Major League Rugby

[Puja]

I am concerned about it because America really only has brainspace for one code of rugby - they already get confused between the two as can be seen by the pre-match press for the USA vs NZ game referencing the RLWC. League may be starting from a distance back, but they have the advantage of some rich backers, the world cup in North America, the fact that it's a lot easier to have success in international league than union, and also, and probably most importantly, that USAR are utterly, utterly incompetent.

It makes it even more paramount that MLR gets off to a good start next year, cause once one code becomes the professional game in the States, I don't see the other one being able to come back from it.

Puja

[rowan]

That's pretty much the opposite to my take on it, but there you are...

[Puja]

I suppose on the flip side, if there's no local team for league fans to go to, then you could be right and the RLWC could just be a benefit to union if the infrastructure is there. More reason why it's important that MLR does not fail.

Austin Elite have held a combine, which is promising: https://www.florugby.com/articles/60143 ... ld-combine

Puja

[rowan]

I think it's like American football or Canadian football to them. Just a case of watching one where the other's not available, but we all know which is the mainstream variety when push comes to shove. Let the 13-man-code raise the profile of the general rugby concept and when MLR's ready to make a proper go of things the Yankee viewing audience will hardly know the difference.

[rowan]

Meanwhile I see USA international loose forward Andrew Durutalo has signed for an English club. This is what the North Americans should be aiming for in the short term - to get all of their international players involved in professional rugby somewhere. That's been the key to the Pacific Islands' success, of course, and to a lesser extent Georgia's as well. It was also the basis of Argentina's strength before they gained their own Super Rugby franchise in order to keep top players at home for the SANZAR competitions. Obviously in a nation as vast and economically powerful as the US you'd ultimately want to develop a pro league which would keep top players a thome as well, but until that actually comes about players like Durutalo should be encouraged to pursue their opportunities abroad.

[rowan]

Week 0 results in the GRU Men's Division 3 competition:
Alpharetta 27 - Old White 27
*This match was moved by agreement of the clubs and counts towards the 2017-18 league standings.
Standings:
Alpharetta 0-0-1 3pts
Old White 0-0-1 3pts
Bucks 0-0-0
Athens 0-0-0
Renegades 0-0-0
Augusta 0-0-0
Columbus 0-0-0
Gwinnett 0-0-0
High Country 0-0-0
NARC 0-0-0
Savannah 0-0-0
Next match scheduled is Bucks @ AOW on 11-11-2017

[rowan]

A novel idea:



All in all, having a "Champions League" of regional select sides is a win-win if you can overcome the money issue (which is very difficult to overcome). The politics of club and college rugby are never easy and there will be pushback but for some clubs it might be a fantastic way of getting their players more coverage and might be worth it. It would certainly be worth it from a national team perspective and if the Eagles hope to climb out of Tier II status at some point they are going to need to try something new.

Possible Pools

West: NorCal, SoCal, Pacific Northwest, College/Junior All-Americans West

Central: Frontier, Red River, Midwest, Mexico (they might be willing to pay for travel)

East: Northeast, Mid-Atlantic, South, College/Junior All-Americans East

*Top two from each pool and the top two third place teams make the 8 team playoff that lasts three rounds (quarterfinals, semi-finals, final)

http://www.thisisamericanrugby.com/2017 ... ref=fb&m=1

[rowan]

Report in the Guardian:

Major League Rugby, a new US professional men’s rugby union competition, will kick off in seven cities in April.

The league earned attention this month when it announced a TV deal with CBS Sports. Less visibly, according to multiple sources close to the project, a New York team preparing for entry in season two counts UFC star Conor McGregor among potential investors.

In August, McGregor lost to former boxing world champion Floyd Mayweather in a Las Vegas megafight that earned him a minimum $30m. The New York team is evidently thinking big: John “JBL” Layfield, a former WWE wrestler now involved in rugby development in Bermuda, is already attached to the project. Representatives for McGregor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MLR has a done deal to herald: CBS said it will show “a 13-game package with 10 weeks of regular-season coverage … and two weeks of postseason, including the semifinals and the first MLR Championship Game”. A source said MLR will be shown in a primetime slot on Saturday nights although the exact channel and platform is yet to be confirmed.

