Argument for NW ProRugby, and other spots

The one market I would love to see this league go to in the next few years would be the Pacific North West. A area that so badly wants to show USA Rugby that they can support a test match and other major events. Rugby in the NW is one of the fastest growing markets in the US. With Seattle leading the charge there is great men's and women's club games, college level is well represented on the national stage, with the NCRC becoming a well run conference and model other collegiate conferences should fallow, even the youth system has its act together and is pretty easy to fallow, with Washington and Oregon constantly having teams ranked nationally in both single school and multi school rankings. Both have tremendous All-Star based teams , and how can we forget ATAVUS being located in Seattle and doing amazing works around the country.

 I do believe that ether a Portland or Seattle team could draw fairly well in a good size venue given the chance and marketed well through out the area. there is no reason as to why this team cant draw fairly good numbers each week, especially WHEN a Vancouver team comes on board it should be a given to place a team in the PNW and see both teams create a heated rivalry that will surely have big number of fans from both sides of the border crossing and supporting the teams well. The only issue is venue locations of course. Portland is limited on locations as is Seattle but not as bad. The only two venues that could support a PDX based team would be Providence park and Merlo Field . Providence park could work and with all its nice amenities would make for a great game day atmosphere, along with easy access from mass transit and close to downtown this would be a prime location, the only draw back is both men's and women's professional soccer teams call the stadium home, so squeezing in  rugby games granted it'll just be 5 games, for now, could become more hard then people think so if this team happens it'll have to almost have some form of connection with the front office of the MLS team to pull it off. The Merlo Filed is a nice little stadium that seats just under 5,000. located on the campus of University of Portland this venue sits north of downtown and to the west of PDX, so traveling fans and teams could easily leave there hotel down town, head to the game then just head 20 minutes east and catch a flight home. But being on a college campus there goes the chance of any Beer being sold during the games, plus it doesn't look very good for a Pro Team to play on a college facility and not there own or a Professional venue. upside is the team would only have to battle it out with the timbers 2 of the usl for field time versus two Professional teams on one field.

 Seattle would be a nice match to pair up with a Vancouver based team, would only be hours away from each other and would provide a great rivalry from the get go. Seattle's main issue like Portland would be lack of stadia. I am not a native of the area, my grandfather does live in Oak Harbor so I have been to Washington plenty of times, but my only knowledge of a few suitable locations would be Memorial stadium at the Seattle city center which is where the Space Needle is located. The stadium is quite old and would also need some upgrades to the facility. The location is great and parking from understanding is not a big issue. the only main tenants to the facility right now are the Seattle Reign of the NWSL. they them self's did upgrade the locker rooms but mainly to suit there needs so I am sure there would have to be some other work done to suit two rugby teams. the facility seats about 12k but could have seating restrict to one side to have 6k seats available for games like the Reign do already. seating is also a issue that the team could get away with for a while but would have to down the road make some investment into upgrading some of the old bleachers. the other issue that the stadium has is the football and soccer lines already on the turf and would have to constantly paint over them every game.

 If any team does play there they would have to get the field sanctioned or help pay for a new field, even though the stadium poses more cons then pros it could still make for a great home and easy to sell to the area as Seattle's Team, during the season in which Pro Rugby is looking at there really is only the Reign to compete with for field time so there shouldn't be that much of a hassle to get playing Time. Also I read that a while ago the city and the school district that actually owns the stadium agreed on renovating the entire area and would also essentially turn the whole field and rebuild the stadium to a smaller more suitable size I think 5-8k and in the summer months the city would take over events held there while during the school season the school district would handle the facility, but then again that was from some time ago and haven't seen anything more recent since they last agreed upon the deal. The Last location that comes to mind is the Starfire stadium, which sits south of Seattle to the east of Sea-Tac Airport. It is a wonderful small facility that seats about 4k and could prove to be a nice home field with great sights for fans to watch games, closer to the action . recently got a nice upgrade for some of the seating's, the stadium its self is not that old and from all accounts did a wonderful job a few years ago for the national 7's tournament. the down side is like I said it sits quite a ways away from Seattle its self, I am not familiar with the area so I don't know where about a majority of the rugby clubs sit in Washington and around the Seattle metro area. From my understanding when reading info online is that the Sounders minor league team calls starfire home for games and the US Open cup matches for the sounder are primarily held there also, so scheduling could provide a bit of a issue.

To move out of the NW briefly there is one club or place that could be ready to join in right away, and another area in So-Cal could host a team. The Kansas City Blues already have a relationship with Sporting Kansas city of the MLS and plays its home games at the training facility of the team known as swope park. seating is only 1,500 but when looking at the facility there is room to bring in more seats to make it larger. there is potential and could help close the gap in the Midwest with a Chicago team and fill in the space between the west and east coasts. I know everyone wants to know when a LA team will be added but I also would like to say instead of LA why not San Diego ? There is no NHL, no NBA or MLS teams to worry about with potential for overlapping of leagues but just the MLB Padres. With just 1 major league team in the city there lies a market sitting ready to be tapped into, plus with the threat of the Chargers Bolting to LA, The city of SD will be looking for another team to support and to call there own.

Thus far the league is stating that teams would only play 10 games during the season which means 5 home games but this is just this first year, those numbers could rise when more teams enter so 10 games could turn into 14 or 18 which means more homes , the higher the number the more of a struggle it may be for these two locations, Seattle and PDX , may have in securing playing field. But I remain optimistic and excited , this area of the US does get looked over for major rugby events and I hope to one day see a test match played somewhere here in the near future with a Pro Rugby team calling some where home. (if I missed another location let me know , Eugene could be tossed in here but the only stadium that would of fit burnt down some months ago , it'll be years before the stadium can be rebuilt if it would be. prior before plans where in place to turn the old ball park into a nice 5k stadium for the minor league soccer team in the area)