- Status
RugbyFuture
Lord Logo
Hopefully they can get some juicy jerseys and brands going. Would love to be listening in on the brand work behind some of these franchises being set up.
Omar Comin'
Chilla Wilson (44)
I read somewhere that it would be really basic in year 1, and that stuff like team names (and associated branding) would be developed for year 2 with some level of fan involvement. Not sure how true that is though.
WorkingClassRugger
Michael Lynagh (62)
You read right. They seem to just want to get the concept off the ground in year one. Which is fair enough if you don't take into account the potential marketing opportunity they will be missing out on. A large part of their sales pitch is community engagement. Which is great. But why wait to start until season 2 in terms of a name. Crowdsourcing to the very community you are trying to engage. It would be a relatively cheap and easy exercise. They could use a combination of their social media sites to garner entries. Both in terms of name and logo. Then look for any overlap and come up with say a top ten. You can set up polls o. Both FB and Twitter. You the popular vote as a means elimination until you get the one most desired by the community. Fairly simple.
Quick Hands
David Wilson (68)
^^^The guy running it and bank-rolling it seems like he knows what he's doing. I assume he's leaving it until season 2 to get names etc. going is because he wants the local community/rugby community to feel part of it. He seems to have made a lot of money in sports/stadium marketing, so he sounds like the type of guy to know about marketing in the sports setting.
“We intend to be collaborative,” he wrote, “and will include you, the rugby community, right from the start. As we all know, rugby is unique in sports, and particularly in American sports. We appreciate both the game and its core values and are mindful of our custodial responsibility in growing our game together.”
“We intend to be collaborative,” he wrote, “and will include you, the rugby community, right from the start. As we all know, rugby is unique in sports, and particularly in American sports. We appreciate both the game and its core values and are mindful of our custodial responsibility in growing our game together.”
Omar Comin'
Chilla Wilson (44)
Yeah, and I guess it's possible that some nicknames could develop organically from the season 1 fans. That could be pretty cool, and might give greater strength to the names than deciding on one before the clubs have any real identity. There'd be more of a story behind them.
RugbyFuture
Lord Logo
...I reckon they should pick up some upstart from Australia who's had heavy involvement in launching teams in the NRC to brand up some of their teams.....obviously just an opinion though...
RugbyFuture
Lord Logo
he's a real dickhead who speaks his skills up all the time so I won't mention him by name!
WorkingClassRugger
Michael Lynagh (62)
Sacramento has been officially announced as the first franchise at a media conference at Bonney Field in Sacramento. Evidently it wasn't on the radr of ProRugby until its owner attended the PNC (Pacific Nations Cup) games there and realised it would be a perfect fit.
WorkingClassRugger
Michael Lynagh (62)
He was a bond trader originally. Bought the stadium fund from JP Morgan a few years back.
Viking
Mark Ella (57)
I hope this is the case. But maybe he just doesn't want to invest heavily in the first year in case it doesn't get any traction at all and he can abandon plans the following year and lose less of his investment.
I think this is just the case of testing if a market even exists (large enough to make a profit).
I hope it does. The US is a sleeping giant awaking to be woken.
WorkingClassRugger
Michael Lynagh (62)
Evidently ProRugby has been caught a little off guard with the degree of interest being expressed by a number of cities keen to host a team in the near future.
Highlander35
Steve Williams (59)
6 teams in fine to start with. If the Canucks put up 2 teams for 2017, that's 8 without any need for further internal expansion.
Then maybe trying for another 2 teams to make 10 in 2019. 3000 seated stadium is fine, especially if it's as centrally located as suggested. 2800 people in a 3000 capacity stadium will be much much better than 4000 in a 10000 capacity stadium, for the atmosphere, for the broadcasters and very likely, for the investors bottom lines as well.
Then maybe trying for another 2 teams to make 10 in 2019. 3000 seated stadium is fine, especially if it's as centrally located as suggested. 2800 people in a 3000 capacity stadium will be much much better than 4000 in a 10000 capacity stadium, for the atmosphere, for the broadcasters and very likely, for the investors bottom lines as well.
T
TOCC
Guest
start small and keep overheads low, whilst there might be a temptation to go large early it places unnecessary financial strain on teams in their start-up phase. You can always grow bigger from a small base, but its hard to cut costs once you have already committed to contracts.
WorkingClassRugger
Michael Lynagh (62)
It's actually rather likely we'll see it move to 8 teams in 2017. Certainly by 2019. They've already hinted at the fact they were keen on a Houston based franchise but couldn't make the scheduling at the stadium work. They've put a pin in that one with intent on revisiting for the 2017 season. Even if they don't enter a new US based team Canada has the likes of the Ontario Blues, BC Bears or Prairie Wolfpack essentially ready to go now.
The interesting thing will be how they manage any potential growth. There are a couple of obvious markets they've not included yet like Boston, Chicago, Houston and a couple a little less so in Atlanta and Dallas and ones that have been expressing a great deal of interest such as Charlotte, NC. Oh, and you'd have to expect they'd look at a SoCal team in the future alongside Salt Lake City etc. Hell, Miami would even be able to make a strong case for inclusion.
The league won't be short of growth options for some time. What will be a barrier somewhat is money. The man behind this seems to have deep enough pockets to commit to funding this for 'several' seasons but it will be interesting if several prominent multi-millionaires/ multi-billionaires that have strong ties to Rugby wish to get on board.
WorkingClassRugger
Michael Lynagh (62)
They've publicly stated that in terms of attendance their sweet spot is somewhere between 3-7,000. It's part of the reason they went with Sacramento. PNC (Pacific Nations Cup) games leading up until this year have consistently either sold out or fallen just shy (this year they were played on a Friday during the workday, still around 10,000 turned out). Evidently, stats suggest that the vast majority of those who attend are Sacramento locals. It has something like 8,000 active players most of whom are in youth leagues. It's a strong a rapidly growing Rugby area.
People on their FB page have been why they didn't go with Avaya Stadium (18,000) in San Jose as opposed to Boxer (3,500) but someone seems to give away a possible reason as Avaya has publicly stated they want to host one of the Super 7s Rugby teams if that ever gets off the ground.
All the financial strain is on ProRugby's owner. He's funding everything. Which is interesting as as the player wages for the season will range somewhere between $3.8-5.4m depending on how many are on $40k contract etc. Take into account travel, accommodation, facility hire, staffing, events etc. and if he's extraordinarily frugal he'd be lucky if it doesn't cost him at least $10-12m a season in it's current form.
I think what may in the end make or break the financial side of this is the deal they strike with their broadcaster (most likely the Rugby Channel that's in the process of being launched by RIM) and the share they receive from subscriptions generated by those wanting to see it.
neilc
Bob Loudon (25)
WCR, have they only confirmed Sacramento and San Francisco as teams so far? With the proposed teams that you understand to be in it, what's the travel like? Is there a reasonable player base in these areas to recruit from or do they need to hire in talent from around the country?
swingpass
Peter Sullivan (51)
on behalf of Red's fans i have nominated R. Graham
- Status