Do you think if US rugby starts winning top teams more people might play?

Question

Do you think if US rugby starts winning top teams more people might play?

Answer 1

If they had to start playing against Australia New Zealand England South Africa and do more traveling then maybe the people will support more.

Answer 2

If they won more, and it was played on TV then yeah there would be a surge of more players joining up. Look how many women started playing soccer after the success of Mia Hamms team. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on your point of view, its not a big money sport for the US, so chances of them actually diverting attention away from football and baseball etc arent very high.

Answer 3

All of the above are true except for the simpler games.  The reason we tend to what we tend to is our media.  If it is not televised, we will not know or care about it.  Rugby is not all that complicated to watch, I have explained the game to several of my relatives in 10-15 mins and thay have had a great time watching games.  

I have to agree that the whole western hemisphere needs to start playing in major tournaments which include top international teams to beging to play at that level.  The problem is, who wants to be the coach that starts it and looses every game they play for like 2 - 5 years until we begin to play at thet level.

The atheletes are here, America has pleanty of superb athletes, but the question becomes, "if I am such a superb athlete, why play something that doesn't pay when I could make millions of dollars playing something else?"  That seems like it's a no-brainer!

I think if the Us starts playing top teams as it is, less people will play.  Who is going to support our top players and their families while they are traveling around the world to play rugby on their vaction (because they are not getting paid to play).  who can afford to leave their job and let their wife pay all of the bills to play rugby.  

Not to mention the fact that loosing a whole bunch of games has never been a great motivator for me to do anything.

The best hope we have for rugby in the US is to start byn pushing 7s.  SImply put, there is more room for commercials and more to seee if you do not understand the game.  Then once people begin to understand the game from there you can introduce Union to the public.

The key is the players are going to have to see money in it.  Get the media coverage to raise the money and pay the players to play sevens and it will grow in the US.

Answer 4

I have over the years met a lot of American Rugby players AND THEY WERE HUGE one guy swapped my forward jersey for his scrum half top and it nearly drowned me! They all told me that once more people in the US who are naturally gifted at Rugby stop being bought by American Football teams, they will start to do well. If Rugby gains popularity in the US I predict they will dominate the sport for years.

Answer 5

its a catch 22 USA win games they get more people interested in playing. to beat big teams they need a bigger pool of players!

Answer 6

Money makes the world turn round! As soon as they start making rugby pro. in the US, then it will pick up big time.

Answer 7

Doubtful.  Americans will lean trowards American Games, simply because they are less complex.  The rules are easier to grasp.  They're also in American Measurements.  Not Metric System like Rugby.

U.S.A could wil the Web Ellis and all it would get is a 2 minute slot on SportsCenter.

Plus,  People are interested in what they see on television, and you will never see U.S. Rugby on a major network such a NBC or CBS or even FOX.  Because there is no commercials.  Rugby is a non-stop game which is also why Major League Soccer isn't shown.  The games go on and on and you don't time to break for a commerical.

Answer 8

At the moment i don't think so maybe in the next decade or so due the popularity of American Football and Basketball. Surprisinly i have heard that there are alot of intrested people playing rugby in the states. You have the support, what the USA Rugby team lacks in is International Games to really gauge themselves in the international arena. The USA did very well in the last world cup almost beating Fiji a nation ranked in the top ten.

Answer 9

The USA has more rugby clubs than Australia & NZ combined.

If the USA were to ever get serious about rugby, I'm pretty confident they'd be more than capable of winning a World Cup. The sheer physical attributes of the African Americans would be a definite plus - look at the All Blacks for example, the Pacific Islanders & Maoris are built to play rugby!!!