America’s First Professional Rugby League Launched

Nigel Melville, CEO of USA Rugby, recently extended through 2018 the RFL’s U.S. Exclusive Sanction and License rights to own, operate and globally broadcast the professional sport of Rugby Sevens.

“Buttressed by exclusively sanctioned and licensed competitive advantages and protections no new sports league in American history has ever enjoyed, Olympic endorsement of the sport, and Rugby Sevens explosion on the global stage, the time was right for America’s first professional rugby league,” said William Tatham, GPE Founder and Chairman.

“The RFL represents the greatest major market sports franchise opportunity in the last 50 years. Name the last time New York, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles franchises were all available,” said Eric White, of RFL financial advisor, Capitol Pacific Group.

Globally branded as the ‘Contact Sport of the World,’ Rugby Sevens has seen a global broadcast and attendance explosion via the HSBC IRB Sevens World Series http://www.irbsevens.com/archive/tcode=1270/season=2012/news/newsid=2068533.html#record+broadcast+hsbc+sevens+world+series.

Domestically branded as the “Father of American Football,” the RFL’s exclusively owned sport of Rugby Sevens has also proven to be a major live and television success in the United States. The USAR-hosted Las Vegas-based event, the HSBC IRB Sevens World Series tour stop, drew a U.S. record attendance of 67,000 paid in 2013, while seen live on NBC (http://www.usasevens.com).

“Try to name one new league that ever launched off such a solid legal, market and brand platform. Trust me, there isn’t one,” emphasized Rich Rose, Special Advisor to the Commissioner. Rose served in a similar role with the XFL following his role as President and COO of Caesars World Sports.

Providing the new league a built-in grass-roots foundation, rugby is played at the youth, high school, club, semi-professional, and international levels. USA Rugby has over 115,000 members, the largest segment being college rugby with over 30,000 members.

The RFL will kick off via a Phase One Championship Tour, showcasing the RFL’s 4 Founding Franchises vs. 20 of the worlds great teams in the world’s richest sevens championships. On the back of this Phase One Tour-built team, brand and market foundation, the RFL’s Phase Two regular season will open play with sixteen U.S. franchised teams.

The RFL will offer only 4 RFL Founder Franchises, exclusively targeting the following sixteen major U.S. media markets.

“We have a blank canvas off of which to create a ‘made for television ratings’ league, and we intend on doing just that,” concluded Tatham.