How long till Rugby is huge in the states?

Tyler: How long till Rugby is huge in the states?
World football is starting to get big here, how long till Rugby becames popular?

Answers and Views:

Answer by jeremy t
It will never be huge in the states, we have Football. Which is a faster, bigger and harder hitting sport. So the answer once again is never

Answer by Jessi
can’t come soon enough…I loved watchin Rugby while I lived in the UK…and now my better 1/2 loves watching football here in the US
sometimes we happen along a match on tv but would love to see more of them

Answer by Luis A
I don’t see this happening.
People in the US are not interested in what happens outside of the US, don’t know in their most part what rugby is and they prefer to watch American football.
They prefer it because it is more violent (?), extends for thee hours and has more advertisement which allows them to eat more junk food, beer and time to go to pee.

Answer by nonenzedder
It never will…read somewhere that american moms think rugby is way too dangerous and won’t really encourage their children to play it. Soccer isn’t seen as anywhere near as threatening.

Answer by Rupert W
You know, the cultural shift is a long time happening and in the face of the bigger sports I don’t really see it being sustained.

The history of rugby is amateur and the global marketing of it remains that way pretty much. To get a US team to win the world cup would not take many years if only you could pay some atheletes enough to stop playing Football and play a man’s game but who pays the $ M’s in salary and then lets the guy play without pads and a helmet?

Sadly the things that make rugby great is not the watching, the spectacle. It’s everything that the game embodies and what it means to play it. Even now you get more people play every Saturday afternoon than go to watch the pros. I hate watching it but love the game with a passion. The US hasn’t learned about the game from the grass roots and so has fed itself on the hype and commercial breaks in their chosen sports.

I heard a Canadian Sports radio host say recently that if North America could start from scratch and adopt any sport as a main sport, rugby would be the first choice. There is, however just too much Football and baseball to get through – hockey I don’t mind as it has all of the main traits that I enjoy about rugby, courage, teamwork, individuality, planning, fitness, camraderie, flow, endurance, passion.

Any country that embraces Nascar as a visual spectacle is going to have a hard time embracing rugby’s nuances. They took cricket, dumbed it down to baseball (rounders to 12 year old girls in the UK) and I’d hate to see what they would have to do to rugby to make it palletable in the US now – oh look, it’s the NFL (Not enuF Long breaks).

Answer by ZKSUJ
Rupert W, nicely put.

but didnt American football derive from rugby? I mean I thought it was the guys in the States taking the game and changing it to suit them selves.

Answer by Disgustin’ Justin
Unfortunately never, because of the lesser opportunity for commercial breaks, which is very important in the USA. American football stops every ten seconds or so. Nascar doesn’t, but then people who watch Nascar will look at anything as long as it’s got bright colours. Rugby will not be able to compete with that on a commercial basis, and will not attract the sponsors.

It’s the same with football. Football will rise briefly and then die out, as it did with the NY Cosmos. Of course kids will continue to play it in America but then kids play miniture baseball (AKA rounders) in the UK and no-one there cares less about baseball.

Answer by Bru
How long did it take for the World Global game to take hold of America about 35 years when the introduced Pele to the American soccer league. It could take 20 years it might take 50 years but it will happen. First China, then the United States. Then it would be truly global commercially. It has taken a hold of small pockets of America but not nationally.

Answer by welshchick
WOW……the negativity on here so far with the answers!
Realistically, rugby will never be huge in the states as each country/nation has been brought up with their nations game!
However, there is nothing wrong with promoting any game, my son played ice/blade hockey for his school, here in Wales,never heard of before, but he enjoyed playing it, and I thoroughly enjoyed watching it! Unfortunately, due to lack of competitors, the team, disbanded! this was sad!
Was this due to lack of promoting the game? I think so!
I think National teams who do well in their sports help promote that sport and USA have showed pride and passion and have improved since the last RWC…….so hopefully, rugby will become more popular in the USA!

Answer by moo_the_conqueror
Never.

The derivative of Rugby, Gridiron, is the Yanks favourite game. They will stick to that. Rugby will continue to grow, but won’t be bigger than Gridiron.

Wallabies to beat England tonight

Answer by Meeeeegan
It will never be as big as American football here in the states. Rugby is growing but its a ways off… rugby is just now entering SOME high schools in some areas of the country!! Many people don’t know what it is until college. I had someone tell me, “I like horses!,” when I told her I played rugby…thinking it was polo. most colleges have teams. The average rugby player in the states is college educated and over the age of 21. We are professionals, lawyers, teachers, dr’s, accountants, nuclear technician instructors, etc….playing club rugby still! The USA Eagles only get together before big matches to train for a short time. They play in club teams in their home towns and most are either students or have real time jobs. Most were found by participation in national playoffs of select sides from their club’s union team. They paid their own way to Rugby World Cup. Some play professionally overseas. they are true amatuers.

yes, in usa, ruggers have to compete with american football. and rugby is not televised here at all. this, as ive said many times before, is due mostly to lack of advertisement time- bottom line- if given a choice of am football or rugby- a network would be insane to choose rugby just due to ad time. Have any of you ever watched an american football televised game??… its a complete sensory overload of sound effects, visual effects, songs at the stadium, commentating, etc… they have to make the game SEEM interesting just to keep the audience- everytime the score comes on screen- its a loud swooshing sound and sparkles across the screen- its insane. i cant stand it!!! American football only appears to be bigger, faster, and harder hitting because of the visual effects, I think!

As for the comments about NASCAR- ugh- I hate it- but think about all the ads on all those cars… cha ching! Not all Americans love it!!!!

yes mothers seem to think rugby is more dangerous- but we also need to reduce the stereotype of drunken hooligans and dykey lesbians playing the sport in order for it to be attractive to mothers… we do this by being positively involved in our communities.

Where I live, the city wont even let us rent a field to practice on. We squat on a piece of a park field and fight off all the soccer players. In the winter, when its darker earlier, we’ll have to pull up all the cars and turn on headlights. We need to get our communities supporting us= we do this by first supporting the communities.

The key to growth is going to be developing a youth program, increasing awareness of rugby through positive involvement in communities, and getting some kind of televised events (I’d settle for world cup scores or highlights for now!)
Rugby won’t ever be as popular as American football here, but I believe we can pull together a world class team and get out of the “minnow” stage very quickly. If we’d concentrate on rugby a fraction of the effort that we don on football, we’d be great! And look how well the Eagles played! FYI- The USA won the last 2 gold medals in olympic rugby… beating france each time!

Answer by cavsfootballplayer
im from the us
i used to love football
but rugby changed it all
cause rugby has no timeouts.no pads,and no pussies
ppl can argue that football is harder
but they start and stop every 5 secs
its boring as hell

but it is getting more popular
usa teams r getting better(have u seen the 07rugby world cup)

it’ll be a while i think 10 to 15 years
sad