Nationals Date Change and Provisional 2024 Outdoor Calendar

A number of factors have led us to move UKU Nationals 2024 to 6-7 July. The event will again take place at Highfields Sports Complex, University of Nottingham. This post attempts to set out the background to that decision, and provides as much information as possible right now on the implications to the rest of the competition calendar.

Three elements of the 2024 international ultimate calendar create some challenges for our domestic club season.

• The WFDF 2024 World Ultimate Championships will take place in Australia, 31 August - 7 September, clashing with the usual time of year that we host UKU Nationals.

• UKU is hosting the WFDF World Junior Ultimate Championships, 20-27 July 2024 in Birmingham (at Moor Lane, Birmingham City University).

• The EUF is making a number of further changes to their club competition structure as outlined here, Spring Invite (20-21 April), Elite Invite (18-19 May) and new Summer Invite events (17-18 Aug). Some details about qualification to EUCF will not be available until Nov/Dec.

We recognise that moving Nationals to early July will affect how players and clubs approach the season and wanted to confirm the change as early as possible. Please also see the provisional outdoor calendar 2024 at the end of this post.

UKU National Championship Series 2024

Teams will qualify to Nationals from Regionals as usual.

• Depending on the number of teams entering each division, qualification may be a single national Playoff, rather than two Regionals.

We are waiting for confirmation from EUF about exactly how Invites and/or EUCRs will be held to determine qualification to EUCF at the end of September.

• In the scenario where Nationals is NOT EUCR-W, then there will be 8 teams in each division, (i.e. no Irish teams).

• If Nationals and EUCR-W continue to be combined, then there will be 12 teams per division, with 8-12 UK teams qualifying depending on the bid allocation to, and attendance by, Irish teams.

• We plan to run a Division 2 event in any/all of the three divisions for which there is sufficient demand. There are pros and cons to using the same date as Nationals versus waiting until later in the season.

• Depending on the timing of Div 2, and how EUF Summer Invites are set up, we may also run a further Ranking Tour event in one or more divisions (especially the Women’s division) in August.

Rationale

After working through a number of scenarios, we decided on this date and venue for Nationals as the best option when viewed from all angles:

• Timing relative to Worlds and EUCF for the players & clubs affected by WUC.

• Uncertainty around EUF changes and how they will affect August.

• Severe impact on key staff if Nationals was held one week either side of WJUC.

• Key venue availability.

• Timing allows for 2x Tour events before Regionals in all three divisions.

• Ability to decide and communicate dates early.

There are of course knock-on effects to the rest of the calendar. We aim to confirm dates and venues for the rest of the outdoor season over the next 2-3 months - including bidding for EUF Spring and/or Summer invite events in at least the Women’s division, and ideally Open and Mixed too. Please see the provisional plan for the outdoor calendar 2024.

We also made some other background assumptions:

• Aim to finalise dates and locations by the end of 2023.

• We should run at least 3 Ranking Tour events in each division outside of the National Championship Series, some of which might overlap with EUF Invites.

• We should stick with the plan to run Women’s & Open division Beach Nationals in April/May, with Mixed division in September, to help establish the Women’s division in that event.

• The season is congested. Nobody can play everything: players and teams inevitably have to make choices. We aim to space out competition for simple core groups (listed below), whilst still making it possible for players to participate across these groups, and take part in other non UKU / non EUF events:

  • All Mixed division players & teams - Mixed Tour, Regionals, Nationals

  • All Women’s & Open players & teams - Open & Women’s Tour, Regionals, Nationals.

  • Nationals/Euro-level(*) players & teams - some UKU Tour, EUF events, Regionals, Nationals, Worlds. (*) This is meant to be a vague description and inclusive of teams with that aspiration.

  • University players & clubs - University Outdoor championships as well as club competition.

Events in italics are provisional dates (UKU) or based on dates in recent years (Windmill).

Mixed-only division events in red, Open & Women’s-only events in blue.