It’s been a revolutionary year for rugby in the United States, one that has seen the game leap forward into the future at a fantastic rate of knots.
While rugby has been steadily growing and developing a niche in the American sporting landscape for more than a decade, the last 18 months in particular has seen rugby experience unprecedented progress on the national scene.
NBC has become an integral partner in the promotion and growth of rugby as a viable commercial entity via its investment in the College Championship Invitational Sevens held in Columbus, Ohio, which, as of this season, will be re-located to Philadelphia and renamed the College Rugby Championship.
NBC has followed the very pleasing ratings success of the CCI Sevens with their agreement with the IRB to broadcast every World Cup pool games via their dedicated sports channel NBC Universal, and the finals live and in full on NBC proper. Furthermore, they are also investing a significant amount of time and resources into the upcoming Las Vegas IRB Sevens event where, for the first-time, rugby will be shown live into American homes as a premier sporting event.
These are incredibly exciting days for American rugby fans with the prospect of mass exposure creating a certain buzz unprecedented in rugby circles. However, perhaps even more significant, grassroots rugby in the States has seen enormous growth over the last six years, to the stage where the much lauded Collegiate Rugby structures have since been overtaken by a rapidly expanding high school scene.
Add to this a genuine push build junior participation and to greatly improve the lives of many disadvantaged American youth through rugby, the game has been increasingly finding itself in a very welcoming environment. One such movement of note would be the recently launched TRY Rugby program. This organisation endeavours to support rugby programs such as the Warthog Rugby Club in Oakland, where the coaches use rugby as a means to enhance the lives of their chargers, who all, without fail, face challenges foreign to many.
There’s an ever increasing quality of athlete emerging in American rugby via greater awareness. This seems set to continue with the establishment of the College Premier League. The whole concept grew legs early in 2010 and has snowballed into a movement that has drastically changed Collegiate Rugby in the United States. Previously Collegiate Rugby consisted as loosely strung together leagues. This movement has forcibly evolved Collegiate Rugby into defined conferences designed to replicate traditional sporting structures, something that many American rugby fans have been crying out to occur for years. As of 2012, there will be 16 geographical conferences alongside the CPL ushering in a new era for the College game. Encouragingly, ESPN has agreed to broadcast select games throughout the CPL season and the entire finals series culminated in the final to be held at Real Salt Lake’s Rio Tinto Stadium in Utah. It all kicks off on March 5.
Finally, it has been a tumultuous time for the Rugby Super League with the withdrawal of a number of the traditional powerhouses’ of the league. Ironically, these withdrawals have seen an incredibly competitive Southern California Division One emerge with the likes of Belmont Shore facing off against current champions Las Vegas.
The RSL has recently taken the steps toward potential reinvigorating the somewhat tired championship with the inclusion of the Utah Warriors. Entrepreneur Sean Whalen leads the new ‘franchise’ with the intention of creating at least initially via the commercial side of the administration the first professional rugby union club in the USA. A somewhat odd choice considering the likes of the Glendale Raptors, who have a fantastic facility sponsored by the City of Glendale, have been lobbying for inclusion for a few seasons now.
Utah appears to be the league test case for moving toward a far greater level of professionalism and will no doubt determine the future of the likes of Glendale and potentially Kansas City and Las Vegas. Both organisations, particularly Kansas City, with its recent move into the fold of the re-branded Sporting Kansas City MLS franchise and Las Vegas with their partnership with Clermont, are said to be watching Utah’s progress and success with an eye on the future. Moving toward more professional structures may not initially create a financially equitable league for players the importance of such movement are the first valuable steps toward building something of note.
As you can see, rugby has seen nothing short of phenomenal explosion of growth and exposure in the last 12-18 months, and while the emergence of the great ‘sleeping giant’ of world rugby may still be many years off, all the right moves appear to be happening as demonstrated with the involvement of NBC and the increasing presence of Americans achieving professional status in Europe.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
The new RSL franchise the Utah Warriors has their first hit out a couple of days ago defeating the University of Utah 59-19. Its a positive start to their existence as Utah are expected to perform well in the upcoming CPL and provide BYU their closest challenger in the Western Conference. Most impressively from the photos I have seen the look well prepared physically to really make a go of the upcoming RSL.
