My Presentation Will Be Broken Into 3 Main Parts;

I want to start by thanking Ultimate Canada for inviting me here today to give a presentation about the professional leagues and how they help ultimate. Now I am here representing the American Ultimate Disc League but it is worth pointing out that bout the AUDL`[TM1]will discuss

My presentation will be broken into 3 main parts;

First, tThe sport itself. With this I will talk about how the professional leagues have an ability to try different initiatives to improve the pace and watchablity of the sport and take a look at integrity and Spirit.

Part two is about the “grassroots to the massroots”. This I will go over how the professional leagues are spreading the sport on a wide scale with grassroots development and then larger scale media.

Part three3 is about the players. Providing players with an opportunity to play the sport they love in a low risk element environment, financially accessible, [TM2]all the while creating new sport personalities and superstars.

The American Ultimate Disc League was founded in 2012 with 8 teams in the Northeastern United States. While the initial response to the league was positive and clips were finding their way onto ESPN’s Top Ten, off the field things were not going as smoothly. Arguments about team’s territoriescatchment zones lead to some unflattering lawsuits between the league and the teams. Supporters got turned off and tThings were not looking great for the league.

, However, the expansion owners coming to the league for 2013 saw potential in the league [TM3]and a group offered to buy the league from it’s current owner. UlitmateExpereince Ventures VX is a group of investors that is headed by my father, Rob Lloyd, that now ownsarun the league. Steve Gordon, an entrepreneur out of Chicago, tookhas taken up the helm as commissioner of the league and began also shoring up the leadership problems that the league had in its first season.

Since 2012 the league has grown from 8 teams to 17 last season and have added 6 more expansion teams this offseason, including Ottawa. There are currently four Canadian teamsThis Which brings the number of Canadian teams in the league to 4: Which brings the number of Canadian teams in the league to 4. Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal and Ottawa. Canadian professional ultimate teams have been amoung the most successful in terms of attendance, fan engagement and sponsorships.

Professional ultimate has made some changes to the way in which this game is playedin which ourthis game is played that the traditional ultimate is played. ; Thethe games are timed, the field is bigger, the rule-set has differences, games are timed and, of course, themost glaringly, the inclusion ofinclusion of referees.

A lot of the things that the AUDL has done has reflect been in an attempt to make the game more viewer friendly. One of the defining characteristics of Ultimate is Spirit of the Game, and even with the presence of referees we try to maintain that ideal that was set forth by the inventors of the sport. Players can overturn a call that goes in their favor, for the other team. This is an area that I think Ultimate Canada can benefit the professional leagues. I think that integrity and Spirit are different words of describing the same ideal; playing within the golden rule. Treat others as you hope they treat you. If you make the right call and take no unfair advantage, your opponent would do theat same.

Ultimate for the most part develops creates players with high morals and respect for the game and their opponents. By having players grow up in a system where they are refereeing themselves, by the team time they reach a professional level, even if there are refs, they have still been taughtlearned the elements of spirit and developed a pattern of respectful play that endures that doesn’t change how they conduct themselves regardless of whether the sport is governed by refs/officials, observers, or self-officiated.

In pro games you don’t see players arguing with each other after calls, refs make the calls and that’s that, there isn’t time to argue with refs either. It’s good for people new to the sport to just watch the game, have an announcer explain the call and not have to sit through discussions about fouls. They can just watch the game and just appreciate the athleticism and flow of the sport.

I would also like to point out that the leadership group within the league ismalleable flexible and willing to try and find the right formula that stays true to ultimate but alsowhilealso providing es the best viewing experience possible.

“Grassroots to Massroots”

Grassroots to massroots is a term that my marketing teacher was obsessed with in school, but he was obsessed with it for a reason. It is important to make any sport accessible at a youth level but then also have the ability to promote it on a larger scale. All of this is being done with the AUDL.

Speaking from just a Toronto Rush and Vancouver Riptide perspective (teams I am personally involved with) and also drawing some information from Montreal’s ownership, we are all putting an emphasis on the development of players. Also by attaching the term “professional” , to ultimate players, Kids are much more interested in what you have to say and teach them.

Rush players have attended middle and high school tournaments to run clinics and we help TUC run clinics as guest clinicians. I think this is all well and good but club teams have been doing this for a few years.

Where I see the most value is that kids are now able to come out and watch the the game played at high level in their city. For this I’d like to use Montreal as an example because Toronto and Vancouver both have had NexGen exhibition games in the past. But until the AUDL was brought to Montreal kids had no way to go and see the top male players in the province play high level games, against competition outside of Quebec.

