Growing Rugby

Perhaps its time for the rugby community to start taking lessons from one of the modern era's earliest professional sports -- baseball. The massive multi-million dollar franchises did not come into existence overnight, but grew through the steady progress of community teams providing entertainment to local crowds and the rivalries encouraging the paying of players to increase performance and profits. American rugby needs to start thinking smaller, to start.

This past summer, the City of Waukesah approved a plan for an amateur baseball team to start playing games at frame park. The team, which is part of the North Woods League contributed money (through loans and financing) to revamp the stadium and in exchange, the team would be allowed to use the facility for its home games, charge admission ($5-$10) and make a profit from concession sales. The Northwoods League is an amateur league in which college students play summer base-ball and fans get an entertaining, low-cost night out. The players may be amateur, but the income to the team, the league and the local economy is real. Building from this small base, the Northwoods League is able to finance a traveling baseball team, invest in community facilities and provide a positive playing experience for its players.

Imagine the possibilities. Profits from ticket-sales and concession profits could pay for the costs of players' travel, equipment and a coaching staff. Players would be drawn to these new teams by the opportunity to have rugby playing expenses covered by the team and a chance to work with professional coaches. By offering an entertaining and inexpensive afternoon out, rugby could grow local fans, leading to, increased profits and, perhaps, semi-professional players.

If there was real success, perhaps these local clubs could form affiliations with foreign professional teams, creating an American farm system for identifying talent for teams abroad. Why would a foreign club want to do that? Economics. America is a large market and the opportunity to tap into that large market is worth something. But first, we need to grow the American appetite for rugby.

So, why hasn't this model popped up? Well, I would speculate it has to do with our democratic system of organizing and running rugby clubs. Securing financing and operating a team is a lot of risk a risk which a committee of players and former players is not well-suited to assume. With risk should come rewards -- i.e. profits. In Perhaps it's time for rugby clubs to move from player-managed government by committee to an investor-owner model so that we can start realizing real and sustained growth in rugby.