There will be no pilot event in 2020.
October 23, 2020 by Ravi Vasudevan in News with 0 comments
UltiLeague, the new European fan-funded mixed ultimate league concept, just finished their online campaign to run a 2020 showcase event. Their goal was to raise €12,000 to host an event with four teams; they came up well short of that goal, raising just €3,590, less than 30% of the target.
Because of the lack of funds and new restrictions in Europe amidst a second wave of COVID-19 across the continent, UltiLeague has decided not to run an event this year. The league plans to use what they raised to work towards a new campaign in 2021. In a press release, UltiLeague outlined what they learned from this campaign and how they plan to have a more successful campaign next year.
Their novel fundraising scheme asked teams to have online campaigns to bring “memberships” to UltiLeague. Each membership costs 10 Euros. These memberships each come with a vote. The four teams that got the most votes at the end of the campaign would have been granted access to the 2020 event. The four teams that got the most votes were the following:
- The Mighty Hucks – Birmingham, UK
- Hässliche Erdferkel – Marburg, Germany
- SMOG – Northern England, UK
- Izaka – Noisy-le-Sec (Paris), France
UltiLeague organizer Milan van den Bovenkamp told Ultiworld that these four teams will have spots at the 2021 event since the 2020 event is cancelled. “I think we would have done something [in 2020] if there were no [COVID] restrictions, we would have hustled with the teams to get this off the ground,” he said. Countries in Europe have started to reintroduce lockdowns and travel restrictions as COVID cases in Europe have skyrocketed in October.
