record attendances<\/a> in recent seasons. On championship weekend in Rhode Island, roughly 2,000 fans attended the gameday FanFest in a market with no team (although the Free Jacks are admittedly just down the road in Quincy, MA).<\/p>\nPart of the reason for bringing the final to Rhode Island was to expose another market to rugby. Benson said that the league \u201chad an open bid process,\u201d receiving \u201cexpressions of interest from 20-plus cities,\u201d and that Pawtucket, RI, simply made the most sense.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s all about getting into new places,\u201d Benson told me. \u201cWe want to get into a market where we haven\u2019t been. You want to expose new people to the sport…you\u2019re building your audience, you\u2019re building a fandom, you\u2019re engaging new people from a business perspective and from a fan perspective.\u201d<\/p>\n
It is MLR\u2019s objective of consistent growth over time that attracted Free Jacks co-founder Alex Magleby to the competition. Magleby played rugby, coached the USA men\u2019s 7s and Dartmouth rugby, pioneered technology in the game, and served as USA Rugby Performance Director before helping establish the Free Jacks back in 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I left USA Rugby, what really excited me about Major League Rugby was its structure,\u201d Magleby told me at the championship weekend FanFest. \u201cIt was very much a central model that had a long-term vision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Magleby believes that aside from the ferocious action on the field, which will always attract people who seek sporting thrills, it is the human element and the fan experience that attracts new fans to rugby in the U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can have fans come on the field after the game,\u201d says Magleby. \u201cThat\u2019s just the nature [of the league] because we have accessible players. So they\u2019re going to sign autographs all night if they have to, because they love the kids and they\u2019re highly accessible.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Free Jacks have signed partnerships with local craft breweries, and serve local food and have local DJs come play at their games. Even though they may have fans tuning in to watch them from the South Pacific to South Africa, the stadium experience is \u201chyper-local\u201d according to Magleby.<\/p>\n
There is a space for all demographics, from toddlers to grandmothers and everything in between. Magleby says, the Free Jacks focus on the experience because it\u2019s what they can control. \u201cThe on-field product of rugby is beautiful and fantastic,\u201d notes Magleby, \u201cbut it often requires us to bring people in in a way they weren\u2019t suspecting.\u201d<\/p>\n
There is still some distance to cover before the U.S. men\u2019s teams can compete consistently with the likes of New Zealand, South Africa, or England, but MLR is helping close the gap while creating a more talented player pool.<\/p>\n
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – FEBRUARY 16: Chad London of the Colorado Raptors watches Ma’a Nonu of the San … More Diego Legion pass during the Major League Rugby Vegas Weekend at Sam Boyd Stadium on February 16, 2020, in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Stuart Walmsley\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Getty Images<\/p>\n
Stars in the twilight of their career, like Ma\u2019a Nonu, Matt Giteau, and Andy Ellis, have all graced MLR fields, but slowly those names are being replaced with younger ones, many of them local. As the league continues to grow, salaries and the competition level have become high enough to attract players from rugby hotbeds.<\/p>\n
Perhaps MLR\u2019s biggest selling point is its on-field parody. Despite the Free Jacks winning three straight championships, every league match hangs in the balance until the 80th minute. \u201cWe didn\u2019t know who was going to be in the playoffs and who was going to be hosting until the last game was played. That\u2019s what you want,\u201d says Benson.<\/p>\n
With things beginning to move in the right direction, the age-old conversation in rugby circles has begun to resurface: Is the U.S. rugby\u2019s sleeping giant?<\/p>\n
With the 2028 Olympics in L.A., and the 2031 and 2033 men\u2019s and women\u2019s Rugby World Cups coming to American shores, progress remains necessary. Consistency of performance, consistent attendances, and consistent growth of the fanbase will be key to unlocking the American market and player pool.<\/p>\n
Thanks to the creation of Women\u2019s Elite Rugby <\/a>(WER), there is now a credible talent pipeline for American women interested in rugby in the U.S. On the men\u2019s side, MLR continues to build momentum and offer high-level playing opportunities in new locations.<\/p>\n\u201cI think there\u2019s no better way to grow a market than to have a team in that market,\u201d says Benson. \u201cIt\u2019s about creating critical mass for the sport. It\u2019s about being in the right market, in the right building, with the right owner.\u201d<\/p>\n
With footprints on both coasts of the U.S. and along the southern rim, MLR is casting its gaze to areas like Northern California, the Mid-South, and the Upper Midwest for potential expansion, with an eye on a potential 20-team competition in the not-so-distant future.<\/p>\n
Every new market opens up the possibility of a boy or girl picking up a rugby ball and falling in love with a sport that is looking to establish its position in the American sports pecking order.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New England Free Jacks vs. Houston Sabercats in the Major League Rugby 2025 Championship, Saturday, … More June…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5118,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[567],"tags":[6917,64,63,1208,794,6914,6918,6912,6913,6916,760,6915,85,6911],"class_list":{"0":"post-5117","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-rugby","8":"tag-alex-magleby","9":"tag-au","10":"tag-australia","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-espn","13":"tag-houston-sabercats","14":"tag-maa-nonu","15":"tag-mlr","16":"tag-new-england-free-jacks","17":"tag-nic-benson","18":"tag-rugby","19":"tag-scott-lawrence","20":"tag-sports","21":"tag-usa-rugby"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5117"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5117\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5118"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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