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New North American Competition?


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Been watching some highlights on YouTube of california rl half a dozen teams, big fellows but low standard but at least they are playing, Razorbacks,  immortals, mongrels are some of the teams. 

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37 minutes ago, ELBOWSEYE said:

Been watching some highlights on YouTube of california rl half a dozen teams, big fellows but low standard but at least they are playing, Razorbacks,  immortals, mongrels are some of the teams. 

HAHAHA you quite clearly never saw the yorkshire sunday league division 6 in the 1970's 

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6 minutes ago, POR said:

HAHAHA you quite clearly never saw the yorkshire sunday league division 6 in the 1970's 

No north west counties for me only ventured into yorkshire in the colts league. 

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58 minutes ago, ELBOWSEYE said:

Been watching some highlights on YouTube of california rl half a dozen teams, big fellows but low standard but at least they are playing, Razorbacks,  immortals, mongrels are some of the teams. 

California RL seems a bit of a funny one and I'm not overly sure what the story is there. They seem to have been doing completely their own thing and have made some very odd comments on Twitter in the past. The only comment I have seen them make on this NARL league is a retweet of a fairly negative post about it.

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2 hours ago, Copa said:

And of course Sports Flicks is heavily connected to Serbian RL. 
 

Red Star Belgrade Rugby League Pty Ltd (Australia) is a shareholder and is owned by Colin Kleyweg who is Sports Flick’s commercial director.

The one thing I don't get about this is that Serbian RL is not exactly awash with money. How was the guy behind Red Star Belgrade able to put together bid £60m for the champions league rights in Australia? Seems very odd 

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On 03/04/2021 at 05:11, gingerjon said:

There seems to be a train of thought amongst some that we’re going to be witnessing NRL standard games in front of five figure crowds across America in about three months time.

I don't think anyone has that fantasy. We know the calibre of talent will be quite modest at the start. I think Toronto will bring in at least a few thousand per game if they replicate the game day experience of the Wolfpack, and if the games are fairly even and fun, the crowds will return. The other cities may be uneven, depending on the existing RL fan base, and how well they do at marketing and on the field.

 

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1 hour ago, Damien said:

California RL seems a bit of a funny one and I'm not overly sure what the story is there. They seem to have been doing completely their own thing and have made some very odd comments on Twitter in the past. The only comment I have seen them make on this NARL league is a retweet of a fairly negative post about it.

It's very strange none of their clubs were invited. California is the most populous state in the whole of the US with clubs already established 

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California RL definitely has some sass / attitude / whatever you want to call it. They are on one hand happy to be quite critical of a lot of things in RL and of the USARL, but on the other did attend the USARL AGM in February and often do a number of the things they knock / question the rest of the RL World on.

Whether they want to be disruptive or they are just trying to portray that image is hard to tell from the outside, regardless they are doing a great job in establishing a presence in a state far away from any existing RL infrastructure.

IMO, I just hope they continue doing what they're doing. The US is big enough and the USARL / NARL and California RL are all different enough (in terms of what they're doing, who they're targeting, etc) that they don't need to be even on speaking terms currently.

It's very different than the AMNRL and USARL who were literally fighting over the same turf, same clubs and same responsibilities and eventually they'll need to get along, but for now, let's hope all parties just keep pushing forward.

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1 hour ago, Damien said:

California RL seems a bit of a funny one and I'm not overly sure what the story is there. They seem to have been doing completely their own thing and have made some very odd comments on Twitter in the past. The only comment I have seen them make on this NARL league is a retweet of a fairly negative post about it.

The USA is a complete basket case. The USARL is two different legal bodies. One seems to run the domestic comp, the other the national team.

That's not to mention the AMNRL guys still hanging around.

Now the NARL seems to be furthur fracturing things by taking a few teams. 

It needs reform really.

new rise.jpg

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3 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

It's very strange none of their clubs were invited. California is the most populous state in the whole of the US with clubs already established 

The two clubs invited from California are two former Pro Rugby clubs with significant financial backing.

No disrespect to the California RL, but of the six clubs, only 3 existed before 2021 (and we know from Perez's interviews now that the NARL conversations started back in December last year) and of the 3 old clubs, they have less than 5 games of experience each.

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1 minute ago, Yakstorm said:

The two clubs invited from California are two former Pro Rugby clubs with significant financial backing.

Do we know that's for sure?

new rise.jpg

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12 minutes ago, OriginalMrC said:

The one thing I don't get about this is that Serbian RL is not exactly awash with money. How was the guy behind Red Star Belgrade able to put together bid £60m for the champions league rights in Australia? Seems very odd 

According to the Australian media Colin Kleyweg Red Star Belgrade Australia holds 5% of Sports Flick. So there must be others with, hopefully, substantial business savvy involved.

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3 hours ago, JM2010 said:

I'm just happy that someone has invested in North America and hopefully they'll be able to gradually increase the amount of teams and, more importantly, strengthen the game below the league

I think 24 teams by 2030 would be perfect.

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10 minutes ago, Damien said:

The Las Vegas Blackjacks were definitely a RU club, same logo and everything. The only real news about them that I could find was all RU.

That one is cool but less interesting being amateur. If the two California teams are run by Doug Schoninger it adds an insane new layer to all this.

new rise.jpg

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16 minutes ago, Copa said:

If Americans just see all forms as just “rugby”, I wonder if potential investors see it as an easier to understand rugby with a smaller (read: less expensive) playing roster?

And less ridiculous rules. Though Union would give far more scope for mid-game as breaks. 

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For those that don't know the guy behind PRO Rugby, a professional union comp before MLR clashed with the governing body USA Rugby.

They had 5 centrally funded teams and folded after one season.

There was some legal ramifications because the owner, Doug Schoninger, claimed USA Rugby killed his business.

https://www.dailycamera.com/2019/09/02/boulder-law-firm-in-rugby-legal-battle-wins-colorado-supreme-court-ruling/

The two California teams carry one exact name: San Francisco Rush and one very similar name: San Diego Swell instead of San Diego Breakers.

 

new rise.jpg

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1 hour ago, Pulga said:

For those that don't know the guy behind PRO Rugby, a professional union comp before MLR clashed with the governing body USA Rugby.

They had 5 centrally funded teams and folded after one season.

There was some legal ramifications because the owner, Doug Schoninger, claimed USA Rugby killed his business.

https://www.dailycamera.com/2019/09/02/boulder-law-firm-in-rugby-legal-battle-wins-colorado-supreme-court-ruling/

The two California teams carry one exact name: San Francisco Rush and one very similar name: San Diego Swell instead of San Diego Breakers.

 

It was a complete dumpster fire, lots of unpaid vendors etc. Check the r/prorugby reddit for details. Not a guy I would rely on personally

 

Edit: A little flavour of 4 years ago when SF Rush failed for the first time. Top comment is an alleged former employee. If it is Schoninger running these teams I would run a mile.

https://www.reddit.com/r/prorugby/comments/5xjd0n/out_if_the_loop_whats_going_on_with_pro/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

 

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