Helped launch a founding franchise in what became the UFA

League: Ultimate Frisbee Association (formerly the American Ultimate Disc League) · Team: Bluegrass Revolution, later Cincinnati Revolution · Role: VP of Operations and Marketing, 2011–2013 · Site: watchufa.com

In late 2011 a new professional ultimate frisbee league was getting ready for its first season, and I joined one of its eight founding franchises as VP of Operations and Marketing. It was a chance to start something new around a sport I loved, and it was a passion project from the first day. I handled the marketing, built and ran the website, and managed gameday operations and team travel.

The challenge: selling a sport most people had never watched

Ultimate had a strong playing community but almost no spectator audience. There was no TV deal, little brand recognition and no proof that people would pay to watch. A typical game sold 50 to 100 tickets, and our sponsorship model was limited to a handful of local partners.

What I did

1. Built marketing on the existing community

The fastest path to fans was the people already playing. We worked with the local ultimate associations in our franchise cities, promoting games through their leagues, clubs and youth programs, and backed that up with social media and a custom website for ticket sales.

2. Made a website that sold the game

I built and ran the team website: schedules, rosters, ticketing and game recaps. We recorded and streamed games so people could see how fast and athletic the sport is before they ever bought a ticket.

3. Ran gameday and travel

I ran gameday from venue setup to the final whistle and planned team travel across the league. Partnerships with transportation companies, restaurants and local media kept costs down for a young franchise.

4. Started a sponsorship program from scratch

Sponsorship was simple at first: local businesses, in-kind trades and community partners. It covered costs and proved there was an audience worth reaching.

Where the league is today

The league rebranded as the Ultimate Frisbee Association in 2024 and is now a highly competitive, elite professional league with national sponsors.

• Teams: 8 in the 2012 inaugural season, 22 today across four divisions in the U.S. and Canada.
• Audience: about 1.5 million followers across league social channels and more than 150 million views of highlight videos in 2023 (league figures).
• Sponsorship: Pabst Light is the league’s title sponsor through 2027, alongside a roster of league partners.
• Media: every game streams on watchUFA.tv, with a free weekly game on YouTube and apps for Roku and Amazon Fire TV.
• Website: an estimated 160,000+ visits to watchufa.com over the last three months, about 70% from organic search (Similarweb estimate, September 2026).

What this shows

Launching a franchise in a brand-new league is marketing with no safety net: no budget, no audience and no brand. We built it from the community up, made the product easy to see and kept operations lean. The league that grew out of those first seasons shows what that early groundwork can turn into, and it is still the project that taught me the most about building an audience from zero.