Rugby is on the rise—how brands can participate

Anyone doubting rugby’s potential to break through in culture need only observe the ascent of Ilona Maher, the U.S. rugby powerhouse who in the months following the Summer Olympics has become a Sports Illustrated swimsuit model and “Dancing with the Stars” contestant, building a social media audience of 7.4 million between Instagram and TikTok. And there’s much more to rugby than Maher. To hear some tell it, the sport is on the precipice of a major growth spurt in the U.S. that could benefit the brands that support it. “The opportunity for rugby to have its breakout moment in the U.S. is huge, and one that’s entirely achievable in the next decade,” said Charlie McEwen, executive VP and managing executive of rugby rights sales at Wasserman. Read about all of the 2024 Marketers of the Year Whether rugby can become the “next MLS” or “the next Formula 1” remains to be seen but stars have aligned to provide the game a shot. The Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028 will feature the men’s and Paris Bronze-medal winning women’s teams in rugby sevens, while World Cup tournaments scheduled for 2031 (men) and 2033 (women) will both be held in the U.S. A new professional rugby league, Women’s Elite Rugby, is scheduled to begin play in the U.S. in the spring of 2025, joining Major League Rugby, the seven-year-old men’s pro league. The Pacific Nations Cup (a 2027 World Cup qualifier) and the HSBC Svns World Championship will also feature U.S. games in 2025. U.S. fans are catching onto the fervor with which rugby is supported overseas. Globally, rugby counts 10 million players and 500 million fans in 221 countries, according to the sports agency Two Circles. Global TV broadcasts related to the 2019 men’s rugby World Cup in Japan brought in 857 million viewers worldwide, according to an EY report commissioned by the Rugby World Cup 2019 Organizing Committee. This year, the 66,000 fans at Stade de France watching rugby sevens at the Summer Games on July 28 set a new record for a women’s rugby event. The upcoming events portend a strategic opportunity for brands to get behind rugby now, and be there when the Olympics and World Cup events play out, according to Adam Davis, managing director of North America for Two Circles, which is marketing rugby in the U.S. on behalf of World Rugby. The agency is charged with enhancing the game’s commercial opportunities through fan engagement, content creation and sponsorships. Two Circles is currently identifying potential partners, prioritizing brands that have been involved in women’s sports or have prior ties to the Olympics or rugby, said Davis. Team USA currently has deals with the uniform provider Macron, rugby equipment makers Gilbert and Throne, and with World Rugby Shop. It is seeking partners for on-uniform branding, in-stadium assets and media integration. According to Davis, brands that support rugby will see their investment make a difference in a way that’s difficult to achieve in bigger, more saturated sports. “Brands are really looking to cut through today. The investment they make is not to just put a name on the front of the jersey, it’s the ability to tell the story of the impact they are making and how their money is going towards driving the sport forward,” said Davis. “In the stick-and-ball sports we all know, those opportunities are really hard to find.” Read more: What to know about sports uniform sponsorships Investors in global teams—which now include private equity firms CVC, Silver Lake and the Ackerley Sports Group—are another indication of rugby’s potential to grow in the U.S., McEwen noted. World Rugby is in talks with private equity investors on its strategy to grow rugby in the U.S. ahead of the 2031 and 2033 World Cup events, Reuters reported in October. Its goals include establishing rugby as a “mainstream” sport with 500,000 registered players and growing World Rugby’s fan relationships by 2,400% in the next eight years. Soccer parallel Davis compares the opportunity to get in front of rugby to the branding potential of the U.S. women’s soccer club back in 1999. “If you could go back and ask a brand if you could have taken part in the ’99 World Cup and the build-up to that, would you have taken it? Any brand that says no would have been lying to you.” And while soccer player Brandi Chastain earned her fame during that World Cup event, in rugby, “the star is already here,” Davis said, pointing to Maher’s social following—bigger on its own than the entirety of the rugby world’s legendary club, New Zealand’s All Blacks. “In comparison to soccer, [rugby] is a relatively small global sport, so if it was to gain a following of say 5% of the sports enthusiasts in the U.S., this could have a dramatic impact on the sport as a whole,” said McEwen. Major League Rugby controls its own streaming platform, the Rugby Network, which broadcasts league games in addition to international events such as England’s Premiership Rugby league. Fox Sports 1 and 2 showed 24 Major League Rugby games last season, in addition to select Premiership games and its playoffs. World rugby fans can stream through RugbyPass TV. The sport is not yet a big enough platform to attract the kinds of brands that invest in major sports like the NFL and NBA, one sports agency executive said. However, rugby can be a vehicle for smaller or challenger brands looking for the opportunity to create bespoke marketing campaigns and differentiate from competitors. “It’s not a top five sport