[UltiLeague] The Fair Ultimate Pro League

Have you heard about UltiLeague? The new professional league proposed by Mike Palmer and 7 year Windmill crew member Milan Goud (yeah, no less than the people rocking the Ulti Broadcast company Ulti TV!). 

We have interviewed them, we got excited, and I think you will be at the end of this interview too. 

Why? Read on!

What’s the general idea behind Ultileague?

It’s the Ultimate League: it’s community controlled and powered by people, it’s mixed gender because we strive for equality, we go for diversity of cultures and languages from around the world; it’s a story about ultimate that wants to be told and spread.

Community controlled because we see a sport league that is influenced by the people doesn’t exist on this scale. There’s the basketball tournament’ in the US that does community engagement to a great point, and it works like a charm. There’s a Dutch professional cycling team that is sponsored by a community of 16000, it competes on the highest level. We want to do the same for Ultimate on a global scale.

We say nobody’s equal until everyone is equal, we should start showing children that games should be played with women and men in one team. Young girls should be empowered to go and play on the highest level.

The above is everything that makes the ultimate story unique, and what we think the existing pro ultimate leagues don’t get right. To be frank, we like every ultimate initiative, but we try to do it our way which is in our opinion the fastest way to grow ultimate.

That sounds promising, and when do you plan to release it?

We are continuously revealing information, ideas, and milestones step step by step! We went live with the idea in the summer and the response was overwhelming. For me—Milan—personally I launched some companies before, but never it got picked up so fast by people and with such passion. It’s an amazing feeling but also daunting. That is one of the reasons why there was a short silence after all this momentum, we all needed to get our ducks in a row. We needed to get a lot of stuff sorted personally and professionally, from the website and all the forms, to personal long distance relationships.

There’s so much possible in this idea, and where and how to start moving forward is crucial. First thing on our agenda is to prove that fans want this almost just as much as the players. We need the first validation from the fans, we aim to persuade the fans of the players that want to play in UltiLeague.

That is why we improved our website to focus more on the fans. These fans are people that will hear about ultimate through a friend, colleague or family member. They probably know one or more ultimate players, but they are not religious—like us players—yet. The players usually can’t stop talking about it, but now they have a way to convert their close ones into fans by offering value. The value UltiLeague offers to people is in entertainment, fair entertainment that is. We offer exciting live streams and amazing game days.

Did you already drive a lot of interest to the project?

Can you imagine we’re closing in on 1000 players that already applied, just in Europe.

Players applied in the masses! People from ultimate companies are emailing us, people are buying memberships; it’s phenomenal, the response we got. It gets our hearts racing and our fingers typing during late nights and during the weekends. So many players applied to play—I totally get that—because what if you can start making a living from playing and spreading something you love, and an activity you now pay a lot of money for.

The trick is to drive interest in people that are not yet fans of ultimate, that don’t play it, but they can become and start playing it, and in turn their kids. That’s the way we want grow ultimate in the world.

So, how can I be a part of it?

We would like to change the way people interact in this world, Ultimate as a sport is our medium, our vehicle to drive this change. It has the best values. You can be a part of that by going here https://www.ultileague.net/join-ultileague  

When you’re a player and want to make a living playing and spreading the sport you love, apply to UltiLeague in Europe here. www.ultileague.net/apply-player

Everyone around the world can be part of it. Either by sponsoring a player, team, or the complete league. Just go to Ultileague.net and check out the options. www.ultileague.net/

Thank you Milan for your time.

As you got it, at TOKAY we’re 100% with you!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.