Planet Rugby Forum

RuggaMatrix America Show 78: All Eyes to Vegas

How are ticket sales going? Why did the USA 7s move from San Diego to Las Vegas? Are they staying in Las Vegas? How have they improved the event, and the player amenities?

What lessons can USA Rugby learn from the USA 7s event? What can fans learn about the evolution of TV coverage and building a big-time rugby event in the USA?

USA 7s LLC Executive VP and Tournament Director Dan Lyle talks about all of this with Alex, Bruce and Pat.

And more ... as Lyle also chimes in on the USA MNT Coach search.

kovana wrote:So, any word on Ticket sales.

Flyin Ryan wrote:

kovana wrote:So, any word on Ticket sales.

double the number of tickets sold and ticket revenue of this point in time last year per the podcast

some recent results:

BYU 76, Central Washington 7 (Thursday)
BYU 48, Washington 5 (Friday)
BYU 19, Old Puget Sound Beach 15 (Saturday)

St. Mary's 41, Utah 10 (Friday)
San Francisco Golden Gate 58, Utah 19 (Saturday)
St. Marys' 36, Chico State 22 (Saturday)

UCLA 39, Cal Poly 24

Cal 109, Stanford 0
Cal 48, Sacramento State 3 (both games Saturday, I imagine Cal's first string played Stanford and the second string played Sac. St.)

in Division I-AA, Claremont dropped down this year and proceeded to lose to San Diego 50-17


I know they were travelling but the size of the loss Utah had to St. Mary's surprises me. On the other hand you look at BYU and they're able to defeat an RSL side on the road.

kovana wrote:Also, like it was dont last year. Will the Cup finals be player BEFORE the Bowl and Plate?

CanNZ: Any word on the eagles June test schedule yet? Other than the test against Canada.

The USA Men’s National Team Head Coaching job seems to be down to a short list of …
(In alphabetical order)

Les Cusworth
Dave Hodges
Paul Keeler
Mike Tolkin

All four are apparently going to meet with the USA Rugby Board in Las Vegas during the USA 7s February 10-12, and will give a presentation on how they will tackle the job.

Les Cusworth, 57, is a former England flyhalf who played for Leicester back when they had letters instead of numbers on their jerseys. Cusworth coached at Leicester and also with the Argentina national team, where he was also Director of Rugby. If he were to be hired, he is expected to at least consult with former Argentina Head Coach Marcelo Loffreda.

Dave Hodges, 43, was a rugby and football All American at Occidental College and played 54 times for the USA, 27 as captain. During his professional career at Llanelli he also served as the team’s strength and conditioning coach, and was Head Coach of the Collegiate All Americans and the Denver Barbarians. He has been an assistant with the USA Men’s National Team since 2009 in charge of the forwards and performance analysis.

Paul Keeler, 40, is the Director of Rugby at San Francisco Golden Gate, where he led the club to appearances in the last three Super League finals, winning two. Before that he was Head Coach of Old Blue in New York City. His elite-level coaching includes several union all-star teams at the senior and collegiate level. He also coached the USA Selects in the first incarnation of the Americas Rugby Championship.

Mike Tolkin, 44, is the Head Coach of Xavier High School, where he also teaches, Head Coach of the New York Athletic Club men’s team, and assistant coach for the USA MNT, in charge of defense. In 2010 Tolkin coached Xavier and NYAC to national titles. He was also a national champion for Xavier as a student.

goeagles wrote:Hodges or Tolkin please.

Huesos wrote:NBC Sports (FKA Versus) showing the Wellington 7s on Sunday. Indicative of their plans for rugby you'd hope.

Huesos wrote:NBC Sports (FKA Versus) showing the Wellington 7s on Sunday. Indicative of their plans for rugby you'd hope.

Rugger_UA wrote:

Huesos wrote:NBC Sports (FKA Versus) showing the Wellington 7s on Sunday. Indicative of their plans for rugby you'd hope.

Woo-Hoo! Starting at 10pm. I hope Super Bowl does not go into overtime.

goeagles wrote:

Rugger_UA wrote:

Huesos wrote:NBC Sports (FKA Versus) showing the Wellington 7s on Sunday. Indicative of their plans for rugby you'd hope.

Woo-Hoo! Starting at 10pm. I hope Super Bowl does not go into overtime.

