I just heard an interview with the organisers of the Rugby World Cup 2031,scheduled for the USA… together with comments from the chairman of World Rugby.
They suggest 1 billion dollars revenue,3 million tickets sold all over the US, and sell out stadiums with crowds up to over 100,000 for the biggest matches.
What do you think? Is there this level of interest in the US? The US team is certainly not at a high level now, they may well not even qualify for the next World Cup.
Or will people go to watch anyway, even if the US is not a realistic contender?
Would you pay serious money to go and watch a rugby match?
27 comments
::shrug::
Considering this is 9 years away, who knows.
I would assume not, it’s not a popular sport or a quickly growing sport like soccer.
I highly doubt a rugby match would sell out a football stadium in the US.
I would not go see a Rugby match.
I do believe a lot of people will travel from elsewhere to see it though, and with 330,000,000 people in the US finding a few million people who watch Rugby will not be difficult.
If they promote it well they might get people going out for the novelty. Especially so if it’s done on a comparatively short timescale like the Olympics.
Or it could fail miserably. I don’t really know.
We have lots of stadiums and infrastructure, but rugby is an *extremely* niche sport here. There’s no way they’re filling stadiums for preliminary rounds, even if they gave tickets away.
I’m a massive sports fan, I didn’t even know there was a pro rugby league until I just now looked for it. It gets *zero* coverage on the mainstream sports media like ESPN, Fox, etc. The MLR teams have only existed for a few years and primarily play in “stadiums” that are the homes of minor league soccer teams or public parks.
I’d pay like, $20 to go to the championship match. Is it called a match? A game?
I’d wager Ultimate Frisbee has more fans in the US than rugby. College baseball has more fans than rugby. High school football draws more fans than rugby.
There’s no way they sell 100,000 tickets to a rugby match. Doesn’t matter who’s playing, unless there are a lot of underground rugby fans out there.
I don’t know anything about the rugby World Cup, is it even close to the Soccer World Cup? I could see people going to check it out, but I don’t think it would sweep the nation.
I doubt the 100,000 seat stadiums are even used as those are college stadiums that don’t have the amenities of pro stadiums, which are usually 60-70k.
I wouldn’t pay even non-serious money to go to it. If it’s televised, I may watch some of it, but probably not. I’d be more likely to do so if the US team is competitive.
But it’s a big country. I’m sure there are a few million diehard rugby fans. My impression of these sorts of things is that they tend to draw crowds traveling internationally. Hopefully that’s the case.
Where is it going to be? I suppose I might check it out for the hell of it if they’re hosting it in Pittsburgh. I’m not sure I’d be willing to drive as far as the suburbs, though.
I don’t know how rugby is played so I would pay zero dollars to go to a game. I would have to imagine that to fill a stadium of 100k people it would have to be, like, mostly foreign fans? Rugby doesn’t have that much of a following in the US. Most of the stadiums in our pro rugby league (which, admittedly, I only just found out existing) seat like 4000-5000 people. Tough to imagine getting to 20x that with mostly locals.
I think it’s plausible, especially if people travel in from bigger Rugby countries
>They suggest 1 billion dollars revenue,3 million tickets sold all over the US, and sell out stadiums with crowds up to over 100,000 for the biggest matches.
What do you think? Is there this level of interest in the US?
It’s all possible. $1B in revenue isn’t what it used to be. 3 million tickets sold is less than 1% of the population and I’m sure there will be plenty of people from foreign countries flying in to buy them too, but I guess it really depends on how many games there are. 100,000 people watching a single game is the biggest stretch so far. I mean, we have stadiums with the capacity to hold that many, but I doubt there will be enough local interest to fill all the seats, to me it depends on how many people around the world are willing to fly in to watch.
>Or will people go to watch anyway, even if the US is not a realistic contender?
People might watch even without the US being a contender. I’d go see a match if it was close enough by and the price was right.
>Would you pay serious money to go and watch a rugby match?
No, not serious money.
I mean that’s almost a decade away so who knows but as of right now?
>What do you think? Is there this level of interest in the US?
No.
>Will people go to watch anyway, even if the US is not a realistic contender?
Some will. Doubt it’ll be a huge crowd.
>Would you pay serious money to go and watch a rugby match?
No chance in hell.
I wouldn’t pay to go to a game, but the 1994 FIFA WC was a massive financial success and we had been without a professional league for 10 years.
I think there are only 8 football stadiums that hold over 100k, so unless any of those are included in the plans, or new stadiums are built to exceed 100k, that number of fans just isn’t happening.
The world would have to do most of the work on a sellout that only 5 or so college stadiums, spread out from Texas to Pennsylvania can provide in such numbers. Depending on where, when, and how much it is, I may be interested in seeing a game live. The 3 million number shouldn’t be too hard to come by as it’s only about 1% of the population. However, they may be spread out and/or priced out.
I didn’t even know we were hosting that, and I don’t see myself purchasing tickets except possibly as a one-time novelty, which would require that it be really cheap and in very close proximity to where I live.
And frankly that’s even if we *were* a contender. Like I’m guessing nearly all Americans, I have basically no interest in rugby.
I don’t think any of us watches rugby. I would go if they gave me a free ticket though🤷♂️
I feel bad because I know our team’s rugby players represent our country proudly but unfortunately…. It’s one of those very unpopular sports that most Americans don’t care about. Honestly, I’d go as far to say more care about soccer than rugby.
For most Americans watching rugby is like other countries watching US football – it’s fun at first but when you don’t know the rules it can become boring quickly. I like rugby and watch it but I’m in the minority.
They would need to pull off an *insane* marketing campaign between now and then. Not impossible, but it would be easier to play rugby in Antarctica.
Naked.
I wouldn’t pay to watch rugby, but I wouldn’t pay to watch football either.
Stop exporting your sucky sports over here!
J/K don’t get huffy.
It looks like they’ve got a few years to build up local enthusiasm for it. It’s not a popular game here at the moment.
Rugby really isn’t on the radar here. I would very surprised if we could draw large crowds.
I might go just for the novelty factor and I do like the game….but I don’t see there being too many folks like me.
I didn’t even know there was such a thing as a Rugby World Cup
I mean maybe if the marketing is all done right I could see a game featuring the United States and a big rugby power drawing a good crowd.
But it’s absolutely not drawing 100,000 for Fiji vs France or something.
This is pure fantasy
While we have the infrastructure to hold such an event… we lack any interest
My guess is the US rugby industry is just trying to get someone else to foot the bill for a massive PR campaign.
If a 100K stadium sells out for a rugby game (and we have plenty of these stadiums) it won’t be full of Americans.
Rugby just isn’t a thing here in any meaningful way.