The UFA expands again, announcing a team in Las Vegas, Nevada.
December 18, 2024 by Alex Rubin in News with 0 comments
In a surprise move, the Ultimate Frisbee Association is adding a new franchise in the hottest market in professional sports: Las Vegas. The Vegas Bighorns will be the first new UFA team added since 2023, when the Houston Havoc joined the association.
Though the league has not yet formally announced the franchise, there is a website and Facebook page for the team. The UFA confirmed that Vegas will be joining the league’s West Division for the 2025 season.
The Bighorns arrival keeps the league at 24 teams after the Dallas Legion announced earlier this offseason that they will cease operations. Given that the South Division is left with just four teams and the West Division would have eight absent any changes, the UFA will realign divisions ahead of the 2025 season. Details are expected to be announced in January.
“We are thrilled to have a presence in a region that has exploded in growth across professional sports the past decade, and we’re also looking forward to showcasing the Las Vegas ultimate community to a global fanbase,” said UFA Vice President of Sponsorship and Communication Ryan Pierce. “Ultimate player James Shorey is the owner of the team and will be taking on general managerial duties throughout the rest of the offseason.”
To ultimate fans, this move may come as a surprise. Las Vegas did not send any club teams to the USA Ultimate series in 2024, and the city has only a small local disc organization. In 2023, Las Vegas Nuke competed in SoCal men’s sectionals but did not advance past that stage. There are no nearby marquee college programs to draw from.
To UFA fans, this move may also come as a surprise. The league had been publicly seeking investors to launch teams in Kansas City and St. Louis, not Las Vegas.
In the broader sports world, though, this fits the trend. Since the NHL’s Golden Knights successful introduction to Sin City in 2017, the WNBA’s Aces, NFL’s Raiders, and MLB’s Athletics have all followed suit. In addition, the NBA stages its annual Summer League and in-season NBA Cup tournament semis and finals there. Due to the conspicuous presence of casinos and legalized sports gambling, Las Vegas was assumed to be out of the running for major league sports teams as recently as a decade ago. However, with the rise to prominence in online and mobile sports betting, the gates opened and major league sports–and now the UFA–are rushing in.
The Vegas Bighorns name is a nod to the state mammal of Nevada: the desert bighorn sheep, a species native to the Southwest United States, and particularly common in southern Nevada, especially around Lake Mead.
