What would the exact steps in starting up a new mens rugby club?

Question

We are already part of a club. But we want to branch off from them. They are more of a social club and we want to be more competitive. Our average age is about 21. We would have a field already. I just dont know what else i should do to get this thing going.

Answer 1

I started a club when I was 22 (7 years ago) and it's thriving today with 50 members for around 30 regulars. We only have one fist team but frequently go to sevens tournaments throughout Europe with three, sometimes four squads of ten to twelve.

The first thing you need to do is find out what leagues you're eligible to play in. You can do this very easily by contacting your union. http://www.irb.com/unions/index.html

They will give you all the help and advice you need in order to get subscribed to play in a league.

Alternatively you could look into joining the league of the team you're currently breaking away from. This could make for interesting matches and would possibly provide you with a good training platform. Don't expect to be playing proper competitive rugby against quality teams too soon. Go for something simple. In France they have a Folklore League in which social and university based teams compete. The standard is variable but it's an excellent start and costs virtually nothing to be subscribed to this league. Think about joining a corporate league also. Smaller companies playing in corporate leagues can't expect to have 22 rugby players from the same company so if you have even a couple of guys working for the same company in your team then think about approaching that company and asking them if you could represent them in the corp. league. Get your first season or two under your belt and then start bugging them for new kit, a heated pitch and a yearly tour to Fiji!

In France, where I set up my club with friends, you have to have a license to play in a league. This may also require each member of your squad to have a medical certificate. If one of the players in my side doesn't have a license then the state doesn't pay their medical fees and even something seemingly as basic as a dislocated finger, let alone shoulder, can end up costing the individual a fortune as not only will they have to foot the medical bills, but private insurance plans do not apply when players are not licensed to play. And rightly so - it's a contact sport.

You're going to have to charge the team members some kind of administrative fee at the beginning of the season (unless you happen to have the son of the CEO of Google in your team and they happen to want to sponsor you) in order to cover administrative costs / team insurance. To give you an indication, this cost amounts to minimum one hundred euros (roughly one hundred dollars) per year.

The hardest part in forming a club is getting a field. You say you have one - that's like gold dust and makes your job so much easier in starting a team. Renting a ground costs an absolute fortune.

My advice really is to contact your Union. Be organized, learn as much as you can from the IRB website before contacting them and go for it. It's not that difficult, the hardest part is getting the guys out of their beds on Saturday mornings when it's snowing.

Good luck and may the force be with you.

Answer 2

Are you in the US? Anyway if not I guess it would still be something like this: You need to get somewhere to play, a field or permission to use it; I think you need to form a committee ie. have a president; secretary; treasurer; board of directors (3 or more) manager... basically most can just be players voted among yourself. Then you probably need to register with your municipality as a sport team (go ask them at the courthouse what the procedure is) ...also all this may be neccessary in order to be able to get sponsors or donations from local businesses, or individuals. And I think you need to also register with US Rugby (or whatever your country's rugby board is)  ...Oh and maybe get a team name, like ' Gainesville Rugby Football Club'.

Anyway, I would just kind of guess it should be something like this, I do not know for sure.

hey call up another club far away and speak to someone there and ask how they did it.

Good luck, bro.