Private equity partner now overseeing the league.
October 9, 2018 by Charlie Eisenhood in News with 0 comments
In addition to the announcement of a plan to pursue the formation of a women’s league, the AUDL also revealed some other significant news coming out of their annual offseason owners’ meeting.
Team owners have unanimously ratified a new commissioner, Steve Hall, a co-owner of the Atlanta Hustle, to a three-year term. Hall replaces Steve Gordon, who served as commissioner for six years.
“The AUDL is committed to becoming the best known action sport in the next decade,” said Hall in a statement. “We are transforming our business to align with audience preferences, social trends and future models of content delivery. Steve Gordon did a tremendous job leading the AUDL over the past six years as it became the biggest professional ultimate league in the world. We look forward to executing some major initiatives in the next three years that will help solidify the AUDL as the place for fans to follow ultimate.”
Hall is the managing partner of a private equity firm, EHF Capital, after spending years in finance and chemical engineering. He has played ultimate since the 1980s, finding the sport while at Georgia Tech. Hall, who lives in Charlotte, hopes to use his experience as a member of the Executive Council of the AUDL and his private equity background to help advance the league.
“I help build companies – that’s what I do from my private equity position,” he told Ultiworld. “I’ve always been a builder of things. That’s probably why I was an engineer.”
Hall will no longer manage the Hustle — he will be a silent partner — as he transitions into the commissioner role, effective immediately.
He hopes to drive the AUDL to stabilize their position and to get more “fans in the stands,” the “number one goal” of the league in the seasons to come. “We expanded quite fast these past six years,” he said. “This is really a chance for us to firm up each of the franchises.”
One of Hall’s first new projects will be to oversee the creation of an All-Star Game, which will start in the middle of the 2019 season, likely in May. “This is the time, as we have more marketing money from the capital raise we did on StartEngine,” said Hall.
The league front office is eager to make more of an effort to highlight top players and develop their public personalities.
Further details on the All-Star Game are forthcoming, though the league did suggest that there will be a bye week for all teams, following the lead of major professional sports and their all-star events. Hall also hinted that the game might be held in the South, since the August dates for Championship Weekend preclude a southern host city.
