 The concept took root and flourished, and by 1985, it was a fully established league.Early program support for urban debate initiatives was granted through the National Forensic League and Phillips Petroleum by the early 1990s.Significant seed funding was then provided by the Open Society Institute (OSI) in the Spring of 1997 to take the initiative national, and OSI chose the Atlanta Urban Debate League model as the template to model in other cities.