Major League Rugby

Major League Rugby (MLR or USMLR) is a professional rugby union competition and the top-level championship for clubs in North America. In the 2021 season it will be contested by twelve teams: eleven from the United States and one from Canada.[3] Officially sanctioned by USA Rugby, which is a member union of Rugby Americas North (RAN), and consequently part of World Rugby, the league was founded in 2017, and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas.

Major League Rugby
Current season, competition or edition:
2021 Major League Rugby season
SportRugby union
Founded2017
Inaugural season2018
CommissionerGeorge Killebrew [1]
No. of teams12
CountriesUnited States (11 teams)
Canada (1 team)
HeadquartersDallas, Texas, United States
ConfederationRAN
Most recent
champion(s)		Seattle Seawolves (2nd title)
Most titlesSeattle Seawolves (2 titles)
TV partner(s)
Official websitemajorleague.rugby

With its initial beginnings as part of established amateur rugby clubs in major North American urban areas, MLR began its first season in 2018 as an initiative of the American rugby community in partnership with private investors.[4] Three further American clubs, in Atlanta, Boston, and Washington D.C., began play in 2020.[3]

Major League Rugby implemented its first collegiate MLR Draft in 2020.[5][6][7][8][9]

In 2020, Major League Rugby teams started forming youth academies.[10][11][12]

The 2020 season was suspended on March 12, 2020, due to the worldwide coronavirus pandemic. On March 18, the league announced that they would resume play in 2021,[13] with two new teams in both Los Angeles in 2021 and Dallas joining in 2022 (delayed by one year).[14][15]

History

Founding
See also: History of rugby union in the United States

In September 2016, with at least five amateur rugby union clubs across the United States discussing a possible professional league, Dean Howes,[16] who had previously been an executive with Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake and the St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League, stepped in as senior strategic advisor for Rugby Utah in an attempt to provide a pathway for expanding professional rugby stateside.[17]

By February 2017, a total of nine amateur rugby union organizations including the Austin Huns, Dallas Griffins, Glendale Raptors, Houston Strikers, Kansas City Blues, Minneapolis, New Orleans RFC, Rugby Utah and the Seattle Saracens, announced their intentions to form a professional league to begin play the following year.[18][19]

On August 15, 2017, the Austin Huns announced that it would opt-out of MLR in favor of allowing a newly branded spinoff, the Austin Elite compete in the league.[20] The Houston Strikers rebranded themselves as the Houston SaberCats. Whereas the elite players of New Orleans, Utah, and Seattle became the New Orleans Gold, Utah Warriors, and Seattle Seawolves respectively, interests in Minneapolis were replaced by the San Diego Legion.[21] With Kansas City and Dallas still in planning stages, the league continued as seven members for its inaugural season.[22]

On November 6, 2017, Major League Rugby and CBS Sports Network announced a multi-year television partnership which marked MLR's first major television deal for broadcast rights.[23] It was the first time in American history that a new sporting league had a national television deal prior to launch.[24]

Early seasons and rapid expansion

The first regular-season game in Major League Rugby history was held on April 21, 2018, when the Houston SaberCats hosted the New Orleans Gold in Houston.

In addition to Rugby United New York, the Toronto Arrows joined the league ahead of 2019 season as the first Canadian team in MLR. Three further American clubs began play in 2020, with the New England Free Jacks, Old Glory DC, and Rugby ATL.[3]

In late April 2019, RUNY announced the signing of French international Mathieu Bastareaud on a loan deal from Toulon for the 2020 season.[25] In October 2019, another major signing was made when it was announced that All Blacks international and multiple World Cup winner Ma'a Nonu would join the San Diego Legion for the 2020 season.[26] The following December saw another World Cup winner sign with the league, namely South Africa prop Tendai Mtawarira with Old Glory DC.[27]

On March 12, 2020, MLR initially suspended its 2020 season for 30 days due to the coronavirus pandemic[28] but then cancelled the remainder of the entire season on March 18.[29] On April 9, the Colorado Raptors announced they were leaving the league.[30][31]

On May 28, 2020, the LA Giltinis were added as an expansion team based in Los Angeles to begin competition in the 2021 season. The name is a combination of the word "martini" and the last name of owner Adam Gilchrist. [14] This was followed on June 4, 2020, the with addition of Dallas Jackals based in Dallas, Texas for the 2021 season.[15] However, on January 19, 2021, Dallas announced that the team would postpone their inaugural season to 2022.[32]

