More promotion of women's competition, but no separate league or mixed play.
December 11, 2017 by Charlie Eisenhood in News with 0 comments
AUDL commissioner Steve Gordon sent out a letter to the league’s players with an internal response to the gender equity boycott that has gathered momentum in the last week.
The letter describes the league’s plan for creating “substantial exposure for women’s ultimate”: 7-9 women’s games in 2018, produced and promoted by the league; a cable TV broadcast of one of those games; online livestreams of the other games; and social media and web promotion of women’s competition.
“I hope this illustrates how serious we are in advancing women’s ultimate,” writes Gordon. “In all honesty, we’d like to do more, but the reality is that we can only do so much both financially, and within the confines of all partnership agreements we are party to.”
The league is not planning to institute a full-fledged women’s league or shift to mixed-gender play.
The letter is addressed to Jesse Shofner, one of a group of organizers of the boycott, although the league later clarified that they were intending to address the group, not just Shofner.
The group, which includes Nicky Spiva, Hannah Leathers, Markham Shofner, Jesse Shofner, Elliott Erickson, Claire Chastain, Mario O’Brien, and Trent Dillon, among others, issued a statement to Ultiworld: “Jesse, while being a part of an organizational group that eventually led to the statement/form, did not actually write the statement of create the form [asking players to sign on to the statement].”
The organizing group is expected to release the full list of signatories to the boycott statement on Wednesday.
The original, full-text letter from the AUDL is below:
