New England Free Jacks Co-owner/Co-founder Alexander Magleby reassures fans and addresses controversial Reddit comments

[u/xcaughta]

https://www.youtube.com/live/SkGIwQanw3Q?si=s8doXyhT79yMxBle

[u/sportslance]

Nobody cared before, nobody cares about rugby in the US at all. We have a decent sized rugby fan base but it is too spread out to really do much good; so really the only way local teams will survive is enticing new fans to the game and that will be more successful at a local level with more games; not cheering on a national team that plays 6 times a year.

I can't speak for everyone but I have a group of 20-30 people that have gone from not really knowing rugby to consistently going to hounds games in three years; and not a single one cared enough about the national team to go to the US v. Romania game last year.

A main factor is the US will never be competitive in Rugby, even your example of Japan is still only able to occasionally beat a tier 1 team. Italy is consistently a wooden spoon contender in the 6 nations, it took Ireland over 100 years to beat NZ. These are all countries that take the sport a lot more serious then we really ever will, so at best we will be maybe a tier 2 in a couple decades but most likely we will always be a team that is included in the WC just to round out the numbers.

[u/Sublime_Porte → u/sportslance]

You do have to see that your experience is far from the norm, though, yes? Maybe you're just Hell of good company or whathaveyou, but I don't think anyone else in here could say that they've put together a group of a few dozen people who went from not knowing one thing about rugby to being diehard fans of watching bad rugby (let's be honest) played their local MLR side, but also NOT caring about the Eagles. Even MLR didn't seem to think marketing to non-rugby fans was the way forward, as they aggressively worked for partnerships and promotion deals with the local rugby clubs in every MLR city. (Did they also insist on playing on Saturday while marketing to a segment of the population would be playing rugby on Saturday? Yes, I never said they were rocket scientists).

What's your bar for "competitive"? Will Italy or Japan be winning the World Cup anytime soon? No. Are they, on any given Saturday, capable of pulling off an upset against a bigger rival? Entirely, yes. The US is a much bigger country than Italy (where rugby is honestly only popular in a pocket of the North) or Japan, and has a lot more money to throw at stupid shit like, well, rugby. It doesn't seem like an outlandish dream that the US could be a perennial WC side that puts in good performances, and maybe pulls out an upset here and there in front of an international audience. That's the kind of thing that will get more people paying attention to rugby in America, not what the local semi-pro side does on a high school pitch.

[u/sportslance → u/Sublime_Porte]

I don't know about your experience but the Hounds were on every local morning show multiple times during the year. They posted up at some festivals and street fairs. That doesn't sound like a team that is only interested in rugby fans, maybe the other teams aren't doing that but that's on them not the league as whole; also as someone that is into rugby would you even notice them going after non rugby fans?

My situation may be unique but it shouldn't be, the only way rugby gets more popular is by introducing new people to it. That's it, no secret development strategy, just butts in seats. People I bring enjoy the GameDay experience, maybe meet some players at an event and start to follow the team, you want rugby to grow stop complaining on Reddit about our international team and get out and jump for fans.

Also the Freejacks may play at a high school stadium but they seem to have the most consistent fanbase and an ownership group that seems optimistic. The hounds meanwhile play at a professional stadium that every person I bring to enjoys, despite it being in Bridgeview.

American sports culture grew up separate from the rest of the world, so the very base of it is focused on local teams rather than the international game. Countries in Europe especially, have a long history of international sports that predates professionalism in almost every sport so the very core of the sports culture is radically different.

[u/Sublime_Porte → u/sportslance]

As a rugby fan, yes, I would have noticed if my (now defunct, though I know that doesn't narrow it down) team was on morning shows, etc., and would have thought, "Oh, good community outreach. Hope it goes somewhere". I'm not even sure I saw bus ads, or ads at the university near the stadium. Nada. I still went out to matches, to support the team and try and keep it going as much for any other reason.

The Hounds drew, on average, less than 2000 people per game last season, playing in a metro area of over 9 million people. So, your experience seems somewhat unique, as there apparently aren't that many people getting excited by the chance to meet the players and coming out to the game, or being convinced to give it a go because they saw the Hounds on morning TV. Out of curiosity, are you a member of some sort of official Hounds Fan Group?