Competition format

Major League Rugby spans five months from March through to August. The 2019 regular season was a double round-robin with all clubs playing each other home and away.[3] Each team played sixteen games, half of them at home. This was followed by a postseason for the top four teams consisting of two semi-final matches and the Championship Game to determine the season's MLR champion team.[33]

For the 2020 season, MLR changed to a conference format.[34] Both conferences, the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference, consisted of six teams: Seattle, San Diego, Utah, Colorado, Austin and Houston in the west and existing teams New Orleans, New York, and Toronto to be joined by 2020 newcomers Atlanta, Washington, D.C., and New England in the east. Each team played a double round-robin within their conference in addition to playing six games against teams from the other conference, for a total of 16 regular-season games.[35] The postseason would consist of the top three teams from each conference: a wildcard game between the second and third ranked teams, followed by a playoff game between the wildcard winner and the first ranked team in the conference. The resulting playoff winners from each conference would then face off in the league championship. The season started on February 8 and ended on March 8.

The league is structured as a closed system and, similar to other American sports leagues, does not have promotion and relegation.[36] It operates as a single entity similar to Major League Soccer and other major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, with each team or "franchise" owned by the league and the franchise operators owning a share of the league.[37]

On September 22, 2020, the MLR announced the 2021 season (fourth season) will start with matches on March 20, 2021, and will continue for 18 weeks. Twelve teams across North America will compete to make the MLR playoffs. At the end of the regular season, the playoffs will be contested over two weeks of the Eastern Conference and Western Conference finals with the Championship Final to be held on August 1, 2021.[38]

Training camps for all MLR teams will begin on February 15, 2021. There will be a variety of pre-season activities in each market as well as national media day where each team will provide standout players for national and international media availability.

Teams

Map
Locations of teams for 2021 Major League Rugby season
          Western Conference
          Eastern Conference
          Announced/confirmed future expansion teams

2021 teams

There are twelve teams announced to compete in the 2021 Major League Rugby season are divided into two conferences:[38]

Conference Club Location Stadium Capacity Joined Coach Broadcasters
Western Austin Gilgronis Austin, Texas Bold Stadium 5,000 2018 (2018) Sam Harris Univision Austin
Houston SaberCats Houston, Texas Aveva Stadium 4,000 2018 (2018) Paul Healy KUBE-TV
Univision Houston
LA Giltinis Los Angeles, California Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum 77,500 2021 (2021) Darren Coleman TBA
San Diego Legion San Diego, California
Las Vegas, Nevada[lower-alpha 1]		 Torero Stadium 6,000 2018 (2018) Rob Hoadley FOX 5 San Diego
Univision San Diego
Seattle Seawolves Tukwila, Washington Starfire Stadium [lower-alpha 2] 4,500 2018 (2018) Kees Lensing Univision Seattle
Root Sports Northwest
Utah Warriors Herriman, Utah Zions Bank Stadium [lower-alpha 3] 5,000 2018 (2018) Shawn Pittman Univision Utah
My Utah TV
Eastern New England Free Jacks Weymouth, Massachusetts Union Point Sports Complex 2,000 2020 (2020)[42] Ryan Martin CBS 4 Boston
NESNplus
New Orleans Gold Metairie, Louisiana Gold Mine [lower-alpha 4] 10,000 2018 (2018) Nate Osborne Cox Sports TV
Telemundo Nuevo Orleans
Old Glory DC Washington, D.C. Cardinal Stadium 3,500 2020 (2020)[44] Andrew Douglas Univision DC
NBC Sports Washington
Rugby United New York Brooklyn, New York MCU Park 7,000 2019 (2019) Greg McWilliams SportsNet New York
Univision Nueva York
Rugby ATL Marietta, Georgia Lupo Family Field 2,500 2020 (2020) Scott Lawerence WSB-TV
Toronto Arrows Toronto, Ontario
Marietta, Georgia[lower-alpha 5]		 Alumni Field
Lamport Stadium
Lupo Family Field		 2,500+
9,600		 2019 (2019) Chris Silverthorn TSN
  1. Team has temporarily relocated for the 2021 season.[39]
  2. Starfire Stadium is in the Seattle suburb of Tukwila, Washington.[40]
  3. Zions Bank Stadium is in Herriman, Utah, located within the Salt Lake City metropolitan area.[41]
  4. The Gold Mine, also known as Shrine on Airline, is in Metairie, Louisiana, a census-designated place in the New Orleans metropolitan area.[43]
  5. Team has temporarily relocated for the 2021 season.[45]