in the states just yet, but there’s a targetable fan base who get it, and for the right brand with a lean budget, it’s a good opportunity,” that person said. @majorleaguerugby Team support>>> @Utah Warriors Rugby #MLR2024 #rugby ♬ original sound - MLR One potential long-term outcome for rugby can be seen in the example of Major League Soccer, which strategically built its fanbase on a wave of global soccer interest, U.S. events and demographic changes favorable to the game. Rugby could follow a similar path but its ascent could be more rapid, said Phil Camm, a consultant working to establish Women’s Elite Rugby. Camm said salaries of U.S. and European professionals range closer than the wage disparity between pro soccer players in the U.S. and Europe. Rugby also has a relatively short history as a pro sport (players were granted the opportunity to go pro by the International Rugby Board in 1995). “The gap is not that big between where the U.S. is and the rest of the world is,” he said. That’s showing in the success the U.S. women demonstrated in the Olympics, finishing third behind New Zealand and Canada. Body positivity Fast-moving and physical, rugby shares similarities with American football (tackling and “touchdowns,” known in rugby as tries) and soccer (going forward by going backward). “Fundamentally, it’s a territory game,” said Camm. And though there is much nuance to absorb, “It’s really not that difficult to pick up the basics.” Rugby union, the traditional game, uses 15 players on a side and is the style of play used in pro men’s and women’s leagues and in World Cup events. The sleeker rugby sevens is a more compact version of the sport using seven players a side. That’s the game being played in the Olympics. Rugby calls for a variety of physical abilities and shapes—a phenomenon Maher has used to promote body positivity, a resonant theme of her social media takes. “You could see a 5-foot speedster on one side of the field and a 6-foot-2 powerlifter on the other side, playing on the same team,” said Camm. @ilonamaher As long as haters keep saying dumb stuff, I’m gonna keep clapping back ♬ original sound - Ilona Maher More exclusive content for All Access subscribers Agency Review Tracker Leading National Advertisers 2024 World’s Largest Advertisers Rugby boasts an affluent worldwide fanbase. Businesswoman Michele Kang pledged $4 million to support the women’s rugby sevens team’s progress toward Los Angeles following its bronze medal performance in Paris. Kang owns the pro women’s soccer clubs Washington Spirit, Olympique Lyonnais Féminin and London City Lionesses. And owing to its popularity on Ivy League campuses, rugby has always had a connection to U.S. boardrooms. Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan is noted for his background as a rugby player at Brown. There are about 4,000 grassroots rugby players in the U.S. now, according to Davis, “but the Ilona effect is going to grow that pretty substantially,” he predicted. Still, he said, brands shouldn’t think of the sport as “Ilona or bust.” “After the women won [Bronze] in Paris, it felt like there was more talk about rugby in the next two weeks than there had been in the U.S. in 20 years,” Davis said. Ventures like Elite Women’s Rugby can help sustain the momentum. The new women’s pro league is growing out of the Women’s Premier League, a “pay to play” model that has existed since 2009 in which players have to pony up for transportation, uniforms and other costs. Six cities are on board for the inaugural season. Brands are enthusiastic if cautious, Camm said. “The conversation we’re having with potential partners and sponsors has been very, very positive,” said Camm. “The challenge is as a new league, there’s no legacy data for us to point to and say, this is the value of a logo placement or social media activation.” It is not known whether Maher will participate in the new women’s league, but Camm suspects other personalities will emerge, such as U.S. national flanker Rachel Ehrecke (below), whom Camm called “the next superstar.” View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rachel Ehrecke (@raykeykey) “Having people like Ilona is amazing, [but] there are a lot more characters like her out there,” said Camm. “What I’m hoping for in rugby is that it’s not a fixation that there’s this one player that is the only icon. There are hundreds of these women throughout the U.S. that all have their own stories.” Maher and her representatives did not return messages seeking comment. Revisit: Olympians who got brands’ attention after Paris Major League Rugby’s continued health will also be an important element of rugby’s growth in the U.S., as is MLR’s strategic relationship with USA Rugby and World Rugby, said McEwen. The league grew by two new teams in 2024 to 12 (including a developmental squad for U.S. Rugby), but its Dallas franchise recently said it would not be back for 2025. MLR’s brand partners include American Airlines and the tech company Globant, which is building a new version of its Rugby Network streaming platform. Last week, MLR announced a leaguewide uniform deal with Macron, the Italian sporting goods supplier. Macron also recently announced a deal to outfit Team USA. Davis said Two Circles wants to land the right brands with USA Rugby, not necessarily the most. “We’re not an NBA team that is going to have 30 partners,” Davis said. “This is about less is more.”

Rugby is on the rise—how brands can participate

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