‘Growing the audience for rugby’: PR7s seeks to seed game in America

In May, World Rugby announced that the US will host the men’s Rugby World Cup in 2031 and the women two years later. The news started the clock on a decade-long project to establish rugby union as an American sport.

Four months on, on the eve of a women’s World Cup in New Zealand, to say all is not well in US rugby would be like saying all is not dry in the ocean.

In 15s, the men’s Eagles have not yet qualified for France 2023 while the women beat Scotland in a World Cup warm-up but then shipped 52 points to England. At home, Major League Rugby, the men’s pro league, faces uncertainty over teams in LA and Austin, both disqualified amid board-level dispute last season. The MLR champions, Rugby New York, parted company with coach Marty Veale.

In sevens, the World Cup in South Africa last week returned a disappointing result for the US men, who finished 11th, though the women came in fourth.

Talk to Owen Scannell, however, and can-do spirit abounds. A player at Dartmouth College who worked for the New England Free Jacks in MLR, he is now chief of his own start-up, Premier Rugby Sevens.

PR7s is a professional competition in which men and women compete over a series of tournaments for the same ultimate trophy. After a pilot event in Memphis in 2021 San Jose, Washington DC and Austin hosted events this summer. Scannell declares himself “really happy” with how it all played out.

“From an in-person audience to what we had from a streaming audience, a lot of what we’ve been doing is about growing the audience for rugby. I think we’re starting to really see that happen.”

PR7s has statistics to tout: “716% increase in ticketing, 355% increase in sponsorship, over 1.6 million minutes watched on Fubo Sports Network, 18.54% average