular season game ticket?
maybe ten dollars maybe fifteen depends if we have the lebron of ultimate
* would you consider buying season tickets?
for sure
* how much would you pay for a playoff or finals game ticket?
30 bucks depending on who was playing in it
* would you travel to another city to watch your home team play?
no.
* how much would you pay for a replica jersey for your team?
30 dollars
* would you consider bringing your family, friends or others not involved with ultimate to a game?
for sure it would be a great recruiting tool
* if a home game were televised would you go to the game or would you watch it on tv?
no doubt
* would you support limits on who could play on these pro teams? (similar to NBA, must be over age 18, can't currently be playing for a college team etc)
yes and no probably yes that they would have to not be on a college team but then again if you let a high schooler play on your team it brings in a lot more people
* how much would you pay for a poster of a favorite player from your home team?
6 bucks
* would you aspire to play in such a league?
Yes yes yes yes
even when salaries paid to athletes probably wouldn't amount to the median household income in the US?
ya it doesnt sound to time consuming where you could have antoher job
* would you be interested in this idea at all or is it entirely unappealing to you?
so appealing. i hope this goes down
#4
Cut Up
Wow, someone's been following RSD today.
I love the idea, I think all it'll take is a couple investors in maybe 8-12 cities.
I'd pay to go, I'd go to watch, and it's already practically my life goal to play in it.
this post has no merit
[pity post]
well, duh, who wouldn't want to earn money for playing ultimate?!?! One of the factors of how many times I would go to games would be the distance away from my house it is. It takes me about an hour to get from the north side to the south side of the city. It's a pretty sweet idea, and if the games are close to my house I would definately pay $$$ to watch, more depending on the amount of home games. Timed games would be interesting. Posters seem like a stretch (although not out of the question), and jerseys would be awesome. The major problem would be investors. If Denver and Pittsburgh are in the same region, it's gonna cost $5000 for the teams to play each other; I don't think that money will be made back in ticket sales, although merchandise would help.
i feel like adding money to the game of ultimate will only bring bad things with it.
excellent. ABout time ultimate becomes a real sport.
1) Yes, 2) No, 3) $10, 4) Yes, 5) $30, 6) Yes, 7) $20, 8) Yes, 9) Both, 10) Don't have enough info to make decision, 11) $0 (don't do posters), 12) Nope (past my prime but if I weren't then I'd love to), 13) VERY interesting!
I'd pay $15 to watch two pro teams play in a timed game. Playing to time makes it much easier to regulate and schedule, and I think we might see timed games in tournaments soon anyway. Season tickets and playoffs would be great. I would probably not travel to an away game (I would watch it on TV), but I would watch the games when they were in town, and definitely bring my friends and family.
Saturday games would not be a good idea, though, because I feel like players would be the largest portion of the fan base (at least at first) and they would have their own tournaments to attend. As for the players, they should be over 18 and not playing for a college team--this makes the Pro league more legitimate and less complicated. I would love to play on one of these teams, if I were ever to attain that level of competitiveness.
Eventually, it would be great to see semi-pro leagues that served as feeder systems for the pro teams (obvious correlations to other pro sports).
If they are going to do this, they should do it right, by hiring people who know how to do things like this, not just going ahead under the leadership of the current leadership of the UPA.
If you are talking about just constant great matchups, putting even teams against even teams, this would be a great idea. However, a "regular season" of such might make for some problems. Pretty much as in any sport, you get the right matchups ex: beau vs nord people would pay a lot so come out and watch
kind of going along with Anon 11:36, the "regular season" aspect would have several difficulties. (of course, I'd be an instant season ticket holder, living in Seattle) The first is that the tournament culture is so heavily ingrained in Ultimate, it might be difficult to move away from that in the direction of more established sports. Also, I'd probably put down $15 bucks to watch Sockeye play, unless Danny T. can sneak me onto the sidelines.
i presume there would be no draft or trades because if they are getting paid so little, they wouldn't move cities to play pro ultimate...
instead of a regular season like in the NBA why not just have tournaments like during the club season? It seems more cost efficient because a team from D.C. wouldn't have to fly to Seattle just to play one game. And personally I would rather buy a ticket to see a tournament than just one game. But regardless I think this is a great idea.
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