If the idea of Rugby 360 feels familiar, it’s because the sport has been here before. Breakaway formats have been flouted since before Union opened the books. Back in 1994, there was the Kerry Packer World Rugby Corporation, which courted much publicity but ultimately failed to get off the ground (Packer Sent packing). In 2019, we had Rugby X led by Ben Ryan, a variant of Sevens, which, after its only tournament, vanished without a whimper and little trace.
There are others.
In truth, a breakaway variant of the game has only been successful once in the history of the sport, 130 years ago, when in 1895 the Northern Union split from the archaic governance of the Rugby Football Union, followed by the Australians in 1907, when similar circumstances forced the hands of the New South Wales Rugby League. The sport was split in two, and the fallout is still felt today.
As long as there has been money in the game, someone has had a better idea on how the sport should be run. So with Mike Tindall and his buddies taking up the mantra of “we know best”, the sport is once again faced with the prospect of a tectonic power shift. There are differences, of course, with Rugby 360 looking to align with World Rugby, strengthening its probability by way of ratification. But with Unions vetoing the compatibility of R360 with International aspirations, we’re again faced with the prospects of a rebel solution to the question of growing investment in the game.
Investment is essential, but so is how that investment lands, and the impact it brings with it and as ever, the problem, as with all of these things, is that no one really asked the fans what they want.
Take, World Rugby’s desire to abandon traditional tournaments every other year to create the World Rugby Nations Championship as the most recent example. Sure, the Tournaments won’t cease to exist, but they will be demeaned. There is a world of issues and criticism in WRNC, but ultimately it will succeed or fail on one thing: “Will Fans buy into it?”.
The Franchise Dream.
Let’s say Rugby 360 gets off the ground. It’s natural to assume it will face similar issues. It’s fine having millions in backing (be it Red Bull, the UAE or the Fenway Sports Group as has been reported), but the Value of a sports success is ultimately going to live and die based on who watches it.
TV will want viewers and fans in the crowd. Stadiums want fans in seats and spending money at the concessions. The detail is that no one wants to watch sports in empty stadiums, and no one will cheer a team that has no identity winning a league with no history. Franchise locations are reported to be in London, Madrid, Boston, Cape Town, Miami, Lisbon. It’s not exactly locations that scream established Rugby community.
No New Zealand-based or even Pacific franchise? There have to be questions about why?.
Tied in with that, Global Franchises also pose a question mark around regular competition. Fans want regular competition, but global franchises don’t really offer that. It makes sense to look at growing the game across the globe, but is visiting a location once or twice a year really going to do that? The tournament has 6 regular-season events in year one, with 6 teams and a final (4 teams for the women). if each location is only going to see one or two weekends’ worth of rugby a year, then what’s my incentive to buy into that team? Fans understand their team and are as much a part of it as the players, more so in many aspects, so why would a fan based in Pretoria support a franchise based in Cape Town?
The lure of seeing top players simply isn’t enough and the truth is the game already has those unifying teams, and they are called national teams.
The continued Americanisation of sport has meant that for years we’ve heard about the importance of the NFL franchise system, and its annual draft is an event to behold.
But really, how well would that actually work for Rugby Union?
Simply drafting big-name elite Rugby players is only going to work once, and for me, one of the big things missed in the approach to the Americanisation of sport is how important college sport is within it.
Be it NFL or Basketball, these sports may appear big fish in little ponds, but what they do have is an almost unrivalled, highly competitive youth system that runs underneath it.
A production line that fans are invested in, in which they see these players grow from High School Athletes to College Athletes to being drafted as Professional players. The draft is huge because fans are invested in the players long before the draft. They know the players, know their potential value to their current team, long before they hit the books of a professional team.
Academy, Schoolboy and Varsity Rugby in the UK and Europe doesn’t carry the same gravitas as College Football does. South Africa and New Zealand, perhaps the closest in Rugby Union, but you can’t build the excitement of a global draft system on unknown talent.
Clubs, be it Union or League (who let’s be clear are also under threat from R360), have several key components that support them: History, Academies and Fans, and ultimately all are part of a pyramid system that leads to the top.
So it’s very hard for me to see how R360 can establish that kind of following and structure that makes both a draft and franchise system effective.
What is Next?
So, where does this leave R360, essentially thrown to the wolves by the Unions and understandably so. A year out with so many questions unanswered, it doesn’t feel like the best position for a serious competition – no players announced, no grounds announced, no coaches or backup/support teams. It doesn’t even seem to have a public logo (hence the mediocre Rugby Ball Header).
Perhaps there is success to be seen in the Indian RPL Sevens league, which started this year. Franchise teams with local and international player and coach talent it was a huge success, but it also benefited Indian Rugby by exposing homegrown talent to top-level competition without having to work through the ranks.
I don’t see the same being possible with R360.
I guess we’ll have to watch and wait, but it won’t be with bated breath.
Author: The Dead Ball Area
