Up for ultimate? Kansas City could be next spot for American Ultimate Disc League team

Steve Hall has had expansion on his mind for a while now.

The commissioner and CEO of the American Ultimate Disc League — that’s Disc, not the copyrighted “Frisbee” — has seen the professional league grow rapidly over the past decade. Since its formation with eight teams in 2012, it has nearly tripled in size to 22, with franchises from coast to coast in the U.S. and Canada.

The league has momentum, in other words, and Kansas City is where it wants to take its good vibrations next.

Hall told The Star that the league is currently attempting to recruit investors for a future franchise in Kansas City. The league’s owners are due to meet here in early October, and that meeting looms as an important mile-marker in the AUDL’s efforts to break ground in KC.

Kansas City currently sits in what Hall called a “geographic hole” within the AUDL’s borders: There are no teams directly west of Minnesota until California and Washington. That, plus KC’s size and love for its sports teams, helps explain why he wants to see an AUDL team establish roots here.

“As we’re thinking about expansion cities, we want to have a sizable metropolis,” Hall said. “I think Kansas City already has a lot of successful franchises. You look at the Chiefs, that’s probably one of the biggest, (and) the Royals have a long, strong history.

“I think we can be successful in Kansas City. I think we can find the business people — we just need to start to have some of those detailed conversations with folks.”

Ultimate — a non-contact, 7-on-7 sport wherein the goal is to reach the opponent’s end zone to score — was created in the late 1960s. More recently, it has been recognized by the International Olympic Committee, making it eligible to be selected for future Olympics.

The AUDL is the largest professional disc league in the world, but teams need stable support. Hall says that the league is looking for “well-pocketed” owners for a Kansas City team — relationships that he admitted will take time to cultivate.

He noted that the target in the short term is to generate “minor-league baseball-kinds of numbers” in terms of attendance, which he said would amount to around 1,000 fans per match.

The league’s sales pitch, meanwhile, comes from the sport itself and its willingness to hop on trends. It’s Friday night “Game of the Week” is featured on the YouTube and Twitch platforms of sports-betting giant DraftKings. And just last week, the AUDL announced its first collection of non-fungible tokens available for purchase.

That’s envisioned as a form of profit for both players and teams.

“That is the key question I get asked a lot,” Hall said. “If you look at why you want to spend your time and money on this, we are a very exciting, cutting-edge sport. We know we need to stand out. There’s a lot of things you can do with your Saturday evening ... you can go to a movie, you can go out to dinner, you can play Fortnite if you’re in the 14- to 28-year-old kind of target demographic.

“There’s lots of competition for your Saturday night time. ... We’re not asking for three or four hours watching a slow-paced game. If you’re looking for a fast-paced game that’s not going to cost you an arm and a leg, this is the thing to see.”

Hall said the league will reach out to “potential people” in Kansas City regarding possible ownership. But as of now, there’s nothing set in stone leadership-wise. The owner’s offsite, where the AUDL will bring all of its owners together, is when Hall really wants to make a serious push.

Hall just needs the right people to notice.

“To me, this is putting my money where my mouth is,” Hall said. “We want the people of Kansas City to know that we’re interested, and the fact we’re bringing all of our owners to Kansas City is a big statement. There are a bunch of cities across the United States that I could choose, this one was very strategic in my mind. What we’re going to try to do is find some of the others that we’d like to have deep conversations with, and we hope to have them here later this summer and into our annual owner’s offsite.”

This story was originally published June 15, 2021 at 5:00 AM.