Varsity Spirit is starting a professional cheerleading league that promises to pay athletes, joining the crowded niche sports market that already includes softball, volleyball, 3-on-3 basketball, lacrosse, indoor football and more clamoring for both fans’ attention and their dollars.

The league will feature four teams with 30 women and men based in San Diego, Atlanta, Dallas and Miami. Teams will be selected from tryouts starting in September, led by gym owners. Practice begins in November.

Pro Cheer League is billed as the first professional cheerleading league for athletes 18 and olde,r designed to give cheerleaders the chance to keep competing after college.

Bill Seely, president of Varsity Spirit, which is based in Memphis, Tennessee, sees plenty of opportunity for all these sports to succeed. This cheer league’s advantage comes from the sport’s growth since the 1970s, along with Varsity’s own fan base through its cheerleading, dance team camps, events and shows.

“That’s going to help us really kind of build this out in a way that is sustainable and will continue to grow not just domestically but globally,” Seely said.

Varsity Spirit has had more than 80,000 people attend its events. The Pro Cheer League will try to tap into that fan base by competing the same night of other events starting in January in Indianapolis when competition begins. After Indianapolis, five more events are planned in Houston, Atlanta, Anaheim, capped by the championship in Nashville at the end of March or start of April.

Each match will feature three periods of competition with two focusing on cheerleading skills, stunts, basket tosses and tumbling in bracket-style rounds. The final period will feature choreography and music.

“We hope a media deal, which we’re working on right now, will help kind of bridge beyond the existing fan base,” Seely said. “And we’re trying to build something that entertains families, friends and gives everyone just a great show that they want to come out to.”

Compensation will include pay, money for travel, lodging and uniforms, along with bonuses and prizes.

The International Olympic Committee recognized cheerleading as a sport in 2021.

Varsity Spirit says it has already had interest from would-be competitors from across the U.S. with some from Canada and even a couple from Europe.

“We just felt like it was the right next step for the activity and to really kind of magnify it to help inspire young people to participate in it,” Seely said.

In the old days, visitors to the Gaslamp were warned all may not be as it appeared. Now, the operators of the newly opened Museum of Illusions (MOI) are keeping that tradition alive.

The 9,000-square-foot museum, which has more than 60 locations around the world — San Diego is the first in California — opened earlier this month. Staffers said attendance has been good — visitors were spotted inside one morning this week after the doors opened at 10 a.m. on 5th Avenue in the location where the old Urban Outfitters used to be.

“We have interactive, freestanding installations,” said general manager Phillip Belmont. “They play with your visual perspective and explore cognitive science. And we have a number of exhibits that take great videos, great photos, and there’s a lot to learn.”

The docents at the Museum of Illusions — and there are a lot of them, BTW; about eight people working at any given time — are especially helpful, and necessary, guiding guests on how to interact with the exhibits or filling in as photographers.

“We have our illusion experts that really are there to serve our guests, help them take photos, help them take videos and explain the science behind our illusions,” Belmont said.

Brain ticklers, optical illusions, 3D holograms and just plain weird stuff will have you and the kids losing count of how many times you say, “Whoa!”

While not every one of the 60 exhibits may have that wow factor, many do, prompting a retracing of steps to replicate the pretzel your mind gets twisted into. Many are interactive, prompting those previously mentioned photo shoots, such as the Ames Room, where an angled floor and mirrors trick perspective into changing the apparent sizes of people and objects; the Walk-In Kaleidoscope; and, our favorite, the Vortex Tunnel, where visitors walk a catwalk through a spinning image that had an NBC 7 photographer unconsciously, unnecesssarily bending his neck to capture a shot.

“I think what makes us most exciting is that you get a chance to really become a part of our illusions, to really be immersed,” Belmont said.

As is the case with many of the other worldwide MOI locations, some of the exhibits in San Diego “pay tribute to the city that we’re in,” as Belmont put it, including a mirrored view of the Colorado House in Old Town that has visitors walking up the side of the building or hanging off of it, and a “surf-themed reverse room” where a “surfer” can pose on a static wave. Altogether, Belmont said, it took about six months to take over the space and open up.

This being the Gaslamp, there ARE night hours: Till 9 during the week and 10 on Fridays and Saturdays.

Potential guests should have no illusions about the cost of a ticket, though: Adults have to pay $35, and kids are $30.

Nancy Stewart

OBITUARY

It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing Nancy Joan Stewart who departed this life on May 14, 2025, at the age of 86. Nancy was a cherished spouse, mother, sibling and friend. She was born on May 16, 1938, in Portland Oregon and worked professionally as a registered nurse. She loved clogging, baking, chocolate, toll painting, selling and buying jewelry and clothes. She loved her family deeply and had wonderful humor that made you feel light and the wholeness of living. She is survived by her husband, Dave Stewart; sister, Melinda Hamilton; daughter, Malia Attaway; son, Daniel McMillan, and two grandchildren, Nicolas and Kealia Attaway. She was preceded in death by her two first husbands, Robert McMillan and Martin Tompkins, and daughter Ilene Mayberry. Though Nancy may no longer walk among us, her spirit remains ever-present. Rest in peace dear Nancy.