American rugby is underestimated

ESPN has the rights to broadcast Top 14, ML, GP, & 6 Nations in the United Kingdom. They DO NOT have the broadcasting rights for these competitions in the USA. Setanta owns these rights which means the potential viewing audience for rugby-union in the USA is statistically zero. My hope is that ESPN will negotiate a deal with Setanta to broadcast a GP game of the week or a Top 14 game of the week on one of the ESPN channels which could be broadcast live on Saturday or Sunday mornings in the US and still leave Setanta with the rights to 2 or 3 games from each comp every weekend. This is what ESPN did with English Premier League matches this year, Setanta and Fox Soccer Channel owned the rights to broadcast 3 to 4 live games respectively every weekend and ESPN did a deal with both channels to purchase the rights to broadcast one live EPL game per week on Saturday mornings. Regarding Ohtani's Jacket's comments "Broadcasting rugby at some ungodly hour on an ESPN channel won’t have an effect." Having rugby on at an ungodly hour would be 100% better than no rugby on at all which is where we are at today. The reality is that in the USA if it's not on TV it doesn't exist. In order to inspire a generation of kids to want to play the game they need to see it on TV and they need to see great players playing for teams in a competition they can follow like the Guiness Premiership with a annual season and a build up to playoffs and championship game. Getting the chance to watch an Olympic Sevens tournament on TV once every four years is not going to cut it.

USRugbyFan Totally agree with your sentiments. USARugby has to work much harder to make Rugby a Varsity game both at the High School and College levels. As I have mentioned previously Rookie Rugby is being targetted specifically at the Junior and Senior Secondary system in the States. Hopefully as this program grows it will assist in Rugby elevation to Varsity. However, the biggest opportunity to push Rugby toward Varsity and legitmacy in the US schools system is it new Olympic status. USARugby must be proactive in promoting Rugby as a viable sport and opprotunity to make the Olympics. Being an Olympic sport could also be used to persuade many football/basketball coaches to embrace the game as a complimentary sport and a real alternative for their player's. I have absolutely no idea how much funding USARugby would recieve from the USOC and potential sponsorship but they must prioritise three things with what they do get. They are: 1. The expansion of the Rookie Rugby program. 130,000 kids off a small budget is a very good start but its only a start. as Yanqui has stated they are ambitiously looking to grow the junior base to somewhere in the range of 400,000 youth player's. Pie in the sky stuff but as Yanqui also states in they could get a quarter of that that's a huge return and Rookie Rugby will be key. 2. High School and College Rugby. Getting Rugby recognised as a legitimate sport and a viable off season sport for Football and Basketball player's. Currently Rugby is growing rapidly in both and getting Rugby recognised will push this even further forward. 3. Exposure. Rugby is a Olympic Sport. They must push to get it on TV as much as they can. Both 15s and 7s. As I stated above ESPN has the rights to the Top 14, ML, GP and 6 Nations. USARugby should be pushing for this footage to be not only broadcast but a reasonable hour. Hell, if poker can feature on ESPN then so can Rugby.

I agree -- VERY ambitious. Some would say pie-in-the-sky on steroids. But like I said, if they accomplish only 25% of that, I believe it would more than double the current total playing population. Not sure how USOC funding would work -- wouldn't it need to go directly to the 7's National Teams (Men & Women)?

The problem with growing rugby is that many of the best athletes in high school play football and basketball and are discouraged from playing a sport like rugby in the off-season. Many high school football coaches don't want their players to play contact sports such as rugby or lacrosse (another fast growing sport here) in the off-season for fear of their players getting hurt and prefer them to run track instead. Xavier HS in New York is a notable exception where many football players also play rugby in spring, and the football and rugby coaches are on friendly terms. Also since rugby is organized mostly in clubs and very few high schools have their own varsity team, top-notch athletes are reluctant to play for teams that practice and play in a park or elementary school. In order to grow the sport USA Rugby needs to become more professional in it's approach to high school and college rugby, and high school coaches need have access to the latest coaching tools and techniques.

Yanqui 400,000 new youth player's over the next 5 years. Wow, that is ambitious. But as it said USARugby would be well versed to use any funds recieved from the USOC into Youth Rugby and specifically Rookie Rugby.