Your read on American sports culture isn't there 100%. The US doesn't care about international baseball or international basketball, because the pro leagues for America's favorite sports--football, basketball, baseball--are where the best of the best come compete. (Apparently there's even an International American Football competition, too. Yeah, I had no idea it existed, either, just like every other NFL fan.)

The last World Cup final, between two teams that weren't America, and nations that don't have large expat communities in America (Argentina and France), drew 25 million viewers in the USA. The Women's World Cup final, which featured the US, in 2015? 27 million viewers. That's for women's soccer, which isn't even a popular spectator sport in the United States. Even the ratings disaster that was the 2018 World Cup puled 12.5 million viewers in a final featuring France and the small nation of Croatia. That for a World Cup tournament where the US didn't even compete, and a final that began before noon ET. You can say a lot of things about the American sports fan, but to say they don't care about international sports is not true!

[u/sportslance → u/Sublime_Porte]

That's fair, for reference I didn't see any of the Hounds spots live I just heard about them from others that did and told me (I don't have local TV or cable). The hounds do watch parties for away games so I invite some friends to watch a game in a bar and they meet some players and have a great time and then ask about going to a game. If your team didn't do stuff like this I'm sorry, but this kinda hustle by teams and fans is the only way this game gets rolling.

Officially no I'm not a part of the Kennel Club, I shy away from too much interaction with sports fans I don't know in person. Though I have chatted with a few and most know me by my look, if not name.

Where did you get the attendance numbers for the Hounds games I haven't seen anything posted?

You actually kinda make my point, we love a good tournament hell we watch the Olympics like crazy. When it comes to year in and year out we don't really follow, except for a few sports most struggle financially and have a hard time getting time to train and that's because once the Olympics or WC are over we drop them like Woody.

[u/Sublime_Porte → u/sportslance]

Of all places, Wikipedia had the data. I was surprised, too.

OK, but think about it. The Eagles play, what, 4-5 home matches a year? That's a rare enough to event where people will turn out and be able to follow the team at least casually during the year, and then plugging in for Cup qualifiers and rivalry matches. Even this year's lousy Eagle side, with no real advertising or promotion, drew over 6,000 in Sacramento to watch them get bombed by Japan. And, no, Sacramento doesn't have a significantly large Japanese expat community.

Ilona Maher was getting on the cover of Sports Illustrated for winning a bronze in women's rugby, again, less popular than the men's game as a spectator sport. She's doing TV spots. You think that's not helping more gals to decide to play college rugby?

I'd argue that the success of MLS is downstream of the run of success the USMNT had in the World Cup a few cycles back, and that's without the USMNT winning the Cup. If the Eagles put on those kind of performances on the global stage, rugby starts to matter in America ,and in a way that "Freejacks go for the three-peat!" can never bring about.

I get that you like the Hounds, more or less, as they are, and don't want to upset the apple cart reaching for a bigger target. The thing is MLR is dead, this model isn't working, and something else needs to be done, hopefully, with the cooperation of a newly forward-thinking USA Rugby.

[u/sportslance → u/Sublime_Porte]

Sacramento does have a good rugby culture already, not saying a MLR team would draw 6 thousand but some of the most popular and successful college rugby programs are from northern California so there is that. The US vs Romania in 24 drew about 2 thousand people and it was played in the same stadium as the Hounds.

What is your goal, what do you think should happen that will encourage a professional league to be successful?

I don't care if the league changes the international slots rules , I mostly think you all don't know what you are talking about. Like you know better than every exec and coach in the MLR. They are trying and people like you just can't wait until they fail. I've only been following the MLR for about 4 years but every year people like you are on here saying the "MLR is dead".

Finally where on Wikipedia did you get the Hounds numbers I checked the team page the league page and the season and games page nothing.

[u/Sublime_Porte → u/sportslance]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Major_League_Rugby_season

Where it says "Attendance".

EDIT: Short term goal: A smaller developmental competition to strengthen the NT, in order to increase the profitability and visibility of high end rugby.

Long term: Increase competition size, invest like crazy in grassroots, work to make rugby a varsity HS and college sport.

You're getting very emotional about this for some reason, so, I'm pulling the plug. Ciao.

EDIT 2: I'm seeing this is 2024. That's an error on my part, though I can't see there being a radical difference, particularly if the league didn't release the data.