What does future growth of ultimate look like?

A WNBA-inspired thought experiment

May 16, 2024

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I have about five or six different article ideas that are in some form of being worked on, from just rattling around in my head to having put pen to paper and needing editing, but the perfectionist in me has really been slowing down my output the last few weeks. So, in an effort to fix that, I’m going to finish this in one sitting! And that’s how it’s going to get sent to you all tomorrow (5/16 for me) morning. So enjoy! Also, keep an eye out for more stuff coming soon! Got a couple of things I’m in the middle of I’m super excited to share.

Considering the WNBA’s growth through the lens of ultimate

What does growth look like long-term for ultimate, and what do we actually want it to look like? It’s been interesting to think about the sport of ultimate and its capacity for growth in the context of this moment for the WNBA, and women’s basketball in general. The W is staring down the debut season of a media landscape-altering player in Caitlin Clark, not to mention a slew of immensely popular rookies in Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso, and many, many more.

And to be honest, they were not fully ready for the moment. The biggest mistakes on the league's end were problems with the charter plane program rollout and not televising all the debuts of the various rookies people were excited about.

But the more interesting paradigm shift has been among fans. Step into any WBNA fan space online and you’ll find a clash of the old and new. Fans who have been around the league for years, who know and love the product, and who always knew it would reach this level of popularity if it were allowed to grow. And fans who are only seeing the light just now, perhaps on the back of the popular rookies, and are entering this space with varying levels of respect for the work and people that came before them.

That is why I am so interested in the idea of ultimate growing in a similar way. What if we were in their shoes? What if there were young, talented players who drew more eyes to the sport than had ever been there before? What if there were thousands of people online and in person interested in watching our sport and joining our community, but who knew next to nothing about its past? How would we react?

Honestly? I think we’d see a lot of the same things, although I have less faith in us ultimate lifers to be as welcoming to new fans as many long-time WNBA fans are trying to be. And I think we are even less prepared structurally for anything approaching that kind of growth, too.

Will ultimate ever reach the popularity heights of the WNBA? Maybe not. Basketball has been a staple of American popular culture for the better part of a half-century, while the sport of ultimate is barely that old. So we have a ways to go.

But for a moment, really think about it. What would change in this scenario? What would we gain, and what would we lose? Increased funding in the sport, outside sponsorship, and a wider community of fans and players would all be amazing. But how would we handle an influx of poorer attitudes and bad actors in a community that already struggles to deal with them? What would need to change in how the sport's infrastructure is run (at all levels) to accommodate and facilitate growth? Would our community lose something by going more mainstream?

That last question is at the heart of many a discussion about the growth of ultimate. And for a long time, my opinion has been that the benefits of serious growth always outweigh the negatives. And for the most part, I still believe that overall ideal. However, being a fly on the wall for this reckoning the WNBA as a league and fanbase are in the midst of has shown me how important it is for the community to be ready for growth in any way you could possibly imagine.

From an organizational perspective, that means, at the very least, having well-thought-out long-term plans for what you would do with an influx of money, attention, and support. For the W, nailing the quick turnaround to charter flights for all teams would have really showcased an institutional level of preparedness for capitalizing on a moment many fans were disappointed (rightfully so) not to see. The same goes for televising the preseason debuts of every one of these future stars.

On the grassroots level, I think many longtime fans are doing everything they can to educate and support the newer arrivals to the party. I think that almost all of the interactions are clearly coming from a place of remarkable patience for a group that has fought for visibility for the league for so long and is now dealing with many people who have infant-level knowledge of the league’s past and present.

With that being said, there have certainly been moments, many initiated by newer fans (read: obsessive fans of Caitlin Clark, let’s be honest), that have used the popularity of this moment to discredit every other iteration of the league and its teams and players. And the community is still in the process of trying to figure out how to deal with trolls, bad actors, and just plain ignorant “fans.” How many of these people are worth bringing along with them, and how many will never see the league for what it is, has been, and will be?1

So, what would be our moment? And what would we need to be ready to do institutionally and as a community to capitalize on that moment and catapult it into a higher level of public consciousness? And yes, is it worth it?

The answer to most of those questions is: who knows? The moment could be getting into the Olympics, sure. But that’s not a guarantee as far as it actually happening, and it catapulting ultimate to anything remotely approaching mainstream. Ultimate has been slowly getting more traction on social media, so maybe it’s a particular viral moment? Or it could be something else. It could be anything. It could be a quick, powerful surge or the continuous, slow, gradual growth into a tidal wave. But seeing this WNBA moment has only further convinced me of how important the new CEO of USA Ultimate will be. In this new regime, I’d love to see a more deeply thought-out, transparent view of the future of our sport. One that facilitates the growth among our existing community reaches new audiences through social media and modern marketing and has plans in place for the best/least likely outcomes so that our sport keeps moving in a positive direction.

From the community, I hope we’ll continue to take ourselves seriously. It’s okay to hold our leaders, our semi-pro teams and leagues, and our national governing body to high standards of organization and professionalism. At the same time, I think it's important to honestly reckon with the fact that the game and the community we know and love may be unrecognizable to us if and when ultimate has its growth moment. Are we in the NFL's pre-forward pass era or the NBA's pre-three-point line era? Both in terms of strategy and popularity?2 The pre-Magic and Bird era or the pre-Clark and Reese era? We don’t know what we don’t know, especially about the future ultimate.

We’ll never know what events will drive more eyes to our sport and community. But we can prepare. Logistically, emotionally, mentally, and physically, make sure you do anything and everything you need to do.

About The Breakside

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This newsletter aims to tackle the gap in present coverage of ultimate as a sport. Commentary, analysis, and community are some of the guiding ideals behind the Breakside.

About the Author

My name is Noam Gumerman (he/him). I am from Chapel Hill, NC, and studied Journalism and American Studies at Brandeis University. I am a journalist by trade and have been playing ultimate for over half my life. I love nothing more than combining those two interests. Contact me for discussions, feedback, story suggestions, and more on Twitter (@noamgum) or email (noamgumerman@gmail.com).