What can the Rugby World Cup learn from US nailing of Fifa World Cup?
With a United States Rugby World Cup just five years away, Ollie Phillips asks what can the sport learn from the Fifa World Cup.
Sitting here in the UK looking across the Atlantic to a World Cup mainly staged in the United States, it is difficult not to get just a little bit excited about the Rugby World Cup being held in America in 2031.
Against the odds they’ve managed to nail a huge tournament based around a sport it is fair to say the Americans aren’t all on board with just yet.
We shouldn’t be surprised that the US sports machine has been able to put on a show – it’s their bread and butter – but it signals that there is an audience there for rugby to tap into too.
Union has some upsides compared to football, too, with rugby closer to NFL than any other sport. And this World Cup has seen fans able to drink in the stands and mingle with away supporters – both staples of rugby across Europe and the southern hemisphere.
Yankify it!
What World Rugby must do is recognise that the 2031 World Cup needs to be different to the edition held next year in Australia and the last tournament in France in 2023.
Sunday’s World Cup final will see an extended half-time period – for the likes of Justin Bieber and BTS to do their thing – and that is the kind of enterprise rugby must embrace in 2031. The red trousers brigade will moan about it, no doubt, but a World Cup in the United States isn’t really for those fans.
World Cups tend to offer up a mix of “banker” tournaments – where cash is king in places like England and France – and growth and share tournaments – where the sport pays homage to big rugby nations with smaller stadiums, like New Zealand, or heads to newer nations, like Japan.
The World Cup in the United States could be both – it could be a revenue generator like no other tournament but also serve to grow the game. It needs full stadiums, tailgating, appropriate location choice and more.
It may not be realistic for a Rugby World Cup to fill the 60,000-capacity stadiums that the footballers are, so picking and choosing the right arenas will be key. Do they follow football and head to Miami, or do they settle for Orlando? If it’s the former, do they look at the NFL arena or David Beckham’s Inter Miami stadium?
World Cup reality
Does rugby look into areas like Charlotte and San Diego, or stick with major stadiums that have hosted rugby before?
New Zealand are taking on South Africa in Baltimore as part of their British and Irish Lions-style tour while Chicago and Philadelphia have hosted rugby before.
We need to Yankify rugby union in the coming years so it’s not alien to the masses in 2031 – and the sport must get a march on rugby league, which has been able to establish a foothold in Las Vegas thanks in part to the Australian NRL.
But it goes beyond appealing to locals: broadcast is crucial to spreading the word and those pesky hydration breaks could even come in handy for explaining some of the sport’s many nuances to a new audience.
The World Cup in the United States has been a slam dunk, and rugby should be looking at it as a template for an open goal in 2031. Let’s hope the sport is watching.
Former England Sevens captain Ollie Phillips is the founder of Optimist Performance. Follow Ollie @OlliePhillips11