Broadcasting rugby at some ungodly hour on an ESPN channel won't have an effect. It's one of those things that looks good on paper (like player numbers.) For rugby to take off in the States, it has to happen at collegiate level and they'll have to tackle the semi-pro problem better than Japan have done. Yanqui's posts on the matter were excellent. A while back, I posted that article interviewing the coach of the most successful college team in America, who was angry that other colleges didn't take their rugby programs seriously. Like most expansion talk, the reality is years and years away from happening -- if at all. The Olympics may help, but if we're being honest, international team sports have never really interested the Americans to the extent that they do Europeans or members of the Commonwealth. There's no real guarantee that it will take off, but the administrators are hardly going to admit that.

Sam, that's correct. rugby is not an NCAA sport, which is the organization that governs nearly all collegiate sport. Men's rugby may NEVER be an NCAA sport. Women's has a much better chance, as there needs to be gender equity in collegiate sport. Since there is no Women's equivalent to gridiron, rugby may be a good fit. There's an initiative now, through USA Rugby, but my understanding is that, like all of their other initiatives, it's not well run or well supported. If Women's rugby could get their foot in the door, it could open avenues for Men's rugby - who knows. But, rugby doesn't necessarily need to be an NCAA sport to gain university support. A sport can be "varsity", without being an NCAA sport, which would mean that the sport is supported by the Athletics Department, but not governed by the NCAA body - could be a good thing, who knows? By way of the comparison I mentioned in my first post, my university's Athletic Department budget was $55mm this year, where the ARU operating expenses last year were $79mm. I know it's not an apples:apples comparison, but that gives you an idea of the scale in which University athletics operate on here in the US -- I don't think a lot of people outside the US understand that -- and that's just ONE university out of hundreds, and not the top end of the scale, either. Another example - the university signed a $45mm sponsorship deal with Nike. Big numbers. If rugby could even get a foot in that realm, and get some support for well-run competitions, access to the world-class athletic training and development facilities around the country, scholarships, proper training and playing facilities -- the whole game changes. As for the 7's team, they have beaten England, Samoa, Fiji, Australia, and (I think) New Zealand in the past. They made the semifinal of the Cup competition (last year or the year before), and became a "core" team. Just not consistent results, and they don't seem to perform well until the later tournaments on the circuit. That tells me that the playing and coaching talent is there - just need more time together in a professional daily training environment. It's not all doom and gloom -- as I mentioned, and someone else mentioned (Rookie Rugby, the grassroots are strong and growing -- they just need more "fertilizer" from the administration. They're predicting 400,000 new youth players over the next five (?) years - if they achieve even 25% of that, the future brightens significantly.

Sam USARugby have been using a development program called "Rookie Rugby" which will reach more than 130,000 American children this year. USARugby would be very wise to use any funds and exposure recieved to expand this program aswell as promote Rugby in High School as the perfect off season sport to compliment American Football/ Basketball etc. They should also use this opportunity to push ESPN who now own the rights to quite alot of European Rugby to broadcast the game in the States.

I've got a couple of questions you may be able to answer. I heard somewhere that rugby is not an NCAA sport in America, and that this is a major hurdle to it being run through the uni, and not the clubs? The second thing I heard was that the reason it's not an NCAA sport is that to be one it needs a womens equivalents, and that womens rugby is considered the equivalent to American Football? In which case isn't rugby a bit screwed? How are they supposed to have a womens equivalent when theirs is taken by another sport?

I'm not going to made bold predictions about US rugby, but I am going to keep an open mind. From what little I know, one of the problems the sport has had in the past is that people don't start playing until they are at university. So they are peaking as players much later than say NZers or French players who start at a young age. By the sounds of things, the playing numbers at school level are increasing significantly, so maybe things will start to change if they can get players participating at school. Looks like USA Rugby is focusing on school participation rather than grand schemes like professional leagues - this is probably a good thing. Second point is that I saw USA beat England in the Adelaide Sevens a couple of years ago. Was pretty exciting and they had a lot of crowd support (as you'd expect against England). Just proves that they can beat the big boys at sevens, although clearly they are far from consistent. I think people need to keep an open mind, however there is no harm being positive and optimistic about things though.

