Ultimately flawed

Introduction
Utlimate frisbee is a sport still in its formative years. It is growing in popularity and immensely fun to play, but I believe that a fatal flaw is holding it back from becoming a great spectator sport.

Analysis of what makes ultimate spectator-unfriendly
As it stands, ultimate in an offense-dominated game. It is expected and probable that an offense will score. Most games are decided by which offense screws up more. This creates an incentive to be careful and to not take chances, not a good recipe for a spectator sport.

Incentives in sports:
Baseball players have to take a chance and swing or strike out. Football teams must take a chance to maintain possesion. Basketball teams, likewise, must take a chance or the shot clock will run out.

Soccer is another example of another sport without an incentive to take a chance. Though I love soccer, it has trouble competing in America because it has relatively less action than the major sports here. Soccer's problem is also one of incentives: teams have little motivation to attack and lose possesion, especially if they're ahead. Hence, much of the game is passed with one team playing it safe, shots on goal and fast breaks are infrequent, and ties are common.

This phenomenon is certainly present in ultimate, both by the UPA (games played to a certain number of points) and MLU (timed games) rules. In the case of the UPA, teams are rewarded for efficient, high percentage throws and punished for taking chances. With the MLU rules, teams that are ahead will quickly hit on the idea to have everyone but 2 or 3 players go sit in the endzone, while those couple players bleed out the clock playing keep-away.

The stall count as a failed incentive:
When ultimate was conceived, the stall count was implemented to provide the impetus to keep the game moving, but players have gotten good enough to keep the disc alive by making short passes without a significant risk. Thus, the stall count no longer serves its intended purpose, and elite-level ultimate features teams moving cautiously down the field until they have a high percentage chance.

Furthermore, a team coming from behind in ultimate has no real incentive to start taking risks. Games are played until a team has scored a certain number of points, so if you fall behind there is no incentive, as there is in any other major field-sport, to attack quickly before time runs out. Even in tournament play, where games can be capped by time, you aren't beat until the other team scores, so the incentive again is to be cautious and not take risks.

Next time, on Eclexia:
Stay tuned for the next post, which will outline a strategy for getting ultimate back on track as an exciting spectator sport.