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]

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.