captain nemo
Roar Guru
my half a dozen or so times I have watched rugby in New York over the last few years, I was really impressed with the dedication of the clubs involved and the players. The times I have watched them,there was a good atmosphere , maybe a 1000 plus watching and a standard of Sydney 1st grade in subbies. I think there is definately a healthy base to develop the game. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPqdToF0n8w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUdRrcdfAnE&feature=related and this is a also a positive rugby story from the United States http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqMDXizcSt0&feature=related
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Some very good news regarding NBC's committment to Rugby. There had been some worries regarding the games broadcast future as Universal had been undergoing a merger with Comcast. The deal appears to have been done and the news for the game is very positive. As of immediately NBC Universal will be significantly expanding its coverage of Rugby in the United States to not only the Las Vegas IRB leg but the remaining 3 legs this season continuing on to the next. Furthermore, the College Rugby Championship and RWC broadcasts will be accompanied by full coverage of the upcoming Churchill Cup as well as the 3 additional Eagles Test matches against both Canada and Japan following soon after. Finally, to compliment their increased live coverage Universal will broadcast the IRB flagship show Total Rugby. Link below http://www.rugbyamerica.org/2011/02/06/universal-sports-channel-expands-rugby-coverage/#comment-451
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Just found a link to this article on Nigel Melville's blog. www.nmdirect.blogspot.com
NF
Guest
League is behind the eight ball everywhere the management and planning over the years have being down-right embarrassing.You would of thought when league broke away from union so long ago they would of have a vision, a plan to take league internationally and to have it match union internationally instead we had admin we sat on there hands and did absolute nothing for the game of league to take it outside it heartlands. It's a complete joke and embarrassing rugby league deserves so much better than the garbage admin and lack of vision over the past 100+ years.Harsh, but true league should of began planning to go international the moment it split from union but it stay idle doing jack all it's frustrating being a league supporter at times. All the best for rugby union aleast they have a vision and plan to move forward while league is backwards,insular,and incompetent admin ruins league.
djfrobinson
Guest
The US sporting market is built around the ability to advertise. 7's is the best fit for this since advertising can be carried out every 7 minutes or so in between games. This makes the format easier to pitch to the TV companies. still there are no grantee's :)
The Bush
Guest
That's pretty interesting. However I've often wondered why people make out that the 'simplicity' (I use that word relatively) of Rugby League would be an advantage in the American market? American Football would have to be one of the most complicated sports ever invented, yet it is easily the most popular sport in the United States. Baseball also is a fairly complicated sport once you get into it, especially with respect to all the statistics, but also in general play. In fact the two most simplistic sports in America, Basketball and Ice Hockey, are also (by most measures) the smallest. Could it be that the United States is actually one of the few places on earth where Rugby Union's 'complexity' could actually be an advantage, rather than a disadvantage (as most other country's sporting cutures are built on simple sports such as football and basketball and are thus turned off Rugby Union, at least initially)? I would love to know what the latest is on that NRLUS thing that was gonna lanuch last year or the year before. As Rugby Union's profile rises in the United States it is inevitable that Rugby League's will also and without the prejudice that exists in other regions it will be interesting to compare growth rates (though Rugby League may simply be too far behind the eight ball, possibly).
kovana
Guest
IMO... League is also much more marketable to Americans due to the similar tackle rule to American football and it being less constrained by rules like rugby. By all means league should have a much bigger profile then rugby in America.
captain nemo
Roar Guru
well done Kevin
captain nemo
Roar Guru
over the last 10 years or so, I have probably got to the States about once every month or so (mostly east and West coast, not so much in the mid). One thing I have noticed is the general awareness of rugby has increased somewhat within the circles I have moved in when in the US. This is not to say for a moment that it is a shadow of American football, hockey, basketball or baseball and a myriad of other sports. My personal rugby experiences in the US have been quite enjoyable, playing against the USMC and US Navy in Honolulu in the early 90's seems like a lifetime ago, they were big boys but not so great at scrummaging, now on the sideline I have watched a few games over the last couple of years in NY, mostly NY Old Blues home games, they seem to be pretty good, about Sydney subbies first grade on a good day!!! (few Brisbane boys and the odd Kiwi) but their technical skills were far better than when I played against US military sides. The one bonus Rugby has is that it has a common field shape to American football gridiron fields. This is a huge plus. I had an interesting conversation last year with a bloke from Seattle in San Fran (while watching Stanely cup) at a bar called Knuckles sports bar at Fishermans Wharf. Hearing I had an Aussie accent, he asked me do I prefer rugby or league?? I said rugby and asked him what the difference was?? After telling me he believed league was the most marketable sport in the US from a scratch position if it was developed right because he said it was as dynamic as American football and simpler to follow on TV and would suite American viewers and media. I asked this bloke had he ever been to Australia, answer NO. I realise talking to one punter in a bar means zero, however 10 years ago that conversation would not of occurred.
