3/14/2024 UPDATE: The 2024 season is underway and we have many upcoming events and fundraisers in the works. A HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who participated in the 2024 Player Sponsorship Program (PSP)!

We want to take a moment to share the following partnerships, who are essential to our team and are grateful for their contributions this season:

Beyond Strength, Maine Community Solar, Maine Medical Partners, Jared at Maine Movement, and VC Ultimate

We have a special shoutout to past sponsors Allagash, Mast Landing, Remnant Brewing, Revision Energy, Salvage BBQ, for all the ways the contributed and supported our team off the field. Stay tuned for more updates!

----------------------------------------------------------------

How can I support this team? The best ways to support this team is through the VC Player Sponsorship Program and to buy tickets to our games and come watch! Can't make it in-person? Watch the live-stream or tape delay of the game, and donate the cost of a ticket (sliding scale $0-$25 here). We hope to fund much of our season through clinics, hosting tournaments, the PSP, and ticket sales. However, we have a multiple costly flights in the PUL for our third year, and we won’t quite be able to afford our season from those funding sources alone.

----------------------------------------------------------------

The short version

Hello ultimate community! We are so thankful for all your support over the past four years. This year we are trying to fund much of our season through other sources, but it is still challenging to make our budget work through ticket sales and the PSP alone. If you have the means to contribute to Rising this season, we welcome any donation amount you are able to contribute. Thank you for your continued support, and we cannot wait to RISE with you this year!

Note: To give anonymously, select Hide my name or amount from public view on the Final details screen when donating

Donation perks

This year, we are raffling off a range of items, including Portland Rising merchandise, game day tickets, and discs. We will enter a raffle ticket for every $10 donated to the team.

You can also pool donations with your team, or buy one of these perks for a team you love! Please contact info@portlandrising.me with questions of if you would like to buy one of the donation perks below. A big thank you to Boston Glory for partnering with us to offer clinics and skills sessions.

Note: these are just suggested donation amounts. Please raise what you can, and we're excited to coach.

Who is Portland Rising?

Portland Rising is a professional ultimate team of women and non-binary athletes in the state of Maine. Last season, we competed in our second full season in the Premier Ultimate League.

In 2021, we hosted games against New York Gridlock, Austin Torch, and Medellín Revolution that brought fans to Portland from all over the country. Check out this coverage of our games by News Center Maine.

Portland Rising is redefining what a pro athlete looks like here in Maine by centering community connection and equity. Our athletes volunteer their time as coaches for the Portland middle school program and for several high school and college programs throughout New England. Our coaches and athletes have hosted monthly practices for Maine women’s division players and provide 1-on-1 mentoring opportunities for local players. In 2021, Rising players raised over $6,000 for organizations that are important to them through birthday fundraisers, completed a 15-week anti-oppression course, and participated in activism training. Last season, Rising partnered with Boston Glory to provide clinics to high school and college athletes in Massachusetts, Maine, and New Hampshire.

What’s planned for this season?

2024 will be our third season with a full competition schedule. We will host games in Portland and travel around the country to compete against other Premier Ultimate League teams. We are growing our partnership with Maine Ultimate to work toward our shared goal of increasing youth participation in ultimate, particularly for underrepresented and girls-division athletes. Keep an eye out for community programming this spring and summer!

Why community fundraising?

Our primary sources of funding come from the PSP and ticket sales. We also supplement this with revenue from sponsorships, grants, running clinics throughout New England, hosting tournaments, community events, and selling merchandise. We are a community-funded team and are immensely thankful to all of our community members who have supported Portland Rising these past three years. We have had some of the largest home crowds of any PUL team! Our future goal is to not have to rely on donations to exist. However, we are still a new team, and have some of the highest travel costs in the league (over $24,000 in anticipated travel costs this season). Our season starts in the winter, and indoor practice field time is expensive ($9,000 in costs for practice fields, tryout venues, and stadium costs). We owe a PUL buy-in fee each year that covers league-wide operating costs. We also pay our players and coaches. A PUL season isn’t cheap. We appreciate any donation you can give to support our athletes this year.

and most importantly... THANK YOU!

Portland Rising 2024 Season

Join us, and support our third full-length season of professional ultimate

Team Members