I would say, if anything, American rugby is OVERestimated. I wish I had a dollar for every false dawn of "sleeping giant awakening" story. If only they were true... First, the playing numbers alone aren't the real story. The growth in the youth and high school numbers are the bright spot, and what people should be talking about as a precursor to the game's growth. Also, I don't know what you consider "semi-pro", but there are only handfuls of players in the US getting paid to play. Sure, some get a job and a flight, and maybe a place to stay free of rent, but that's the level of what we're talking about. The vast majority actually pay quite a bit out of their own pocket to play the game. Secondly, the Olympics is an -opportunity- for the game to grow. Nothing more than that. The opportunity can easily be squandered by mismanagement or short-sightedness. For the game to truly achieve it's potential in the US, a number of things need to happen: * On the elite 7's level, the players need to be contracted and train together on a full-time basis. Assembling the week before a leg of the IRB 7's does not enable the Eagles to compete with full-time, dedicated 7's professionals. Trying to hold a job while training and traveling to assemblies and tournaments doesn't not allow the Eagles to be the best they can be. The coach and players are extremely dedicated, and good at what they do - but they're at a disadvantage right out of the gates. I could say the same about the 15s Eagles, but there's a whole host of other challenges around that version of the game. Success at 7's can be achieved quicker and with less resources. * The current administration has to go. A ineffective CEO and an ineffective Chairman running a secretive and ineffective Board are barriers to success at this point. They have a top-down focus, based on the "Commonwealth model" that is hindering the potential growth in the country. * Varsity model, not Commonwealth model - The Commonwealth model of academies, age-grade systems, etc. work well in other countries. Not in the US. for a sport to be successful here, it must be integrated into the varsity model -- schools and universities. The US has (in my opinion) the best overall nursery of sport in the world - the high school and university varsity system. There are virtually no sports that are successful on a large scale here that are not operating in this mode. I'm sure there are exceptions (perhaps for individual participant sports), but not in team sports. They might as well not even exist if they're not in the varsity system. "But rugby is played in universities!" you say. Wrong. Rugby is played as a club sport - run by the student activities council, along with paintball and frisbee golf. The "real" sports are run by the Athletics Department. At my university, a mid-large university with a successful athletics program, the revenue would rival the ARU (hmmmm, I may do some research and find an actual comparison). The men's basketball coach makes more than John O'Neill, Robbie Deans, and Matt Giteau combined. I know that sounds like an exaggeration, but just look up the salaries of top Uni coaches in the US. When rugby is accepted as a varsity sport in US universities, we will see real growth. * Supporting youth rugby - right now, youth rugby is essentially a grassroots effort, with little support from USA Rugby. Despite that, or perhaps because of that, it's the largest growth area for rugby in the US, as far as playing numbers. If a reasonable percentage of these kids continue on through high school and into uni, we will see real growth of the game. Imagine what would happen with a little funding and support? * Coaching -- the coach development program in the USA is poor, and many of these players, from youth to Uni, are quite simply poorly coached. We must develop our coaches as much as we develop our athletes. There are many dedicated coaches out there whose hearts and heads are in the right places, but they're just not equipped to do the job. Given the right tools and training, many of them could become excellent coaches and mentors. I'm not saying that all of these things have to happen for rugby to be successful in the US, or for the US to be an Olympic contender. But these are some of the obstacles. Some can be rectified just by a regime change, and some will take a monumental effort, and most will take years. I truly hope that we will achieve the potential that the world sees for the game in the US -- but I've seen too many false dawns to get caught up in the hype just yet. Go Eagles!

Jecker OJ is a Kiwi living in Japan.

Ohtani's jacket - it occurs to me that you may not be a Kiwi but Japanese - I did some work sometime back for Osaka Ohtani U - but I gathered from your posts in the past that you were from the land of the LWC . Anyway, you're living in a great country. Maybe the national rugby team isn't as good at the ABs, but you have much better cooking.

Anopinon - I don't have the 17s, 18s or 19s results to hand, but you sound like you live in the States so give USA Rugby a call at 303-539-0300 and they'll be happy to help you out. Bare in mind that Nigel Melville hopes to get hundreds of athletes to try out for the sevens team who are not now playing rugby but are involved in some other sport that requires speed and fitness. With the chance of becoming an Olympian, he shouldn't have much trouble.

And this means no progress has been made??

Jeff Demps... now he is quick. Nice to see him on a 7s field. Some footage of his college games. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0WTealUOBU

he also got extra perks from Monica in the Oval Office... but that hasn't lead to a rush of guys choosing politics as a career... what Bill does, doesn't reflect what the rest of the US will do.

The NRL was available on Spike TV (well the finals and the run in). Looks like they will pick up the rights to continue to show one of the Friday night games next season.

I live in Japan, so I know enough about two tier rugby to know when people are being misled.

Jecker, Since you have been watching the high school and college level, you will have followed the progress of the u17, u18 and u19 US National Teams. Can you please provide us with the results of their fixtures over the last 5 years? As these will be the guys going to Rio. They must be doing very well.