Timeline
Dallas JackalsLA GiltinisRugby ATLOld Glory DCNew England Free JacksToronto ArrowsRugby United NYNOLA GoldUtah WarriorsSeattle SeawolvesSan Diego LegionHouston SabercatsColorado RaptorsGlendale RaptorsAustin GilgronisAustin Elite

Expansion teams

The expansion franchise fee is US$4 million as of 2019.[46] The first 2021 expansion team mentioned by the league was based in Dallas,[47] which was later named the Dallas Jackals, but postponed their inaugural season to 2022.

Expansion candidates

In July 2018, an ownership group in Los Angeles announced its intentions to join in the 2019 season as LA Coast Rugby,[48] but the bid was ultimately rejected.[49] Instead, an Australian ownership group has been approved to field a team in Los Angeles with a 2021 start date called the Los Angeles Loyals.[49] An owner in Vancouver, British Columbia, announced intentions to add a team to MLR for the 2019 season, but also never went further.[50][51] Columbus, Ohio, which previously had a team in PRO Rugby, nearly became home to a relocated Austin Herd in the 2020 season.[49] The owner of the HFX Wanderers FC soccer team also stated he had been in talks with the league for an expansion team.[52] In December 2019, former RC Toulon majority owner Mourad Boudjellal apparently discussed making a bid for a team in Miami.[53] MLR had confirmed that a team from Hawaii was being considered for 2021,[54] but negotiations expired.[55]

The Mexican Rugby Federation is exploring adding an MLR team.[56]

Former teams
TeamLocationStadiumJoinedLeft
Colorado RaptorsGlendale, ColoradoInfinity Park20182020[57]

Champions
By year
Year Teams Final Semi-finalists
Champion Score Runner-up Higher seeded Lower seeded
2018 7 Seattle Seawolves 23–19 Glendale Raptors San Diego Legion Utah Warriors
2019 9 Seattle Seawolves 26–23 San Diego Legion Toronto Arrows Rugby United New York
2020 12 Cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic
By team
Club Winner Runner up
Seattle Seawolves2 (2018, 2019)0
Colorado Raptors01 (2018)
San Diego Legion01 (2019)

Players

Major League Rugby players include those drawn from North American clubs, as well as foreign signings. Although the original concept was to limit club to three foreign players, the limit grew to five before the start of the first season, before then being increased to ten. This increased allotment of foreign players led to some criticism that MLR was not providing enough opportunities for American players to develop.[58]

Awards
MLR season
Player of the Year Forward of the Year Back of the Year Coach of the Year
2019
MLR championship
MVP of the Championship Match MVP of the Championship Series
2018
  • no award
2019

Television coverage

Major League Rugby programming runs in prime weekend time slots on Saturday afternoons and Sunday evenings.[59]

The CBS Sports Network televises 13 matches nationally over the course of the season. This includes a Game of the Week during each of the 10 rounds of the MLR regular season along with all three post-season matches.[33] Live streaming is also available through the CBS Sports Network streaming platforms.[33] Dan Power (Play By Play), Brian Hightower (Color Analyst) and Stacy Paetz (Sideline) were the CBS Sports commentators for the 2019 season.[60] The remaining games are available on ESPN properties and regional sports networks.[61]

ESPN has the national and international rights to an 18-game package covering regular season matches to audiences across its various platforms.[61]

AT&T Sports Networks have a 17-game package covering six of the seven MLR teams for games not broadcast on the CBS Sports Network.[59] Home-and-away matches for Austin, Houston and New Orleans are carried on AT&T SportsNet Southwest. Seattle's matches are carried on Root Sports Northwest and all Colorado and Utah games are hosted on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain.[59]

San Diego has a separate local rights agreement for their market with all the Legion's home-and-away MLR games that are not on the CBS Sports Network being televised locally on Channel 4 YurView California.[62]

Austin Elite Rugby partnered with Facebook Watch for their Texas-based viewers during the 2019 season.