Almost every other weekend of the summer young fans are able to watch their team play;,high school teams often attend and play exhibition matches at half time in front of fans during the games; kids and families are able to interact with all the players after the game, and yes - they even ask for autographs! Wand with that they are more connected to the sport and you have kids growing up wanting to play ultimate because there is a professional element attached to it.The more kids we get playing at a younger age the higher level of play we should see[TM4] by the time they are competing in the Juniors division, which will hopefully increase the talent of provincial teamspool forand national teams.

Moving on to the massroots, the AUDL is also expanding the viewership of the sport using multiple platforms. The AUDL has a multi- year partnership with ESPN and will have 18 games a year featured on ESPN3 and last year we were able to get the Championship game in Toronto on TSNs online platform TSN GO. That is something we will look to have done moreimprove on this year, with any games of the weektrying to have any ESPN games featuring Canadian teams[TM5] also broadcast on TSN GO.Bell local also produced three Rush game last year which are now available on-line.

The AUDLOu and its teams have over 75,000 likes on FB; the r Top Ten plays of the week reach over 60,000 views;, theaudl.com hits 300,000 views per month and some of the content on YouTube has hit over 150,000 views. One of the AUDL players,/partners Brodie Smith, has 1.5 million followers of his YouTube channel that helps us increase exposureget traffic by having him adding videos from the league to his page. Hundreds of thousands of people who have never been exposed to Ultimate now have been due to the focus of professional leagues in building a fan base beyond those who already play Ultimate.

Player benefits:

One of the main goals of the AUDL is also to provide players with a great experience, not just the fans. We recognize that the players are what bring in the fans and so we do our best to provide them with the stage to showcase their talents. Professional ultimate is a way for players to play without the free of worry and involved with financial strain of having to pay personally for participating in of the sport, the cost and logistics of travel or hotels as well as taking care of physio and training needs that go along with being an elite top end athlete. This makes the game more accessible to all competitive players, not just those who can afford to pay for tournament or international travel.

AUDL tTeams and the league all promotesupporttheirits players and try to develop new sports personalitiescreate superstars. from them.By creating superstars out of our players you also create more interest and broad participation for the sport. Over the past two years, the Toronto Rush players have all appeared many times on television, on radio and in print.

But lets look Look at Basketball and Tennis, as examples of how stars can help expand participation in a sport.

The last two years we have seen Canadian basketball players go 1st overall in the NBA entry draft. Canadian players are becoming more present and more prominent on the NCAA stage. Steve Nash,is the most recognized a Canadian basketball superstar and two time MVP of the NBA. As well as the success of the Toronto Raptors during the Vince Carter era and then Chris Bosh’s time here lead to more interest in basketball in Canada. With the current success of the Raptors and many ypoung Canadians getting a start in the NBA I think it is safe to say that Basketball in Canada is on the rRise.

The same goes for Tennis.IOn September of this year, Tennis Canada released a survey that showed more than 6.5 million Canadians played Tennis this past year. Which is a 32% increase from a survey done in of 2012. I don’t think it comes as a shock that there is an increase in Tennis participation over the last year when Tennis has been clogging our Sports channels with the success of Milos Raonic and EugGenie Bouchard. Canadians seeing success from fellow Canadians raises interest in a sport and having our Citizens preforming on the highest stage draws more people to participate in the sport.

I think at the end of the day it comes down to how can the AUDL and Ultimate Canada work together to increase Canadian ultimate participation by increasing broad awareness of the sport. The more kids that start playing, the stronger Canadian ultimate will be. The more awareness ofand exposure to the sport, the stronger likelihood that sponsors will be willing to support players in the country and alleviate some of the financial burden that our players have to go through.

I think for any national sports organization the model to achieve or gold standard is Hockey Canada. I think it is safe to say that Hockey Canada benefits greatly from the NHL; and kids get involved in Hockey Canada programs with dreams of playing in the NHL one day.

My hope is that kids will participate in Ultimate Canada programs with designs on being a professional ultimate player in the AUDL.

Thanks again for letting me join you here today!

[TM1]I don’t know what that is supposed to mean

[TM2]What are you trying to say here?

[TM3]You need to re-phrase. Too many “leagues” in this sentence

[TM4]Unclear to me what your’e trying to say here

[TM5]Rephrase