What should USA rugby do to make rugby union professional?

Question

What should USA rugby do to make rugby union professional?

Answer 1

get good at it!

Answer 2

I agree.. it needs to build up from the amateur leagues first.

NFL players may have too many 'bad habits' built up to convert into 'world class' players by the time they leave college. A kid need to be instinctive on a rugby to compete at the top level, this only comes from being nurtured at say age 8-10.

It would be great for rugby though, i'm sure all American would love the sport seeing as it is a quicker-toughed up version of NFL.

Eddie O'Sullivan did his best out there for years!

Answer 3

Professional rugby starts with popularity at amateur level. Learn from the top rugby countries and see how they treat their lowest level club competitions. It is often a family affair with loyalty to a club. That leads to interest at a higher representative level. Get age group rugby going. At the clubs, teams can start at a pre-school age.

Answer 4

Good question my friends play for the Detroit Tradesmen Rugby club.

Answer 5

They would need to figure out how to generate capital so that they can attack Americans by surprise with a killer marketing campaign, to generate more capital and start doing it BIG.  Offering their players more incentive to participate, also recruiting football players that are not making it to the NFL out of college and offering them ca$h money to learn the rules and come play.

Answer 6

Consolidate all the semi-pro teams into 10 franchised super teams. (4 in Eastern Conference, 3 in Central Conference and 3 in a Western Conference).

Sign a couple of big name players from overseas (Maybe an All Black or Aussie).

Use existing semi-pro teams as feeder clubs, with a pre-season draft like in American Football, Basketball and MLS.

Get 2-3 big-name sponsors to cover all the teams.

Create a league where the winner gains entry to a prestige tournament like Super 14 or Heineken Cup.

Strike a deal with a major network or satellite provider for full coverage of all games. PPV would be good for cup games (Pay per view would be an option for US customers - this is where revenue would be generated, overseas viewers would get free coverage).

Finally create a home stadium which would help with US Rugby marketing in the same way as Twickenham is to the RFC or Murrayfield is to the SRU.

Answer 7

Make it spectator friendly.  Ever been to a super league game? No bloody toilets, concession stands etc.  Treat spectators the right way, instead of a nuisance.

Answer 8

I agree with dog - and as a British rugby player playing and coaching in France who has spent most of his life supporting Rugby first and Scotland second, I have to say that I've always been a little dissappointed by North America's slow reaction to the growth of this global sport.

I think too much emphasis is put on selling Rugby Union to the american people as whenever this is discussed the answer, such as the one above, tends to be "we've already got gridiron, we don't need another contact sport". This just goes to show the lack of understanding at grass roots level as although I've never played much American Football, it's a totally different sport and I'm certain the two could exist in conjunction.

Nigel Melville now holds a position in the American Rugby Union which is excellent news for you guys as he's taken clubs from near ruin to the top as well as having experience on the field and in the boardroom.

You're right that the solution is to get other nations involved and to design a working strategy to get rugby on the scene in the US - fortunately for the rest of us though unfortunately for the sport, I don't think that's going to happen for at least another 15 years.

Answer 9

Pay the players....that works in most sports ;)

Answer 10

why would we need a pro rugby leauge? we've already taken rugby and turned it into a much better and more exciting game called football.

Answer 11

They need to start looking into being televised.  Without basic coverage of a sport and major sponsorships from large corporations it will never be bigger.  They also need to look into hosting a world cup and actually compete at a high level.  Look at professional soccer, it didn't get big until we hosted and had some success in the world cup.

Answer 12

OK, here you are....

In order to even try to make rugby a pro sport in America you need outside support. And when I say this I mean outside of America. There needs to be leadership within the USA Rugby Union (and there is one) that is willing to go to the IRB (International Rugby Board), England, Australia, New Zealand, France etc... And ask for help. This is not about pride, but experience and money. These Unions have it and we do not. As a player/coach/director of several teams from PA all the way to CA, the one thing I have noticed is that we depend on our players to support us. Most of the people that play rugby do not have the capital to give to a team in order for it to succed that way and make it popular.

The idea about ex NFL/ non drafted college football players is a good one. They understand some of the basics of a contact sport, but as a former college rugby coach, I can tell you that they are some of the hardest to teach. The rules on vital things are so different ( tackling, getting tackled, blocking, kicking and even handleing the ball) Also, rugby is not a specialised skills game, everyone needs to know how to do everything, and play both ways. It can be done, but starting at the grassroots level would be more benificial through the long term.

And in the last 6-8 years this has begun to pick up. Rugby is one of the fastest growing highschool and college sport in america.

That leads me back to capital. You need money, and very very few in America are willing to invest the money in this sport. No matter that it has the 3rd largest sporting event in the world, the Rugby World Cup. (after the Olympics and Soccer World Cup). In the 2003 RWC, more people watched the lowest rated game than the highest rated Super Bowl.

Japan did just this, and they lost out on holding the next RWC by a single vote to New Zealand ( a country with over a 100 years of rugby tradition) JAPAN!!! they haven't been playing it on a world scale as long as we have. But they got smart and went to those countries and asked for their help.

All we have to do is ask, and we could be a rugby world power, we have the athletes, we just need the experience.