By rugbyfuture -
December 3rd 2009 @ 2:48am
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Rugby developing in the US thanks to a Hollywood movie
I’m Looking to the Americas and the growth of international rugby, which in the United States and Canada, is growing at a faster rate than any other sport from what I’ve read.
This is because of the smart initiatives of USA Rugby and Rugby Canada, and the existence of some very strong rugby communities in specific locations.
Looking beyond these factors though, there are signs and opportunities of further growth in the Americas: the Olympic inclusion and Invictus.
The Olympic inclusion is a fairly obvious one, where more countries around the world will start to focus on rugby as a chance of Olympic success and therefore feed the international fifteen-a-side game.
Invictus is a movie, however, being released from December 11th and it’s all about rugby.
The reason that this may lead to the growth of rugby in America is because it is all about the abolition of apartheid policy in South Africa through Rugby Union (1995 World Cup), a great boon for the game, and a possible entry into the hearts and minds of Afro-Americans.
From this, will we see the emergence of great American players?
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The Truth said | December 3rd 2009 @ 2:52am | Report comment
You say this as club after club is dropping out of the top-tier Rugby Super League…
anopinion said | December 3rd 2009 @ 7:10am | Report comment
Dear Truth,
A couple of clubs have dropped out of the US Super League. This is due to two reasons.
Firstly, money. The Super League requires teams to fly all over the country during the season. Any teams that may be struggling with this cost drop out and are readily replaced by another team with aspirations and some cash.
Secondly, the teams who drop out do so because they can get a similar level of competition from their local or just beyond local leagues. They play games through the season that require a drive rather than fly. If they top this competition they then play the finals by flying to meet the opposition. Thus money spent only when they are at the pointy end of the year. If they fail to make the finals they save money.
Working Class Rugger said | December 3rd 2009 @ 3:36pm | Report comment
The 2 teams that have dropped out are both located in Southern California. Which has the highest quality local club competition in the States. And they are still playing in the 1st Div. It will be 14 teams next season.
Barking Glider said | December 3rd 2009 @ 8:03am | Report comment
Like all sports movies, Invictus is less about the sport and more about the human interest story. I’m not sure it will do much for rugby growth anywhere.
Jay said | December 3rd 2009 @ 8:40am | Report comment
the film Australia was meant to do wonders for Australian tourism.. its a big gamble relying on a movie to promote a product.
Sth Auckland First XV said | January 17th 2010 @ 8:39am | Report comment
But Australia, the movie was utter shite – just the title of the movie put me off. Invictus is about the power of sport, in particuar rugby union, to break down barriers of hatred in the REAL world and involving real historical events, and one of the greatest political figures of the 20th Century – totally different. I think it will be another plus in rugby union’s continued growth around the world.
Brett McKay said | December 3rd 2009 @ 9:05am | Report comment
More importantly, what are Margaret and David giving it??
Gatto Nero said | December 3rd 2009 @ 9:40am | Report comment
Rugby will always struggle to compete with the popularity of football in North America. It attracts athletes of a similar body type, and the better ones will always gravitate to football – it has the biggest pay cheques and crowds of any sport globally, and a massive media grip.
M1tch said | December 3rd 2009 @ 10:33am | Report comment
Not the biggest rugby fan going around, but cant wait to see this movie
Norm said | December 3rd 2009 @ 12:33pm | Report comment
Does all this mean that the US is going to make a bid to host the RWC?
Klestical said | December 3rd 2009 @ 1:12pm | Report comment
the strength of american club rugby willl lie in their colleges, not the super league.
Working Class Rugger said | December 3rd 2009 @ 3:37pm | Report comment
And the College game in growing in both size and quality on a annual basis.
roarer101 said | December 3rd 2009 @ 4:01pm | Report comment
Gatto Nero, I think you would be hard pressed to sustain the argument that American Football has the biggest pay cheques and crowds of any sport. Soccer clearly dominates in both departments there.
Pippinu said | December 3rd 2009 @ 4:09pm | Report comment
Mate – average NFL crowds are so far ahead of abslutely anything else in the world that there is daylight between it and the 2nd highest – even college crowds are way ahead on average terms.
The most valuable sporting franchises in the world are NFL clubs.
Ian Noble said | December 3rd 2009 @ 11:26pm | Report comment
I wonder what the market value is for Man U, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Arsenal, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Liverpool would be in comparison. Certainly the NFL can’t compete worldwide as the TV audiences verify in Africa and Asia, where the big growth markets are.