MLR commissioner Dean Howes told the Guardian: “Across all media in the US there is a growing awareness of rugby, an appetite just because the game has an ongoing clock, it has a great deal of appeal, it’s constant action.”

NBC shows the Aviva Premiership, sevens and collegiate rugby and has signed for the Six Nations and World Cup. Major broadcasters are in. The question now is whether viewers are too.

“I think what has not yet been proven in the US,” Howes said, “is can we make rugby relevant to the sports media market. And that’s going to take teamwork.”

Continues here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... r-mcgregor

[Puja]

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... r-mcgregor

Nice piece in the Guardian a few days back, although it confirms that Kansas City (MO) have dropped out, bringing the league down to 7 for 2018. It's a shame and an odd-numbered league isn't ideal, but maybe they'll use the off weeks to tour potential expansion teams.

New York is given a big puff in the article as a 2019 prospect, which'd be ideal to go against the league team. Given the number of union rugby teams in the city, you'd expect that the fans would likely go to a union team if there's a choice, whereas they might've gone to watch league for lack of other options. And you'd have to think playing places like San Diego and Austin would be more of a draw to an American audience than playing against Batley and Gateshead that Yankees would never have heard of. Plus a NY team would ward off the Pro 12 and their disastrous ideas of trans-Atlantic expansion.

All things told, sounds promising, although so did Pro when it started. Encouraged by the fact that expansion teams are already starting to organise themselves organically though. The proof will be in the crowd numbers.

The only down side is that the article mentions that it's not currently sanctioned by USAR, but since Pro Rugby's exclusive agreement runs until April 2018, and MLR starts the week after, you'd have to suspect that they're just going to wait till Pro expires and then sanction MLR the day after. Hopefully that'll stop Schoninger from ruining everything. I still have a lot of sympathy for him, but Pro is dead now and I want MLR to succeed.

Puja

[rowan]

Sounds a lot more practicable than Pro-Rugby, to be honest. Simplest solutions are often the best. They should have gone with something like this from the get-go.

[Puja]

In case anyone else is still reading this (and I'm not the only sad git who cares about US rugby), there's a bit more good news on the MLR front with the New York and Ontario expansion teams progressing beyond gossip to actual advanced negotiations about 2019 entry.

http://www.americasrugbynews.com/2017/1 ... gby-talks/

Ontario are already holding combines and signing up players from the Ontario Blues (which they've grown out of) and they have friendly fixtures lined up for next year against the Houston and Utah MLR sides as well as New York. New York are a bit further behind, with their only scheduled game so far being against Ontario, but they've got plenty of feeder clubs to get players from and apparently have a construction tycoon who will bankroll them.

With any luck that'll ward off the Pro 14 and give the poor people watching league in Toronto a real sport to go see.

Puja

[rowan]

Yeh, good news. But why set up a new club if the Wolfpack is already there, good-to-go, with home crowds quoted at 6K? Also, am I misreading this? and the inclusion of a Canadian team will make MLR the first multi-national North American professional domestic competition. Hockey & basketball are already multi-national - if having Canadian teams qualifies as "multi-national." Baseball too, I think. Probably only NFL isn't.Actually, "international" would be more accurate. Maybe some day a franchise in Mexico City will be viable, and then we can talk "multi-national" perhaps...

[Mellsblue]

I’m following, Puja. A New York team is good news if only because I can watch some live rugby when I visit my brother.

[rowan]

Schedule's out: https://www.usmlr.com/schedules/

[Puja]

I’m following, Puja. A New York team is good news if only because I can watch some live rugby when I visit my brother.

Thanks Mells - glad to know I'm not just talking to myself.

Major League Rugby have now officially announced their fixture lineup for 2018 and, with it, given final confirmation of the 7 teams definitely participating: Austin, Houston, Glendale, New Orleans, San Diego, Seattle, and Utah. Kansas City, Dallas, and Chicago are confirmed as having deferred their entries until TBC. and New York and Ontario are going to play friendlies this year with an eye on joining the league in 2019.

