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National Rugby Football League

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National Rugby Football League
SportRugby union
Founded2014
No. of teamsTBD
CountryUnited States
ContinentNorth America
Official websitethenrfl.com

National Rugby Football League (NRFL) is a proposed professional rugby union league headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The NRFL originally planned to launch with 8 Founding Teams in major markets across North America in 2016. In April 2020, CEO Michael Clements announced a centralized ownership system in where all the clubs are owned by the league. The NRFL slated play with a pool of elite American and international athletes that would draw both national attendance, and global recognition. The NRFL is currently vetting founding members.[1]

The NRFL is founded and run by a group of executives with experiences in all aspects of professional sports industry, including organizational formation, player development, legal, team operations, facility negotiations, technology, media and marketing.

History

The American investment group known as RugbyLaw worked to create the NRFL. That group was founded by Michael Clements.

More than 130 players, including nearly 50 with NFL experience, participated in the NRFL's first combine held in Minneapolis in April 2014.[2][3][4] The second combine took place January 12–15 in Los Angeles, California at the LA Memorial Coliseum. Most of the players being courted to participate were former professional athletes from the NFL, NBA, and NHL.[5]

An exhibition NRFL game was to be held between a team called the NRFL Rough Riders, composed of athletes identified at the two combines and international elite players, and the Leicester Tigers of the English Premiership. It was to have taken place on August 8, 2015 at Lincoln Financial Field in Philadelphia; however, the NRFL failed to apply for USA Rugby sanctioning, and therefore the match was cancelled. Another potential game involving 2015 Premiership champion Saracens was slated to be played against the Crusaders, a New Zealand Super Rugby franchise, in New Orleans. This match was also cancelled by the NRFL due to sanctioning, as World Rugby didn't OK the turf playing surface at Mercedes-Benz Superdome[6]

Revamp

In April 2020, according to Forbes, CEO Michael Clements has said to partner with NFL Alumni, the retired players’ advocacy group for the world’s richest sports league, which plans to partner with the NRFL on a high-performance center for tackle-sport athletes that will serve as a potential feeding ground for both leagues.[7]

Clements is starting a re-launch of the NRFL under a league-owned-and-operated model, replacing his former plan for individually owned franchises when the NRFL was first conceived in 2014. Currently funds are being raised with a targeted 2022 content launch followed by the Showcase Series, which leads into an 8 city-based league. The NRFL will compete in the U.S. with the existing Major League Rugby, which debuted in 2017.[7]

Clements also wants to host events like the annual NFL combine showcase for college football players to identify former football players who would make strong rugby players. The ambition of the league is also offer high quality contracts with teams having a salary cap of about $9 million dollars as in the English Premiership. Major League Rugby has a $500,000 cap.[7]

"Our salary cap will be competitive with the internationals [leagues]. We know, and when you look at the player welfare situation, we know we need to pay our players full-time. This is not semi-professional. That's what Americans expect. Whether you're a fan of football, baseball, basketball, whatever it is, the fans in the U.S. want to watch the best, so in order to do that, we want to create one of the best products in the sport," said NRFL's managing director, Steve Ryan.[8]

The NRFL will pull revenue from tickets, sponsorships and TV, just like the major U.S. leagues, says managing director Steve Ryan. "Our intent at the NRFL is to create an invigorated commercial product that utilizes all the effective modern aspects of the game, yet retains the best historic features and at the same time closes the crossover gap for current American football athletes," Clements said. "And then ultimately, with an emphasis on Americanization, what is the end? We create the best optics for the North American contact-sport fans. And we know what tastes good for the American fan base. We know what we have here by way of crossover fans during the summer months."[8]

“The U.S. is the world’s largest sports market and the last frontier for rugby to conquer,” says South African agent Hilton Houghton. “For my elite players, this market is very exciting. Everyone loves the U.S. and has dreams of making it big there.”[7]

Founders Group

The NRFL has to first bring in investors and then start putting in place the plans that will frame the competition, from teams, host cities and stadia, before it can try to sell itself to some prospective players. "This is why we have the Founders Group," Clements said. "And when you look at the way the major leagues started here -- the big leagues, if you will -- it's always a group of people that have come together and said, 'Let's do this.' So the Founders Group is that." The Founders Group will own an undivided and non-dilutable interest in all of the founding 8 NRFL teams. The Founders Group receives the full benefit of professional sports team ownership without the obligation to operate them.

Athletes

The NRFL is committed to having the best product on the pitch with a mix of international and national elite athletes. The National Rugby Football League in the past has held a series of regional and national combines in major metropolitan areas throughout the country. The combines produced some of the best rugby players and elite athletes in the nation. The NRFL targeted rugby "hotbeds" around the country to find talented athletes to develop into professional rugby players. A select group of athletes were to have been chosen from these combines to begin their development to become a professional player in the NRFL.[9]

References

  1. ^ "TEAMS". National Rugby Football League. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
  2. ^ Richards, Huw (4 April 2014). "Unearthing the next American rugby star". ESPN. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  3. ^ "NRFL 2014 Combine a success". www.rugbylaw.com. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  4. ^ Jahns, Adam (15 May 2014). "Professional rugby league hope to establish team in Chicago". times.com. Archived from the original on 14 October 2014. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  5. ^ Hull, Jeff (29 August 2013). "Pro Rugby in America: New National Rugby Football League Soaking Up NFL Talent". Bleacher Report. Retrieved 8 October 2014.
  6. ^ "Pro Rugby Lands At LFF For The First Time". www.philadelphiaeagles.com. Archived from the original on 2015-04-14.
  7. ^ a b c d Badenhausen, Kurt (7 April 2021). "Never Mind Coronavirus, A New U.S. Rugby League Launches While The Rest Of Sports Is Quiet". Forbes. Retrieved 25 October 2021.
  8. ^ a b "How the NRFL plans to take rugby to mainstream America". 21 May 2020.
  9. ^ "ATHLETES". National Rugby Football League. Retrieved 2019-03-20.
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