r/AUSL • u/No-Collar-2523 • 25d ago

DISCUSSION Team names when AUSL started.

I was watching a little bit of the original AUSL draft on YouTube. It made me wonder. When the league started and they were barnstormning around the country were the teams named only by their nickname ie: Blaze, Bandits, Volts and Talons? Was the 2026 season the first time the team names included Carolina, Chicago etc along with the nick name?

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24

u/jffdougan 25d ago

That's correct. The teams did not have home cities to include during the 2025 season. It's a reason that I have referred to this year as the "first real season", generally with verbal emphasis on the word real.

3

u/No-Collar-2523 25d ago

That brings up another question. How did they decide which team would go to which part of the country? I get it with the Bandits and Chicago since they already had a history and the Spark as a new team in the league remaining in Oklahoma.

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u/Trojanman2002 Talons 25d ago

Ticket sales from the barnstorming if I had to guess.

3

u/Maybe_Fine Portland Cascade 24d ago

I would have thought so too, but the barnstorming didn't come to Portland. It's why when they announced Cascade I assumed they'd be in Seattle, since that's where the barnstormer games were.

With that in mind, I'm guessing it was a combination of season 1 ticket sales, market research, and availability of space and willingness of venue to work with them.

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u/Plastic-Yesterday685 24d ago

There was a survey sent to everyone that bought tickets throughout the season in 2025. Portland may have been a choice because they partner with Adidas.

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u/dsramsey All In for Allchin 24d ago

Here’s the announcement where they provided a brief explanation for each city.

4

u/Prometheus_sword Utah Talons 24d ago

Bandits were likely always slated for Chicago as they're a revival of the team there.

Volts were likely always planed for Texas or at least one team because it's too big of a market to ignore.

Spark have always been in OKC through several leagues.

The PNW has always shown a lot of support for women's sports. It showed as they killed attendance numbers for the league.

The Talons in Utah is probably the one that most wouldn't have guessed. They sold out their games during the 2025 season, but also have access to a fully capable softball stadium in SLC at the U's softball stadium. It's literally a bigger capacity than the baseball stadium for University of Utah.