As predicted, it is starting on literally the first day after the Pro Rugby sanctioning agreement expires, so everything is being done above board (well, as close as USAR ever get). I still fear a lawsuit with be coming after that.

Puja

[rowan]

Major League Rugby '18 will feature 7 teams over a ten week schedule, that means 2 Bye Weeks per side, and then the season will culminate in a Semi-Final and Final. The season will begin on 21 April. The teams are:

Austin Elite Rugby-https://www.austineliterugby.com/
Glendale Raptors-http://www.glendaleraptors.com/
Houston Sabercats-https://houstonsabercats.com/
NOLA Gold-http://www.nolagoldrugby.com/
San Diego Legion-https://www.sdlegion.com/
Seattle Seawolves-http://www.seattleseawolves.com/
Utah Warriors-http://www.warriorsrugby.com/

Expansion teams look like Rugby Club New York, Ontario Arrows, Chicago Lions (or a team derived from them), and KC Blues (or a team derived from them).There is talks of a Boston team, Vancouver is likely to have a team in 2020, & a team in NorCal seems to be in the works .

Podcast- https://soundcloud.com/earfulofdirt, which covers Major League Rugby. 15 Episode tonight, also broadcasting a live show on youtube, usually Mondays at 10PM EST/7PM PST.

[rowan]

Good run-down on the teams here: https://djcoilrugby.com/2017/11/30/2018 ... gue-rugby/

[rowan]

Interesting development:

Representatives from North America Rugby Union LLC (also known as Pro Rugby) have failed to appear at three separate legal hearings related to unpaid employees, with the now defunct pro league losing one judgment and likely to lose two more.

In November, neither Pro Rugby CEO Douglas Schoninger nor his representatives or agents appeared at a Civil Court of the City of New York small claims hearing to answer the charge that NA Rugby Union LLC owed former employee Stephen Lewis over $2,000.

As a result, the case was ruled in favor of Lewis for just over $2,100.

https://www.florugby.com/articles/60549 ... t-hearings

[Puja]

Encouraging news all around for MLR:

1) Utah have signed USRL player and ex-NFL player Pio Vatuvei, to go along with about 3-4 others with NFL experience in their roster. Promising that MLR teams are attracting ex-American footballers which is the demographic that everyone thinks needs to be targetted for the USA to start thriving in rugby, and doubly promising to see league players crossing over to the better opportunity, rather than vice-versa. Bizarrely enough Utah say they're going to retrain Vatuvei as a prop (from a centre in league), which seems... brave.

2) Expansion teams are lining up. Ontario Arrows are playing a 6 game season in preparation for a 2019 entry, with 2 games against MLR sides Utah and Houston, and home and away fixtures against New York and Boston, who are also putting together expansion teams and will look to have a "season" worth of games to coincide with MLR. Kansas City, Chicago, and Dallas are all unofficially in for 2019 as all three deferred their entry due to not having facilities ready for a 2018 entry. There are also very credible rumours of a Vancouver team gearing up.

Even if some of those fall by the wayside, that's 12-14 teams and the likelihood of East and West conferences (which will make the league much more viable in terms of travel and time-zones). Beyond those, there are more rumoured rumours of interest from Calgary, San Francisco (who are apparently waiting for Pro Rugby's sanction to completely expire before making any moves), Atlanta, Florida and even Mexico City. Those names are in the order of likelihood though and I don't expect to see any of them for 2019.

3) Seattle Seawolves have sold 700 season tickets already in the first 4 days of them being available. I'd say MLR needs crowds of 2k to be taken seriously and preferably up near 3-4k, so that's a pretty impressive start.

4) Doug Schoninger of Pro Rugby and "See you in court" fame has actually failed to attend a court hearing relating to pay disputes from Pro Rugby. He lost in absentia and is having to pay. Bodes well for him not bankrupting USAR with lawsuits and it appears like the union may have got away scot-free from some pretty poor business dealings.

