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Rugby doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to people. With so many other sports such as baseball, hockey, and football, the United States already has their hands full of teams to root for. However, this could be ending very soon. In the CNN article US Rugby is on the Rise-- Should the NFL be worried? by Gary Morley and Alex Thomas, they talk about how rugby is slowly becoming more popular and could be pushing football, and maybe even other sports, out of the way. By showing the recent growth in the past years, quotes from nationally ranked players, and logical information, Morley and Thomas are able to show us how Rugby is threatening other sports on both an economic and social level.Since this is a CNN article from just this year, we are given recent, as well as reliable, information. In order to see how the incentives to play rugby have grown over time, we will have to see how it is ultimately affecting other sports.
In my last post I briefly mentioned the huge tournament that was recently played in Las Vegas. With 80,000 fans, around twenty-three teams consisting of all genders and ages, and the tournament spanning over three days, it was quite a sight to see. In the recent Rio olympics, rugby was just recently added back in for the world to see and cheer for their country. Since the olympics are a popular sporting event for everyone to watch, for some, it was their first time ever watching the game, and they were hooked. Former NFL player Nate Ebner said “ the excitement and the feedback that I got from people watching in Rio, that have never watched rugby, that watched simply because they heard my story with the Patriots and they were watching the Olympics it has been amazing.” With the rise of spectators increasing for tournaments in the United States and all the buzz that formed from the olympics, the NFL might be seeing some competition soon.
Football is a monopoly. It is one sport that controls the lives of Americans every Sunday and Thanksgiving. It is one of America’s many pastimes and holds the hearts of many in this Country. Every little boy either plays or watches football, and has the dream to become Tom Brady. Since rugby is pretty unpopular among the younger generation, they don’t look up to professional rugby teams like kids in New Zealand or England. USA Sevens men's coach Mike Friday says “American rugby needs a major international star as a role model to attract young talent that might otherwise end up playing and following football,” and he’s right. As rugby continues to grow, so will the amount of people who will start to watch it. This means that once Rugby starts to become more widely accepted, more people will start to look up to rugby players compared to football players. Once this happens, football will forever be threatened, and it might even continue on to other sports.
Not only will this affect the professional league of football, but the local teams too. Once the higher leagues start to become more popular, more kids will want to play the sport. This means more local teams will be popping up. But, rugby can be both in the spring and the fall. So what happens to the sports also in that season. Well, kids would have to choose. If they eventually choose rugby, this means that the local teams will lose money since less people will be doing it, and slowly become more popular.
Future Research: What incentives (e.g. scholarships) are there to play rugby in college? How have they changed over time?
I really liked how you used the tournament in Las Vegas as evidence to prove that people are becoming more interested in rugby. For next time, it would be cool to include the actual data that says rugby is starting to be viewed more. Good job!
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