Pippinu said | December 3rd 2009 @ 4:15pm | Report comment
This wikipedia article shows some good info:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_attendance_figures_at_domestic_professional_sports_leagues
In recent years the IPL has rocketed out of nowhere into 3rd spot in worldwide sports attendances.
Jado said | December 3rd 2009 @ 4:27pm | Report comment
Depends what you mean by pay cheque. The highest paid footballer, according to France Footballer is David Beckham whose salary (note, salary, not endorsements etc) is around 34 million euros (about $US51 million)
http://www.football-industry.com/2009/03/31/the-20-highest-paid-football-players-in-the-world-2008-2009/
The highest paid American footballer according to Sports Illustrated is Peyton Manning, whose salary is $US14.5 million.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/specials/fortunate50/2009/
An interesting thing about the SI list is actually how lowly paid US footballers are compared to basketballers and baseballers. In fact, if you look at the related SI article about top-paid international (ie non-US) sports stars [http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/more/specials/fortunate50/2009/index.20.html]; all 20 on that list earn more than Peyton Manning.
But in terms of cold hard dollars, endorsements and other earnings skew things a bit; as Tiger Woods’ position illustrates.
Springs said | December 3rd 2009 @ 4:20pm | Report comment
I believe this movie is more about Nelson Mandela and his efforts to unite the nation after apartheid. The book the film is based on overs his release, election and his use of the WC to unite his people. the film will focus far more on Mandela, human values and racism themes then the actual sport.
Sth Auckland First XV said | January 17th 2010 @ 8:43am | Report comment
Better to read the book first Springs – it is clearly about how Mandela used Rugby Union to unite the country following the fall of apartheid. Clint Eastwood is a rugby union fan. The main supporting character is Matt Damon playing Springbok captain Francois Pienaar and the focus is on the progress of the Springboks through the tournament – the focus of the movie is RUGBY UNION get your facts right before you open your mouth
ilikedahoodoogurusingha said | December 3rd 2009 @ 4:21pm | Report comment
I could be wrong here, but aren’t baseball players paid more than NFL players? An american friend told me that some years ago…of course things could have changed since then.
ilikedahoodoogurusingha said | December 3rd 2009 @ 4:30pm | Report comment
Just answered my own question
2009 Average salary in major league baseball is $3.26 million, average in NFL is $770, 000.
Baseball :The highest-paid player is still the Yankees’ Alex Rodriguez, making $33 million,
NFL: the highest paid player is Julius Peppers of the Carolina Panthers who is paid 16.683 Million a year.
Soccer: Zlatan Ibrahimovic is the player who earn the highest wage (he earn €11M per season at Inter or $16.55 million)
rugbyfuture said | December 3rd 2009 @ 5:03pm | Report comment
regardless of whether it focuses on teh sport or not, it still links the social values of equality and integrity with rugby, and in particular as a source to unite black and white people
gurudoright said | December 3rd 2009 @ 5:56pm | Report comment
I can’t believe the IRB don’t do more to promote rugby in America. You think of all the high school students playing American football who don’t play sports after high school if they don’t get into college. I’m just taking a guess but there must be 100,000’s of boys if not a million every year finishing high school who have played physical sports all their life. These are the people that the IRB should be targeting to grow the game in America. If only they brought only 5% of these boys/men came to the game of rugby the effects would be huge. The same could be said of the college football player who don’t make the NFL, Arena Football etc. America has the potential to be a champion rugby nation ( their women have won the women’s world cup before) and if that came to fruit the financial gain to the game would be immense
Sth Auckland First XV said | January 17th 2010 @ 8:44am | Report comment
The problem with the IRB is that they are dominated by the Home Nations – Wales, Scotland, Ireland and England, none of whom have any interest in promoting Rugby Union unfortunately. The IRB needs to move towards democracy – one nation one vote. Inclusion in the Olympics is a massive step forward though.
Working Class Rugger said | December 3rd 2009 @ 6:11pm | Report comment
Gurudoright
That’s what Rookie Rugby is aiming to do. Giving kids an introduction to Rugby the their schools PE cirriculum. Saying that, the IRB should really help market the game as the perfect off season game for American Football player’s in High Schools.
jus de couchon said | December 4th 2009 @ 1:51am | Report comment
Rugby does perfectly well without any need to market itself in USA. Its a fringe/College sport and any League like deluded aspirations to change that will flounder on a sea of indifference.