Puja

[rowan]

Yes, people sound very excited about this. Not sure what the big difference is and why they think it'll be a big success this time when, after all the hype and fanfare, their last two attempts at getting professional rugby off the ground crashed and burned. But good luck to them. When pro rugby really does kick in State-side, look out!

I was talking to an American colleague recently and he made the comment that rugby in the US was confined mostly to very elite schools. Strange, I've been there and actually watched rugby in Ohio and never had that impression. But if that is the case, it would be in line with most of the established rugby-playing nations, regrettably.

[Puja]

I’m following, Puja. A New York team is good news if only because I can watch some live rugby when I visit my brother.

New York team now officially confirmed as being in 2019.

Interesting quotes from the man in charge of RCNY in that article about turning down Pro14 and why MLR was a yes. He also name drops that Washington and Philadelphia are also looking at applying, so two more names to add to the maybe list. He does suggest that Boston aren't as far advanced as other rumours would have you believe, so they might be looking at 2020 instead.

Philadelphia's where Premiership Rugby hold their (currently pointless) annual US-based game, so that could help draw in a support to an expansion side (assuming that we don't inflict Saracens vs Newcastle on them again).

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Excellent news. Finally the Big Apple locals will get to see a proper contact sport rather than a bunch of pansies running around in padding. They won’t be there in time for my next trip but I’ll definately catch a game the following year.

[rowan]

Obviously it's a good thing, but they are really going to have to work for recognition at any level. The city already has not one but two teams in all the nation's major pro sports - NFL, basketball, baseball, hockey and even soccer - plus they have professional franchises in other team sports plus all the mainstream women's leagues, of course. So, while a team in the Big Apple is exciting, I don't think they should be looking at a mega-metro based league and ought to have at least half their clubs based in smaller cities (ie around the half million mark) not represented in mainstream pro sports - and there are plenty. That's where they'll get the recognition and devoted, long-term fan/player-base.

[rowan]

Interesting story:

Major League Rugby, a new US professional men’s rugby union competition, will kick off in seven cities in April.

The league earned attention this month when it announced a TV deal with CBS Sports. Less visibly, according to multiple sources close to the project, a New York team preparing for entry in season two counts UFC star Conor McGregor among potential investors.

In August, McGregor lost to former boxing world champion Floyd Mayweather in a Las Vegas megafight that earned him a minimum $30m. The New York team is evidently thinking big: John “JBL” Layfield, a former WWE wrestler now involved in rugby development in Bermuda, is already attached to the project. Representatives for McGregor did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

MLR has a done deal to herald: CBS said it will show “a 13-game package with 10 weeks of regular-season coverage … and two weeks of postseason, including the semifinals and the first MLR Championship Game”. A source said MLR will be shown in a primetime slot on Saturday nights although the exact channel and platform is yet to be confirmed.

Continues here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... r-mcgregor

[rowan]

& another from the Guardian (not sure whether the quote has been inverted deliberately):

“Rugby’s a game for gentlemen played by hoodlums,” says Calvin Gentry. “I play like a hoodlum.”

Gentry is the star of The Rugby Boys of Memphis, a very American film about a game invented in Britain and played around the world which screened at the Tribeca festival and is now available via Amazon Prime.

He underlines the point by putting a lower-case spin on the most famous team name in rugby. His high school, he says, has diversified the game in Tennessee simply by showing up to play – by “being an all black team”.

The film cuts rugby action with a tour of South Memphis, one of the most impoverished places in all the 50 states. A break down the blind side at the West Tennessee championships; a drive-by of a corner store where Gentry has seen “many people shot”. Broken-down buildings next to vacant lots; tackle practice on muddy ground at night, flying bodies floodlit by the full-beam lights of cars.

There is also the award of Gentry’s rugby scholarship to Arkansas State, the Varsity Cup finalists for whom he is now a powerful No8 forward.

“I honestly feel rugby saved my life,” he says.

Story continues here: https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/ ... vin-gentry