FIRST off let me say i love the logo and the name, i am a little sketchy on the league part of the name but its growing on me. with todays news and article on bleacher report: Bleacher report : NRFL
i have some pros and cons about it all.
con: so far all efforts seemed focused on east coast only and mentality of filling stadiums should be approached with cation. it has taken MLS over 15 years to get to where they are now and filling stadiums with owners barely stop bleeding red. i would suggest targeting rugby hot beds and aiming for smaller stadiums instead of shooting for NFL size stadiums, nothing turns fans and players off right away then to sit in a large stadium or arena and only have 1/3 filled. there is nothing wrong with playing in 5-20k stadiums. charleston has a nice 5k stadium and even thoe it is small its coast effective for any potential owner and allows for intimate setting for fans and players. now if you have a team in a market that has much more then 5k fan intrested then sure shoot for a larger size stadium but to say you will play in NFL stadium that seats any where from 60k-75k and you will only get about 8-12k average then that spells nothing but dissater for your franchise, moral of the team and fan support. im not saying go out and have your owners build rugby specific stadiums but it wont hurt to connect with local mls teams and use there facilities. last i checked i'm sure the MLS owners would be happy to have another avenue to bring in money (i've publicly tweeted the san jose earthquakes president about rugby games and there new stadium and he has said numerous times that they want to host rugby matches and would be just fine). to flat out ailegnt half your potential fan base and to be so ambiotus is very risky.
Pro: atlest something is happening! regaurdless how many holes there is and how its not what we all want, none the less its something! who knows from this there could be another league willing to start up and if also succesful would eventually merge or creat a D2 level, with talks of west coast teams takeing matters into there own hands and creating there own league if succesfull they to could have cross over games. we could see our own rugby version of MLB. think about it, with a country so vast and large and to much land in between clubs why not have a umbrella label but both leagues work side by side and winner of west vs winner of east. rugby is just as well known around the world as soccer is, i know soccer is alittle more popular. but if those in charge can just fallow the blue print of what MLS has done by starting out low pay and working there way up to where they are now why cant rugby be where MLS is 10-15 years from now. they just need to be cautious and careful how to go about things. NRFL is being ambitious and willing to put up the money, taking football players may not be the key idea we all want especially when there are several rugby players in the usa who have been playing since high school sitting here waiting for a league like this to happen. what one of the problems soccer had before mls was even with so many kids playing soccer there was no where for players after college to go any where and to start off with to get attention and sponsorship going mls had to bring in popular maybe out dated soccer players, now if NRFL is successful these current youth kids who are going through the system will now have a league for them self's to strive for. football players right now yes and why not, league needs players to start off with that will catch the average Americans eyes and can deliver a hit. eventually there will be more specific rugby players who will make there way on teams, but flip side is you will have two sport players. and having a good player who is good at football and rugby is not a bad idea at all.
even if its not what we want we as rugby fans and supporters should get behind such efforts, once teams become more realistic pick one and support it. nothing shows potential owners and buyers more then seeing green. if merchandise sales are good and tv viewership is sub-par then other investors such as MARK CUBAN would more then likely want to come in. but if we hold a grudge against NRFL and don't support it and go against it then we do nothing but set our self's back even further from finally getting a legitimate league going where players like Todd clever and Chris wyles can stay states side and play. with the potential money from Americans and better facilities to back such efforts maybe having Canada also involved wont be such a bad idea. 1) they are ranked higher then usa, 2) seem to always find a way to win games against usa and 3) better organization top to bottom having those up north will not be a bad idea and may in the long run strengthen rugby all together in North America and begin to challenge the northern hemisphere countries and southern more often. there is nothing wrong for us to have a strong lasting relationship with our rivals, certainly couldn't hurt us any more.
but sadly until rugby law can stop hyping its self and start showing us fans investors, official teams, players and contracts. this is nothing more then what others have promised us.
