Major League Rugby Article

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Major League Rugby
Current season
2019 Major League Rugby season
US Major League Rugby logo.png
Sport Rugby union
Inaugural season 2018
Commissioner Dean Howes  [1]
Number of teams9
CountriesUnited States
Canada
Champions Seattle Seawolves ( 2018)
Website usmlr.com
Broadcast partner CBS Sports Network, ESPN,
AT&T Sports Networks

Major League Rugby (MLR) is a professional rugby union competition and the top-level championship for clubs in North America. In the 2019 season it is contested by nine teams: eight from the United States and one from Canada. [2]

MLR began its first season in 2018 as an initiative of the American rugby community in partnership with private investors. [3] The Toronto Arrows joined the league ahead of 2019 season as the first Canadian team in MLR. Three further American clubs are set to begin play in 2020. [2]

Competition format

Major League Rugby spans six months from late January through to mid June. The regular season is a double round-robin with all clubs playing each other home and away. [2] Each team plays sixteen games, half of them at home. This is 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. [4]

Teams

The league is structured as a closed-system and, similar to other American sports leagues, does not have promotion and relegation. [5] It operates as a single entity similar to Major League Soccer, with each team or "franchise" owned by the league and the franchise operators owning a share of the league. [1]

Locations of teams in Major League Rugby
          Blue pog.svg Teams for 2019 season          Steel pog.svg Future expansion teams

Current teams

There are nine teams confirmed for the 2019 Major League Rugby season: [2]

Club Metro area Stadium Capacity Joined Coach
Austin Elite Austin, Texas Dell Diamond   [a] 11,631 2018 Alain Hyardet
Glendale Raptors Denver, Colorado Infinity Park  [b] 5,000 2018 David Williams
Houston SaberCats Houston, Texas Aveva Stadium
Constellation Field  [c] 		4,000
7,500 		2018 Justin Fitzpatrick
New Orleans Gold New Orleans, Louisiana Eagle Athletic Facility  [d] 3,000 2018 Nate Osborne
Rugby United New York New York, New York MCU Park 7,000 2019 Mike Tolkin
San Diego Legion San Diego, California Torero Stadium 6,000 2018 Rob Hoadley
Seattle Seawolves Seattle, Washington Starfire Stadium  [e] 4,500 2018 Anton Moolman
Toronto Arrows Toronto, Ontario Alumni Field
Lamport Stadium 		2,500+
9,600 		2019 Chris Silverthorn
Utah Warriors Salt Lake City, Utah Zions Bank Stadium  [f] 5,000 2018 Alf Daniels

Expansion teams

The following teams have been officially announced to join the league for the 2020 season: [10] [11]

Club Metro area Stadium Capacity Joining Coach
Atlanta MLR team Atlanta, Georgia  [g] — — 2020 Scott Lawerence
New England Free Jacks Boston, Massachusetts  [h] — — 2020 Josh Smith
Old Glory DC Washington, D.C.  [i] — — 2020 —

Champions

By year

Year # of Teams Final Semi-final knockouts
Champion Score Runner-up Higher-ranked Lower-ranked
2018 7 Seattle Seawolves 23–19 Glendale Raptors San Diego Legion Utah Warriors

Players

Major League Rugby players are generally drawn from North American clubs, although teams are allowed to sign up to ten overseas players.[ citation needed]

Awards

  • MVP of the Championship Match
Year Player Team
2018 Vili Toluta'u Seattle Seawolves

Television coverage

Major League Rugby programming runs in prime weekend time slots on Saturday afternoons and Sunday evenings. [15]

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. [4] Live streaming is also available through the CBS Sports Network streaming platforms. [4] The remaining games are available on ESPN properties and regional sports networks. [16]

ESPN has the national and international rights to an 18-game package covering regular season matches to audiences across its various platforms. [16]

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. [15] 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 Glendale and Utah games are hosted on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain. [15]

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. [17] Dan Power, Peter Steinberg, Brian Hightower and Stacy Paetz were the CBS Sports commentators for the 2018 season, culminating with the Championship Game in San Diego. Paetz worked the sidelines and hosted the inaugural MLR Championship trophy and MVP presentations.