Rugby United New York announced regional television partnership with SNY, which will televise nine games of RUNY's inaugural season (2019), with the premiere game airing LIVE Sunday, January 27 at 5:00 PM EST.[63] Also, NBC Sports Washington and NBC Sports Philadelphia+ will join SNY in televising match coverage of eight remaining games, beginning Saturday February 16 at 3 PM EST when RUNY travels to face the NOLA Gold. The partnership with the NBC Sports Regional Networks expands RUNY's TV market into two key East Coast markets.[64]

Toronto Arrows Rugby announced a television partnership with GameTV for the 2019 season.

The 2019 Championship game was broadcast on CBS, the first MLR game to be televised on free-to-air TV. It gained a 0.32 Sports TV rating which equated to 510,000 two-plus-person households.[65]

Due to the COVID pandemic, MLR adjusted its 2020 season schedule and turned its attention to ensuring the league would rebound with a strong showing in 2021. League and team officials have been "diligently working to build strong rosters and enhance the fan experience" for the season. Matches will be televised on CBS Sports Network and Fox Sports 2, among other national and local market platforms. The MLR Championship will be broadcast on CBS on Sunday, August 1, 2021.[38]

Attendance

Top five attendances for Major League Rugby games (all time, from 2018 onward):

RankAttendanceGameDateSeasonVenueMetro area
16,000San Diego Legion vs Seattle Seawolves (Final)June 16, 20192Torero StadiumSan Diego, CA
24,500San Diego Legion vs Rugby United New York (Semi-Final)June 9, 20192Torero StadiumSan Diego, CA
34,175San Diego Legion vs New Orleans GoldJune 2, 20192Torero StadiumSan Diego, CA
44,000Glendale Raptors vs Seattle SeawolvesMay 18, 20192Infinity ParkGlendale, CO
53,800Seattle Seawolves vs Austin EliteJune 2, 20192Starfire StadiumSeattle, WA
3,800Seattle Seawolves vs Utah WarriorsMay 26, 20192Starfire StadiumSeattle, WA

The highest attended non-competition game by an MLR team was a pre-season clash between Utah Warriors and Glendale Raptors, March 31, 2018, which drew 9,186 at Rio Tinto Stadium.[66]

Attendance for the inaugural season was approximately 1833 per match. That average increased in 2019 with an average of 2133 per game and a total of 159,000 attendees.[67]

Executives

Commissioner

Deputy Commissioner

  • Nic Benson (2016–present)[68]

Sponsorship

The league signed a multi-year partnership deal with XBlades in 2017 to supply all jersey/kit apparel for each MLR team and all match officials.[69] MLR also announced Ram Rugby as the official ball supplier.[70] In May 2018, via Instagram, MLR announced Impact Custom Mouth Guards as the official mouth guard of the league.[71] The Gem Garden in San Marcos, California, makes all MLR Championship rings.[72]

On October 28, 2019, Major League Rugby announced that, starting for the 2020 season, Paladin Sports will be the new supplier of all uniforms/kit for the league.[73]

On January 2, 2020, MLR partnered with Rhino Rugby for the 2020 season. Rhino Rugby is the official ball and technical training equipment supplier for the 2020 MLR season. The Rhino Rugby "Vortex Elite" ball is the official MLR match ball for all 12 teams. The Vortex Elite is currently the official ball of Rugby Europe, and Asia Rugby, and has been used in the Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC) the past several years[74]

Jersey sponsorships
Team Sponsor Annual value Manufacturer
Austin Gilgronis None Paladin Sports
LA Giltinis None
New Orleans Gold None Undisclosed
Rugby United New York None
San Diego Legion Ballast Point Brewing Company
Seattle Seawolves Washington Federal Undisclosed
Toronto Arrows Honda[75] Undisclosed
Utah Warriors None Undisclosed
New England Free Jacks None
Old Glory DC Cuisine Solutions
Rugby ATL Barbour Orthopedics and Spine

See also

References
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  6. "2020 MLR Collegiate Draft Summary". June 14, 2020.
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  10. "Utah Warriors Co-Founder to build Liberty Boys Academy - djcoilrugby".
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  12. "MLR Academies Can Be Anything, Which Is OK | Goff Rugby Report".
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