Comments on: Rugby developing in the US thanks to a Hollywood movie

By: Sth Auckland First XV

Sth Auckland First XV — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:44:58 +0000

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.

By: Sth Auckland First XV

Sth Auckland First XV — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:43:15 +0000

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

By: Sth Auckland First XV

Sth Auckland First XV — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 22:39:35 +0000

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.

By: jus de couchon

jus de couchon — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:51:34 +0000

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.

By: Ian Noble

Ian Noble — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 13:26:12 +0000

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.

By: Working Class Rugger

Working Class Rugger — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 08:11:47 +0000

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.

By: gurudoright

gurudoright — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:56:40 +0000

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

By: rugbyfuture

rugbyfuture — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 07:03:46 +0000

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

By: ilikedahoodoogurusingha

ilikedahoodoogurusingha — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:30:08 +0000

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)

By: Jado

Jado — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:27:58 +0000

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.

By: ilikedahoodoogurusingha

ilikedahoodoogurusingha — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:21:09 +0000

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.

By: Springs

Springs — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:20:31 +0000

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.

By: Pippinu

Pippinu — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:15:25 +0000

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.

By: Pippinu

Pippinu — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:09:29 +0000

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.

By: roarer101

roarer101 — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 06:01:03 +0000

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.

By: Working Class Rugger

Working Class Rugger — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:37:20 +0000

And the College game in growing in both size and quality on a annual basis.

By: Working Class Rugger

Working Class Rugger — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 05:36:07 +0000

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.

By: Klestical

Klestical — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 03:12:17 +0000

the strength of american club rugby willl lie in their colleges, not the super league.

By: Norm

Norm — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 02:33:29 +0000

Does all this mean that the US is going to make a bid to host the RWC?

By: M1tch

M1tch — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:33:51 +0000

Not the biggest rugby fan going around, but cant wait to see this movie

By: Gatto Nero

Gatto Nero — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:40:34 +0000

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.

By: Brett McKay

Brett McKay — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 23:05:08 +0000

More importantly, what are Margaret and David giving it??

By: Jay

Jay — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:40:59 +0000

the film Australia was meant to do wonders for Australian tourism.. its a big gamble relying on a movie to promote a product.

By: Barking Glider

Barking Glider — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 22:03:32 +0000

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.

By: anopinion

anopinion — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 21:10:26 +0000

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.

By: The Truth

The Truth — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:52:22 +0000

You say this as club after club is dropping out of the top-tier Rugby Super League…