The Super Bowl will overlap that without OT. Kickoff is 6:30 Eastern and between the extra long halftime show and the pass-happy offenses, this game will go more than 3.5 hours.

heyjoe wrote:Screw the Super Bowl, bring on 7s

Flyin Ryan wrote:
For the folks that are going to setup a professional rugby league here at some point, for lessons on what not to do I hope they're following the bullsh*t going on with Women's Professional Soccer (WPS).

1. Be intelligent when choosing your business partners. Don't allow in some random asshole just because he shows you a pile of money.
2. Plan ahead. Uncertainty kills. Setup contingencies.
3. Have a business plan that makes sense.

Flyin Ryan wrote:
let's be honest, it's not like a lot of people are going to check their watch stressing so when the Super Bowl is over they flip to tape-delayed Wellington 7s highlights on NBC Sports

Smith Testing NFL Waters

A report from the National Football Post has Saracens and Eagle lock Hayden Smith pursuing an NFL contract.The report says Smith has already worked out for the New York Jets and was scheduled to work out for the New Orleans Saints Thursday.

The report says teams are unsure at what position Smith might best fit, mentioning tight end, defensive end and linebacker as possibilities.

“To play in the NFL would undoubtedly be the pinnacle of my career," Smith told NFP. "I will do whatever it takes to make my dream a reality."

"We expect to have a very surgical tour of workouts in February and March of this this year," Smith's NFL agent, Jack Bechta, said. "We have targeted interested NFL clubs who will be committed to developing Hayden’s physical skills. Hayden is pursuing his dream of playing in the NFL with the full support of the Saracens management. Club CEO Edward Griffiths is a progressive leader who has been behind Hayden's NFL endeavors."

The report says Smith will finish the season with the Sarries but may travel back to the U.S. for some additional workouts in the near future. Bechta also represents fellow Australian Pro Bowl punter, Matt McBriar.

“Although Hayden most likely will be a candidate for the development roster in his first year, I sincerely believe he can contribute this season on special teams because of his athletic ability and polished tackling skills," Bechta told NFP. "With some good coaching, I believe he can be a starter caliber player during the 2013 season.”

Smith is not the first "crossover" athlete to get a tryout in the NFL. USA goalkeeper Tony Meola tried his hand at place kicking, George Mason basketball big man Jai Lewis tried out for NFL teams after a run to the Final Four, and WWE-turned-MMA star Brock Lesnar spent a training camp with the Minnesota Vikings.

In case you were wondering, The 2010/2011 Aviva Premiership salary cap hovered at around $5.5 million, while the 2011 NFL salary cap was $120 million.

Huesos wrote:I see rugbymag scrapped their comments. More demand than ever for an American rugby forum methinks.

Huesos wrote:I'll create one and charge $4.

saffer13 wrote:

Huesos wrote:I'll create one and charge $4.

Launching in a few minutes... $3.99.

Flyin Ryan wrote:

saffer13 wrote:

Huesos wrote:I'll create one and charge $4.

Launching in a few minutes... $3.99.

or you could join together and charge $10

thought a good idea for a board would be to get together with the Canucks and Argies, have a Pan-Am focused board to cover the two main languages in the hemisphere, English and Spanish

saffer13 wrote:

Flyin Ryan wrote:

saffer13 wrote:

Huesos wrote:I'll create one and charge $4.

Launching in a few minutes... $3.99.

or you could join together and charge $10

thought a good idea for a board would be to get together with the Canucks and Argies, have a Pan-Am focused board to cover the two main languages in the hemisphere, English and Spanish

I don't speak Spanish so no.

Huesos wrote:*taking notes*

Huesos wrote:*taking notes*

Does anyone really doubt that if University of California Head Coach Jack Clark wants to make something happen – I mean really wants to make something happen – it won’t happen?

Say what you want about the hugely successful and often polarizing coach, he’s tenacious. So I have watched with interest his talk about Pac-12 rugby.

Clark has brought up the Pac-12 several times in the past few months, before and after Cal pulled out of D1-A, and before and after Cal was not admitted on late notice into the NorCal D1-AA. He’s pointed out that the Pac-12 has a network and needs content, and that the network doesn’t have football, because those rights were sold separately.

