NFL, Premiership Looking To Start U.S. Pro Competition

The Guardian's Tom Dart is reporting that Premier Rugby Limited (the folks behind the Premiership) and a U.S. firm, RugbyLaw, (NOTE: the NFL is only involved in broadcasting) are set to potentially form their own pro rugby competition of six teams based on the East Coast. The plan involves having an American Barbarians team take on London Irish in Gillette Stadium in Boston on August 10th and then a return match against a yet to be determined team at Twickenham a week later. The hope is to draw 30,000 fans to the match in Boston. If they can do that, the organizers will likely go ahead with the pro competition that would be housed in NFL stadiums. The match in Boston would be aired on the NFL Network while the match in London would be aired on BT Sport.

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The plan also calls for the Barbarians side to be a mixture of established guest names with further players selected from a summer combine and month-long training camp. No national team players will be involved, which makes sense considering that the Twickenham date conflicts with World Cup qualifying. According to the event promoters, the idea is to target players that didn't make it into the NFL and train them to be rugby players.

The fact that they event has the backing of both the NFL and the Premiership is a good sign that the event will happen. But it certainly doesn't come without questions. Getting 30,000 fans to Gillette Stadium would be a major accomplishment, although certainly doable with the NFL's marketing resources. A crowd that size would be the largest ever to watch a rugby match in the United States. Plus there is the question of whether fans would be turned off in what would certainly not be a pretty game of rugby. Unless the promoters are targeting players with rugby experience, the U.S. side would likely commit error after error, resulting in slow play and an unattractive product. There is also the question of whether London Irish wants to commit its best players to a match in which the opponents don't know the rules, potentially resulting in injury.

Still, if the match were to be a success (which we hope it is) and the league were to proceed, it would be a major boost to rugby in the United States. Having a professional league of any kind would help boost the quality of players in the U.S. and help the overall development of the sport. It would certainly target potential players for the Eagles, although U.S.A. Rugby are understandably wary of the idea.

Why would the NFL and the Premiership want to get involved in such a project? As always the answer comes down to money. It's not the first time the NFL has tried to tap into the rugby market. Everyone knows they were signed on to air the ill-fated Grand Prix 7's. They need more product for their network, especially in the spring. They also would be able to take advantage of all the players not in the NFL but still with a lot of talent. Using NFL stadiums would also be fairly cheap and would add revenue in the offseason. Remember, many of these stadiums only have a handful of american football matches a year.

For the Premiership it offers a chance to break into the U.S. market while sharing the costs. It also would potentially provide a new source of gifted athletes. Samu Manoa is the perfect example of a player they see as an athlete that can be turned into a star. Of course Manoa had plenty of rugby knowledge before joining Northampton. Finding these athletes and increasing their revenue stream is becoming ever more crucial for the Premiership as they fight with the Top 14 for players.

Will it work? It's far to early in the process to judge, but the idea certainly faces obstacles. That said, if it does work, and again we hope it does, it would be a game changer for the U.S. and could vault them into being a real world contender.

UPDATE: Check out this great follow-up piece from Dart.