Rugby developing in the US thanks to a Hollywood movie

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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)

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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

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