He has pointed out in an intriguing RuggaMatrix America podcast that Pac-12 competitions don’t have to include all 12 teams (interestingly, the Pac-12 soccer conference has six teams, and one of them is San Diego State).

Now comes Cal’s press release on their tour of Arizona to play the Arizona Wildcats on Friday and Arizona State on Sunday. It’s not the game previews that caught my eye, but the repeated reference to the Pac-12.

This from the release:

Arizona is a postseason contender whose head coach, Dave Sitton, has expressed his program's "strong commitment to playing Pac-12 games."

Asked whether Arizona supports the development of a traditional conference-based rugby structure, coach Sitton said, "We've been attempting to build our future schedules to make Pac-12 games a priority. We'd love to host a Pac-12 conference tournament every year and we're kicking it off with this visit by the Bears."

Arizona State head coach Gary Lane echoed Sitton's hope for a Pac-12-based build-out in college rugby.

"I'm a very big supporter of it," coach Lane said. "We already play Arizona, Colorado and Utah. It would make sense to align ourselves, like our football program, with the Pac-12. We'd support that strongly."

Obviously Cal is pushing for the competition, and it’s not been hard to find supoporters. We’ve talked to a few colleges, too, and found interest. Adminstrations and students would embrace a Pac-12 rugby league, and really the only major hurdle is money.

Now not everyone … the Pac-12 teams in the Northwest aren’t quite as energetic (or flush) as those in the south, but that, as we’ve heard, is OK. Colorado and Utah? Yeah, they might be in. Why not invite BYU into the Pac-12 for rugby? (If San Diego State can play Pac-12 in soccer …).

Conference rugby is not new. The Big 10 holds a tournament, as did the SEC. The Atlantic Coast Conference is unofficially mirrored by the ACRL. The Ivy League plays as such and plays a full league schedule.

The Pac-12, if it gets the type of TV coverage some think it can, and with the prestige of the conference as an athletic entity, could be a game-changer.

Imagine a conference that starts out with Cal, Stanford, Arizona, Arizona State, UCLA, and Utah. Then as momentum grows, Oregon State and Colorado get in on the action. That’s a pretty great rugby conference, and a compelling competition for fans of college sports.

But the point is not for me to sell you on the idea, or sell anyone on the idea. The point is, somebody is already selling the idea, Cal's Jack Clark, and he's not going to let it go.

When you have an idea like that, you often need someone to right herd with a singularity of purpose. So watch ... this will happen.

goeagles wrote:CU just added women's lacrosse because the Pac 12 has asked them to add sports for content for the P12 network. It is the first but won't be the last. I'm going to be writing a letter to CU Athletic Director Mike Bohn suggesting men's and women's rugby as the next sports added. The amount of money coming in plus the network is a real game changer for fringe sports like rugby IMO and we need to be as proactive as possible no matter how much of a long shot it seems. If you have any suggestions for points to include in the letter, please suggest them before I send it off. Here some general ideas I have:

When looking at sports to add in the future, CU should be looking at sports for the following reasons:

-Title IX balance. Cannot be a sport that is only men's.

-Makes use of existing facilities. Sports that need large financial investments to build facilities for them are not prudent to add at this time.

-Is an Olympic sport. Olympic sports produce Olympians which get CU wonderful free publicity during the Olympics.

-Ability to compete at a high level quickly.

-The sport is growing. It is better to add sports that are growing than those that are in decline. The latest Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association report on sports participation in America is an excellent source for this.

There is only one sport as far as I can tell that checks all of these boxes and that is rugby. Rugby can use existing facilities in place for lacrosse and soccer and requires little investment in the way of equipment or facilities. According to the latest SGMA study, rugby now has 1.1 million participants in America and is the fastest growing sport in the country with 50% growth since just 2009. With the sport growing at such a rate, you can be sure other colleges will be looking to sponsor rugby and we have the opportunity to get in early and cement ourselves as a rugby power. The only current Pac 12 school that sponsors rugby is Cal. In doing so, 8 of the 30 man roster for the USA Rugby team in last year's Rugby World Cup (the 3rd largest sporting event in the world) were Cal alumni or current players and you can be sure a similar percentage of USA rugby players in the 2016 Olympics will be Cal alumni. With minimal investment, CU can also have many players on the US National Team, giving the CU brand excellent free publicity.