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

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. [18] 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. [19]

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

Executives

  • Dean Howes – Commissioner, 2017–present. [1]
  • Nic Benson – Deputy Commissioner, 2017–present. [20]

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. [21] The MLR also announced Ram Rugby as the official ball supplier. [22] In May 2018, via Instagram, MLR announced Impact Custom Mouth Guards as the official mouth guard of the league. [23]

See also

  • PRO Rugby - a professional rugby competition in the U.S. that played only one season in 2016 before folding

Notes

  1. ^ Dell Diamond is located in Round Rock, Texas, which is a part of the Greater Austin metro area.
  2. ^ Infinity Park is in Glendale, Colorado, a home rule municipality in the Denver metropolitan area.
  3. ^ Constellation Field is located in the Houston suburb of Sugar Land, Texas.
  4. ^ Eagle Athletic Facility is on the campus of Archbishop Shaw High School in Marrero, Louisiana, [6] on the Westbank of the New Orleans metropolitan area. [7]
  5. ^ Starfire Stadium is in the Seattle suburb of Tukwila, Washington. [8]
  6. ^ Zions Bank Stadium is in Herriman, Utah, located within the Salt Lake City metropolitan area. [9]
  7. ^ An Atlanta franchise, led by President and CEO Bob Taylor, plans to join the league in 2020. [12]
  8. ^ A Boston franchise, known as the New England Free Jacks, started playing exhibition fixtures in late 2018 and plans to join MLR in 2020. [12]
  9. ^ DC MLR has exclusive rights for a Washington, D.C. team that would join no later than 2020, [10] [13] and could play exhibition games in 2019. [14]

References

  1. ^ a b c "Major League Rugby nears kick-off as next attempt to make US a union power". The Guardian. UK. 2017-11-17. Archived from the original on 2017-11-19. Retrieved 2017-11-19.
  2. ^ a b c d "Major League Rugby adds Ontario Arrows for 2019". Americas Rugby News. 2018-09-25. Archived from the original on 2019-09-25. Retrieved 2018-09-25.
  3. ^ "Glendale Raptors Announce Team, Coaches, & Ticket Sales". djcoilrugby. 2018-01-29. Archived from the original on 2018-02-05. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  4. ^ a b c "CBS Sports Network Partners with MLR". Major League Rugby (Press release). 2017-11-06. Archived from the original on 2017-11-09. Retrieved 2017-11-09.
  5. ^ Parkes, Geoff (2018-05-06). "Why Major League Rugby could finally be the USA's game changer". The Roar. Archived from the original on 2018-11-13. Retrieved 2019-01-30.
  6. ^ "Eagle Athletic Facility Mass & Groundbreaking". Carpe Diem!. 2017-11-01. Archived from the original on 2018-02-05. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  7. ^ Songy, Marielle (December 2017). "Archbishop Shaw High School Breaks Ground on New Stadium". The West Bank Beacon. New Orleans. Archived from the original on 2018-02-05. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  8. ^ "Contact". Starfire Sports. Retrieved October 3, 2018.
  9. ^ "Utah Warriors Announce Home Venue for the Major League Rugby Season". Utah Warriors. 2018-01-25. Archived from the original on 2018-02-05. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  10. ^ a b "Washington DC team to enter Major League Rugby 'no later' than 2020". Major League Rugby. 2018-05-15. Retrieved 2018-06-03.
  11. ^ "Atlanta and Boston Teams to Join MLR for 2020 Season". www.usmlr.com. 2018-09-21. Retrieved 2018-09-21.
  12. ^ a b "Major League Rugby confirms Boston and Atlanta for 2020". Americas Rugby News. 2018-09-21. Retrieved 2018-07-10.
  13. ^ "Major League Rugby planned for Washington DC!". dcmlr.com. Archived from the original on 2018-06-03. Retrieved 2018-06-03.
  14. ^ Pengelly, Martin (2018-05-15). "Washington DC team to enter Major League Rugby 'no later' than 2020". The Guardian. UK. Archived from the original on 2018-05-15. Retrieved 2018-06-03.
  15. ^ a b c "Major League Rugby Announce Telecast Agreement with AT&T Sports Networks". MLR. 2018-02-05. Retrieved 2018-04-30.
  16. ^ a b "Major League Rugby and ESPN Announce Rights Agreement". MLR. 2018-03-20. Retrieved 2018-04-30.
  17. ^ "Media partners". San Diego Legion. Retrieved 2018-03-28.
  18. ^ "SNY and RUNY Announce Television Partnership". Rugby United New York. 2018-12-20.
  19. ^ https://www.rugbyunitedny.com/news/rugby-united-new-york-announces-expanded-television-coverage-on-nbc-sports-regional-networks
  20. ^ "Major League Rugby to launch with 9 teams". Rugby Today. 2017-05-08. Archived from the original on 2017-11-20.
  21. ^ "Major League Rugby announces XBlades as official apparel partner". Major League Rugby. 2017-12-20. Retrieved 2018-02-05.
  22. ^ "Major League Rugby Announces Ram Rugby as Official Ball Sponsor". usmlr.com. 2018-02-07. Retrieved 2018-03-17.
  23. ^ Major League Rugby Announces Impact Mouthguards as Sponsor "Major League Rugby Announces Impact Mouthguards as Sponsor". Major League Rugby. 2018-05-24. Retrieved 2018-07-02.

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External links

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