It’s hugely popular in Europe, New Zealand and Australia, but rugby is still in a little blip in the United States. North America’s first professional rugby body Professional Rugby Organization’s Chief Executive Officer Doug Schoninger sees that as an advantage.
Their new league is all set to debut on 17th April, is targetting people by positioning itself as a hip, alternative sports option.
Schoninger said that they are new and disruptive and this is what differentiates them from most of the sports out there.
This is going to be really welcome to the younger millennial group, the 28 and under demographic, who have not attached themselves to traditional sports.
New things generally attracts young. It is the fastest developing team sport in America at youth level, although this is obviously from a low base – but that’s fine, as even Amazon started small once, too.
To promote the launch of Pro Rugby, the league is primarily sticking to social media, though is also promoting it’s tickets to youngsters on the www.liverugbytickets.co.uk website.
Since November, it has uploaded videos on their social channels which include highlights from team tryouts as well as interviews with players and coaches, including one that explains how the sport differs from American football.
The new league also introduced Facebook pages for their 5 teams based in San Diego, San Francisco, Denver, Obetz (Ohio) and Sacramento (California).
Schoninger told that the players did not come in for money, they came in for passion, and are all only semi-professional so all have normal jobs too because they still have to pay the bills!