Professional Disc League Launches 2022 Season

This weekend, the American Ultimate Disc League (AUDL) opens their 11th season.  There have been a few changes since the Raleigh Flyers won their first title last summer.  This year there will be 25 teams as the league continues to try to re-capture their momentum prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.  Three new teams were added as the Colorado Summitt, Salt Lake Shred and Portland Nitro begin their first seasons in the AUDL.  The Dallas Roughnecks were renamed to the Dallas Legion and the San Jose Spiders moved to Oakland. The defending champion Flyers decided to change from Raleigh to Carolina in their name to represent the entire region.

The league's three Canadian teams - Montreal Royal, Ottawa Outlaws and Toronto Rush will also return to league play after playing separately due to COVID protocols last season.

The AUDL also renewed a two-year television deal with FOX Sports which will air the "AUDL GAme of the Week" live or on tape delay every Saturday night throughout the season with the first game this week between the New York Empire and DC Breeze.

The 25 teams will play in four divisions with the championship weekend scheduled for the weekend of August 26-27 in Madison, Wisconsin.

Teams in the South Division will include:

• Atlanta Hustle
• Austin Sol
• Carolina Flyers
• Dallas Legion
• Tampa Bay Cannons

The Central Division consists of:

• Chicago Union
• Detroit Mechanix
• Indianapolis AlleyCats
• Madison Radicals
• Minnesota Wind Chill
• Pittsburgh Thunderbirds

Teams in the East Division are:

• Boston Glory
• DC Breeze
• Montreal Royal
• New York Empire
• Ottawa Outlaws
• Philadelphia Phoenix
• Toronto Rush

The West Division will have:

• Colorado Summitt
• Los Angeles Aviators
• Oakland Spiders
• Portland Nitro
• Salt Lake Shred
• San Diego Growlers
• Seattle Cascades

The AUDL is a semi-professional league as players do not receive a regular paycheck for playing in the league.  Instead, players receive a portion of gate receipts and an ownership interest in the team.  Players can generally get $350-$700 per season.

The best player in the league last season was Ben Jagt from the New York Empire.  He was the league's Most Valuable Player last season with 63 goals, 55 assists and 20 blocks.  

One of the favorites this season is the Austin Sol who have of the toughest schedules this season.  On the other end of the spectrum, the Detroit Mechanix currently have a 50-game losing streak dating back to 2017.

Evan Lepler reported in his "Tuesday Toss" section that 10 members of the recently announced USA U-20 National Team that are on AUDL rosters and becoming familiar with this group is a good place to start. Seattle leads the way with three of these rising stars: Tucker Kalmus, Declan Miller, and Zeppelin Raunig, while Boston, Philly, and Salt Lake each have two apiece, Declan Kervick and Benjamin Horrisberger for the Glory, Ed Brown and Adam Grossberg for the Phoenix, and Will Selfridge and Everett Saunders for the Shred. Lastly, though certainly not least, young Oregon State star Felix Moren should be an immediate contributor for the Portland Nitro.

Ultimate is an exciting sport with lots of scoring and lots of big plays.  I have been a big fan of Ultimate and the AUDL.  This could be the breakout season for the league as they seek to gain more attention to grow the league into a stronger professional league.  I hope they can achieve that.  Unfortunately, many teams are ignored in their own market.  That's what happened here when we had the Nashville Nightwatch.  Even with essentially no competition in the spring/summer, local media failed miserably to cover the team.  The franchise also failed to secure a good home field to establish a larger fanbase.  If there is a team in your area, please support them.  

You can follow the AUDL this season at www.theaudl.com