Kevin Sullivan
Guest
7s is the path of American rugby. Fast, Hard and perfect for TV. Don't need a big number of players to get a team together, low level of equipment (Ball, field, maybe a mouthguard, or gumshield....). I'll say it here. The US will Medal in 2016.
Kevin Sullivan
Guest
I coach the U8s. It's the BEST.TIME.EVER. (Find Kevin Sullivan on FB, and check out the pics.) We had over 125 kids playing Rugby last Sunday. Two years ago, it was only 30 on the HS (U19s) team.
p.Tah
Guest
What a great title for the documentary. The IRB have a great article on their website on US 7s and what the NBC deal means. http://www.irbsevens.com/columnist/newsid=2041418.html#us+sevens+coach+nbc+very+deal You get a feeling that something big is brewing in the US.
D
Guest
check this out regarding rugby in the USA http://www.agiantawakens.com/
p.Tah
Guest
GavinH, it's not simple, but you've explained it simply... Thank you! It makes a lot more sense now
GavinH
Guest
p. Tah, below is my understanding of how it works (i'm also not from the US) In most US College sports a university will belong to a particular conference. Eg the SEC (Southeastern Conference) contains 12 big universities. These universities then play each other across several sports eg Am Football, Basketball, Baseball, Althletics, Soccer, Tennis, Volleyball etc This means that students, alumni, local residents near a university: 1) recognise the SEC as a brand and are very familiar with the 12 constituent universities 2) have traditional rivalries within the conference from many years of match ups 3) 'leverage' rivalries from one sport to another eg if there is a big football rivalry then the basketball or volleyball match up between those two universities can be marketed as having a bit more 'sting' Note that all the NCAA sports at a university are funded together by the university's Athletics Department. This means that eg profit from football is used to pay for coaches and facilities for eg volleyball and athletics. Lets look at another example: SEC - Univ Alabama Stadium - 101,000 Revenue - $102 mill Expenses - $31 mill Profit - $41 mill So Alabama made a $41 mill excess (2009) from its football team that can be used to fund other NCAA sports. As rugby is not NCAA at Alabama it does not receive any of the funding (i think). Rugby also has conferences but these are unique to rugby and are not related to the 'traditional' conferences like SEC, Pac 10 etc. Therefore for most casual sports fans the rugby conferences and the head to head games are very confusing. So why doesn't rugby align its conferences with the 'traditional' ones i hear you ask? Well short answer is that it is starting to. Eg the SEC schools that play rugby have got together to form an SEC rugby conference. Some of the SEC schools might not play rugby (at least not seriously) but the idea is that once there is an SEC rugby conference it will be a big incentive for remaining SEC schools to start a serious rugby programme ie with pro coaches, scholarships for good players etc. There is already a new Ivy League conference with harvard, yale, dartmouth etc that aligns all the traditional rivalries is sport and otherwise of the 'ivy league' universities. BUT, before all these 'traditional' conferences do or do not happen the top rugby universities have decided they need a decent competition now. So they have created the CPL, which is a simple as taking the best [32] rugby colleges (and only the ones that WANT to be in an elite comp), splitting them into 4 geographic pools, and then having play offs at the end of the season to create a national champion. Note that: 1) the CPL teams can still play one-off annual traditional match ups outside of the CPL tournament 2) the old Div 1, Div 2 etc rugby conferences continue exactly as before but they don't contain the CPL teams and div 1 is effectively the second tier competition (like having premiership and then championship in UK soccer and rugby) The good thing about the CPL is that the standard of competition in each of the 4 conferences should be higher than previous years and therefore attract more national attention eg from ESPN which is broadcasting some games. The negative of the CPL is it does not pick up the easy 'low hanging fruit' of piggybacking off the traditional rivalries and well understood (although often complicated) NCAA conference system. Simple huh?
Working Class Rugger
Guest
I may hold you up to that Kev. Depending on committments I should be there around January next year.
Working Class Rugger
Guest
Thanks mate. I do try, just glad you enjoyed it.
p.Tah
Guest
By the way WCR. congrats on this article and the south American one. They're a great read. Top work.
p.Tah
Guest
I completely agree with you Kevin about the development of US rugby thru the scholastic system, what I struggle to understand is the direction of the collegiate level. There seems to be so many conflicting ideas. It probably has more to do with my lack of understanding of the structures of college sport (despite living in the US for a while) DI, DII etc levels. I try to follow it on varsityrugby.org and rugbymag.com but I guess I just have to do some more reading.