From Outsider to Owner: The Incredible Rise of the Indianapolis AlleyCats in Ultimate Frisbee
Derek Tow
Owner of the Indianapolis AlleyCats
In the summer of 2017, my family and I visited relatives in East Lansing, Michigan, over the 4th of July weekend. On the last day of our trip, my niece's husband, Greg, took us to watch his ultimate club pick-up game.
At the time, I knew next to nothing about ultimate frisbee. I had never seen the sport played live, nor had I any experience playing it. The extent of my frisbee throwing was limited to backyard play while growing up in the suburbs of Indy, and frisbee 'golf' with high school friends using a Whamo and a fire hydrant in my apartment complex during my college days. In the case of the latter, I was probably fully intoxicated. In both cases, I loved it.
As an avid sports fan, I love football (Indianapolis Colts and Purdue Boilermakers), basketball (Indiana Pacers and Purdue), and IndyCar racing - with the Indianapolis 500 being my favorite day of the year. So, watching the sport up close was a literal game-changer for me.
I watched them play and immediately fell in love with the sport. For me, it was everything I loved about other sports. It's super-fast, very athletic, high-scoring, simple to learn, and the games are just a few hours long. To top it off, they are throwing frisbees which I've come to call 'discs.'
I remember thinking, 'This game has it all. It's a perfect American sport that no one knows about. I wonder if we have any teams in Indy?' As soon as I could, I looked it up. Sure enough, Indianapolis has a team - a professional team called the Indianapolis AlleyCats. They had one more home game on the schedule, so I got tickets and took my son to watch them. That game was on a very nice high school field at Roncalli High School. We sat high in the stands and took in the whole game. I was hooked. I needed more of this. Being the final home game, I contacted the owner, Tim Held. Tim was with the team from the beginning.
The beginning in all forms of the word. The American Ultimate Disc League was founded in 2012, and Tim and his brother bought a franchise license and started the AlleyCats from scratch in a pro league that was also starting from scratch. Today, the league and The AlleyCats are eleven years young, and The AlleyCats are one of only two original franchises in the league. Some teams come and go, but the league grew from eight teams in 2012 to twenty-four teams in 2023. The AUDL went from all major cities in the US and added two teams in Canada, making the league international. Visit theaudl.com to follow our league.
I got in touch with Tim, and we hit it off. He wanted help, and I wanted to help. I'm not a player, coach, water boy, or broadcaster, but I do own a video production company (Dream #1), and I can help there. So that's what I did. I'd help with producing video content for the team in the 2018 season for free because I was in love with the sport and its potential.
At the end of the 2018 season, Tim invited me to join him as an owner of the franchise, and I immediately jumped on it. I am a small business owner. Dream #1 was building a video production company, The South 40. Dream #2 was building a camera jib company (Indy Cinejibs). Camera jibs are crane arms that hold video cameras - you've seen them at sporting events, concerts, and lots of live events with lots of people, plus video and film projects. Dream #3 was building a studio in Indy (The Box Indy) and becoming a hub for production companies to create new content, photography, live music, art shows, and whatever else a black box studio can be used for.
Dream #4 hit me at age 47, and while it is almost completely out of my wheelhouse of knowledge, I did know events and entertainment and how to build businesses in difficult fields to succeed in. I'm a big dreamer and trusted my gut with decisions like this.
Today, I am in my sixth year owning a professional sports team. How is it going? Quite honestly, it's a tough nut to crack. We have yet to break even as a franchise financially, and our attendance was flat in 2022. It's certainly an expensive endeavor for our owners as we continue to work and believe in this sport. We know this sport won't grow overnight, and as I tell my kids, everything you want is on the other side of hard work. Having an incredible and understanding spouse is a game-changer too. I've learned a ton about marketing, growing our sponsorship base, growing a fan base, merchandise, tickets, sports logistics - the list is endless.
My energy as an owner, and now Team President, is completely hyper-focused on the local level and growing The AlleyCat's brand and our sport locally. I want the entire state of Indiana to come see us play and support our team. Our players certainly train, sacrifice, and play for our city and fans. As a franchise, we are laser-focused on winning more fans and more partners. On the field, our team is laser-focused on getting to Championship Weekend in August.
It truly is the best sport you've never seen. I believe that it can be the next great American sport, even more so than any other emerging sport such as lacrosse, cornhole, rugby, or even soccer. The sport has everything Americans love about sports. Plus, you can't have a disc in your hand without a smile on your face. Learn more about our team at myalleycats.com, sign up to follow us, and definitely get out to a game! We are the only AUDL team with an indoor stadium. The weather is always fine! Oh, and always remember to dream big.