It’s that time of year again, where we get to look back with gratitude at the last year and look forward to the next with even more excitement! While the players get the spotlight on the field, Utah Wild would not have happened without the support and involvement of our volunteers, community, and sponsors. This is our third annual year in review, where we intend to provide transparency on team activities and shine a light where we can grow in the year to come.
As we grow, we continue to remain focused on our mission:
To advance visibility, equity, and high-quality competition for diverse women and nonbinary players within the sport of Ultimate. We work to connect with local communities and cultivate sustainable relationships to support the equitable growth of women’s sports within the Mountain West.
Professional Team Events
This year brought immense success on the field for our professional roster! In 2024, we brought on a team of 25 roster players and 9 practice players from Utah, Idaho, Montana, and Oklahoma. As a regional team, preparation for the season took place over four team practice weekends and weekly local pod practices. During the season, Utah Wild traveled to three away games, and hosted three home in Salt Lake City. Utah Wild fans showed up in force to a dozen watch parties in Salt Lake City, Boise, Missoula, and Tulsa, as well as three after parties in Salt Lake City. Our games in the 2024 season averaged about 5,000 online views on YouTube. It’s not too late to watch the recorded games on the WUL YouTube page if you missed them.
We started the season with a comeback win at home against the Bay Area Falcons, handing them what would be their only loss of the regular season. After a slump in the middle of the season with a few close losses, Wild roared back into action in May beating Seattle Tempest in Seattle and Colorado Alpenglow to punch our ticket to Championship Weekend! Traveling to Denver for a weekend of competition, we once again beat the Bay in the semi-finals, but the Alpenglow’s home crowd propelled them to victory in the finals. Wild took home a program-best, second place in the league! We couldn't have done this without the work of all of our players, but Brooke Stanislawski was Western Ultimate League League MVP Runner-Up and Abby Davis was the WUL Breakout Player of the Year!
As we write this, we are thriving off of the energy of a freshly-selected 2025 slate of players, after running tryouts this November - we can't wait to announce and celebrate them in the next couple weeks! The Western Ultimate League has transitioned to a new Executive Director in Nicole Neumiller, who has hit the ground running and has big things in store for our 2025 season! The WUL has also announced the return of professional ultimate to Oregon! Please join us in welcoming Oregon Soar to the WUL. With our seven teams set, and the schedule nearly finalized, keep an eye out for a bunch of exciting announcements in January 2025!
Community Events
Beyond on-field play, Utah Wild aims to provide new playing opportunities for women and non-binary players of all skill levels and the whole ultimate community. In partnership with Ultimate Play we hosted our second Kickoff 5v5 Tournament prior to our home opener! We worked with the Utah Ultimate Disc Association to host two free Ultimate clinics in the spring: one for girls and non binary youth, and a second for women and non binary adults. Both of our Spring and Fall Goaltimate Leagues in SLC continue to be strong events, with both the woman-matching and man-matching divisions welcoming new and returning players each season. We also hosted pre-tryout mixers in Draper in October to help prepare players for tryouts and give woman-matching players more playing opportunities. In addition to local community events, Utah Wild also ran Ski Town Classic, a staple of USAU Club competition which brought 46 teams from around the country across the women’s, mixed, and men’s divisions. It was a year of great ultimate all around!
Beehive Bash
This year we built on the relationships developed in 2023’s “She Plays Here” initiative, by hosting the Beehive Bash! Partnering with the Utah Falconz football team and the Utah Vipers rugby team, we hosted Salt Lake’s first ever all-day event focused on women’s professional sports! With four games throughout the day (two rugby, one ultimate, and one football), and a wonderful slate of local artists, businesses, and vendors we had a fantastic time celebrating our community of athletes! As schedules are being set for next spring, we are hopeful to continue this event and partnership with these other like minded teams.
Outreach
A major focus of our mission is to “connect with local communities and cultivate sustainable relationships.” A key element of this is to engage with not only the ultimate community, but also other youth and community organizations. In 2024, Utah Wild exposed hundreds of new people to the sport we love by partnering with Game on Sports 4 Girls Northern Utah summer camps to teach ultimate at Heber, Kaysville, and Park City camps. We also created a Pride jersey in partnership with Breakmark, designed by one of our players, and donated the profits to Encircle in support of LGBTQ+ youth. Looking ahead, we will continue to deepen these relationships and share the sport of ultimate more broadly across Utah and the Mountain West.
Volunteers and Staff
Successfully running a season and these activities would not have happened without the countless hours and energy of Utah Wild players, coaches, staff, board, and community volunteers. In 2024, the Wild coaching staff consisted of one head coach, two assistant coaches, a defensive specialist, and two coaching interns. The team retained six paid staff to manage team and event logistics alongside the work of the six board members to plan and execute the season. Our home games employed 86 volunteers over three days in roles ranging from set up and take down, scanning tickets, selling merch, and commentating in the booth. Finally, we had 36 volunteers assist with running SkiTown Classic and keeping it the high-quality experience that players expect. We want to send a big THANK YOU to all of our volunteers and staff for helping us put on a successful inaugural season.
Sponsors and Budget
Finally, we want to provide you with a look into the financial picture for the team. All told, expenses for 2024 totaled just over $100,000, split across staff costs (14%), travel (29%), fundraising and outreach event hosting (33%) and business expenses (24%). Income totaled just over $101,000, with major categories including sponsorships (15%), ticket sales (14%), merchandise sales (10%), fundraising events (35%), Be A Megafan fundraiser (17%), and donations (10%). In particular we want to recognize our 2024 sponsors for their support:
Visit Salt Lake
Utah Sports Commission
Breakmark
Bewilder Brewing
Fyzical Therapy & Balance Centers Midvale
Selfridge Counseling
Optimal Therapeutics
Handy and Handy Attorneys at Law
Discraft
All of the companies that donated items to our Silent Auction
We are also at the stage where we are able to look back over the first three seasons and start looking at overall trends. Generally speaking, hosting events such as those outlined above are still the most significant part of our income and expenses as an organization. Travel remains another large expense. We have been thrilled to see strong support for the Be A Megafan fundraiser and hope to see that continue in 2025! Additionally, we’re proud of the consistency we have seen in sponsorship funds, but for the long term health of the team, our goal is to transition from one-time donations and individual fundraising events to more sustainable forms of revenue such as monthly, subscribed donations or large dollar donations as well as increased corporate sponsorships. Developing the relationships required to receive this level of funding takes time and effort, and any help you can provide to connect us with sponsors or advocate for us to potential funding sources is hugely helpful in sustaining the Utah Wild organization.
Looking Forward
Utah Wild had another successful season this year and we are aiming to build on that solid foundation as we look toward 2025. There are a few key opportunities where we could use additional support:
Sponsorship: If you or a company you know would be interested in sponsoring the Wild, please reach out to partnership@utahwildultimate.org
Sustaining Donations: As you consider end of year giving or organizations that you’d like to support into 2024, please consider providing a one-time or monthly donation at https://tinyurl.com/utahwilddonation
During a time when it is normal for start-up teams to experience burnout and slowed growth, we are so grateful for the sustaining and increasing support we have received from our community. The state of the team is strong, and we can’t wait to continue to grow with you in 2025!
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