November 27, 2012 by Wes Cronk in Livewire
In the wake of what could politely be described as a bumpy inaugural season, the American Ultimate Disc League has been reportedly making some huge changes to the structure of the league’s central leadership and the participation of team owners. The decision is clearly meant to smooth out some of the potholes their upstart league encountered last year and I expect the new approach will help greatly.
But I am also curious if there were other factors involved in the decision that aren’t being advertised. Specifically, could this have anything to do with a rival professional ultimate league, Major League Ultimate, coming into existence? Not only will the MLU be a fundamentally more league-centric entity — the direction the AUDL’s restructuring is moving it towards — but it will also be home to the AUDL’s premier franchise and champions from last year, the Philadelphia Spinners. I suspect that the recent move by the AUDL was viewed as not only necessary from a general operations standpoint, but as one that would prevent other teams from jumping ship and joining their newly-formed competitor.
This is only speculation, of course, but it doesn’t seem like a stretch for the MLU’s existence to have forced the AUDL’s hand on this one. Really, though, how the decision was made isn’t all that important at the end of the day if it makes the AUDL a greater success in its sophomore season.
