January 9, 2014 by Charlie Eisenhood in Livewire with 30 comments
It’s hard to see some recent tweets and announcements from the American Ultimate Disc League and USA Ultimate as much more than thinly veiled shots at Major League Ultimate. Read on to see what I’m talking about.
First up, the MLU announced a new Puma team gear program — teams will be able to buy stock Puma gear at a discount through the MLU as part of the league’s arrangement with the apparel company.
Enter the AUDL:
Also we love @vcultimate and want them to keep doing what they HAVE been doing for pro/club/college/hs ultimate. #VC
— AUDL (@theAUDL) January 8, 2014
VC is the merchandise supplier of the AUDL. Clearly the AUDL wants to draw out the distinction between them (using a long-standing ultimate company) and MLU (using a global apparel company that has never associated with ultimate before).
Next up, we’ve got USA Ultimate making an announcement about the Discraft Ultrastar’s renewal as the Championship level disc:
.@discraftult and the player-approved Ultra-Star will be the Official Disc of USA Ultimate through 2016. http://t.co/qhC6IAR9pr
— USA Ultimate (@USAUltimate) January 9, 2014
Recall that MLU uses the Innova Pulsar as its official disc, a decision that was subject to some controversy last winter. It became even more of a hot button topic when Boston Whitecaps player Brandon ‘Muffin’ Malecek wrote a blog post criticizing the disc, a post that ultimately landed him a half-game suspension.
To me, it’s hard to read USAU’s tweet as anything but a swipe at MLU and the Pulsar. Maybe that’s too much to see there. There is, indeed, a group of disc testers that provide feedback to USAU on a variety of disc styles and companies. It just feels chippy.
UPDATE: A reader pointed out to me that the AUDL’s tweet was in response to this tweet from MLU:
The #ProGearProgram seems to be a hit. We can't wait to make having quality #Ultimate gear a reality for all teams.
— MLU (@MLUltimate) January 8, 2014
Didn’t see this before. Chippy begets chippy.
