Article by Nanette Wiser
Frisbee Is More Than A Game
You have heard of Frisbee golf and seen the colorful disc tossed around concert venues. Now meet the Tampa Bay Cannons, a professional sports team that plays frisbee football and has a secondary mission to be a community’s good neighbor. The team hopes to make St. Petersburg their hometown, moving from Tampa across the bay to DTSP.
General Manager of the Cannons, Peter Masone, filled PN in on their sport and goals. “We are an organization of socially aware,passionate young professionals with a collective focus on doing more with the sport of ultimate than just playing the game and ESPN Top 10 highlights. We use the sport and the platform in the American Ultimate Disc League as a vehicle to teach youth,leadership skills, build confidence and enforce a positive work ethic,” says the eloquent GM.
Tampa Bay Cannons actively support social/environmental causes while having fun and growing visibility of the sport. The Cannons were founded in Jacksonville as part of the AUDL’s 2015 South Division expansion. The league relocated the Cannons to Tampa Bay in 2018. In 2019, they played their first full season atSkyway Field in Tampa.
What is Professional Ultimate Disc (frisbee)?
Professional Ultimate Disc is a non-contact team sport (7 vs. 7). The object of the game is passing the disc from one player to the next until one catches it in the opponent’s end zone. Meanwhile, the defense tries to prevent the offense scoring by intercepting, blocking the disc, or otherwise forcing a turnover without committing a foul. There is no running with the disc, no tackling, and the game is fully officiated.
There are 30 rostered players per week with 20 activated game day. The game is played on a traditional American football sized field with 80 yards between goal lines. There are 12 games in the regular season (6 home, 6 away) and a public preseason scrimmage, before opening day called the Black and Yellow game.
Opening day is at the end of April and the season runs into July followed by playoffs and culminating with a final-four style Championship Weekend. Games are typically on Saturday evenings, and roughly two hours in length. Fans are encouraged to arrive early for warmups and meet the team before and after the game to enjoy a full game day experience.
The organization prides itself in diversity and equality where coaching staff and athletes come from various backgrounds and international influence. Currently on the 2019 and 2020 rosters are players with national origin from the U.S.A, Colombia, Venezuela, India and Italy including two active duty in the U.S. Air Force. Expected at the 2020 Cannons Combine, tryouts are players from the Netherlands, Dominican Republic and Colombia.
Coming in 2020
How can moving the Tampa Bay Cannons to downtown St. Pete help the community in addition to increasing revenues and visibility for the City of St. Pete? Says Masone: “We provide a family friendly sports entertainment experience with accessibility to the athletes and coaching staff. Our games will create more foot traffic, attracting families to downtown
restaurants and establishments (before and after the game) as well as the visiting teams within our division, increasing revenue to local hotels and hospitality from out of state tourism.”
Masone hopes to provide year-round programs, with off-season opportunities for youth camps, coaching clinics and Tampa Bay Cannons hosted pro-am and amateur events on the turf and surrounding beaches.
The Cannons corporate mission is to continue to provide a strong community service to the Tampa Bay area by working with organizations like Forest Planet who plant trees for every ticket sold to a home game, Habitat for Humanity by providing volunteer hours to Habitat recipients, the Humane Society, Children’s Wish Fund and more.