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California Rugby League

adamkungl

Immortal
Messages
42,955
The chances of this magic billionaire appearing is far more likely if there are more competitions like your California or Texas across the US, or maybe each of these regional competitions will one day turn into additional Conferences that feed into a National competition.

Anyway, whilst either of the above won't be happening anytime soon, I do hope that we see more of a regionalised / localised approach start to happen more across the US. For me, and I will admit that I'm following from afar, it has felt like Rugby League in the US has been too focused on just on the USARL (and previously AMNRL) Premiership.

By this I mean, any new teams or areas have been purely focused on trying to join that competition and nothing is done to help build the foundations below it, which has, in my opinion, stagnated the spreading of the code .

Even with both the Texas and California competitions, there are some rather ambitious plans, LA to SF for example is almost 6 hours driving, and whilst flights are cheap, they add up very quickly once you have 20-odd people flying regularly and are a lot to ask from amateur players for anymore than one offs, and even if you can get a few groups to commit to that, it then sets a high barrier for any new groups or teams to join (the same issue the East Coast competition has).

I hope for California, part of its mid-term plans to grow are to more break into sub-conferences, centred around SF and LA, versus everyone trying to play each other. From SF, the likes of Oakland, San Jose, Sacramento are all big cities which are within 2 hours of each other, whilst LA to San Diego is the same.

A setup like that would make it far easier for new clubs to pop up and to join or to start to build out reserve grade or age group teams below the top tier.

I see we're on the same page

Would be great to see small 4-6 team leagues centred around the largest and most influential cities in the US. Keep the barriers for entry low and get involved in local communities.
Then grow into more ambitious state and national plans from there.

San Francisco
Los Angeles
New York City
Houston
Dallas
Chicago
Jacksonville
Miami
Boston
Seattle
 

yakstorm

First Grade
Messages
5,293
I see we're on the same page

Would be great to see small 4-6 team leagues centred around the largest and most influential cities in the US. Keep the barriers for entry low and get involved in local communities.
Then grow into more ambitious state and national plans from there.

San Francisco
Los Angeles
New York City
Houston
Dallas
Chicago
Jacksonville
Miami
Boston
Seattle

Definitely and really like your suggested approach. Naturally if the 'winners' of these city based leagues then want to play off for say a 'State' or 'National' title, they can, but let those types of travel become 'one-offs' for teams each year, than a weekly commitment.

I wonder how many of the now 'defunct' Rugby League clubs in the US could still be running or could be restarted if the USARL started to take that approach below the main competition....

You could have ended up with something like this in the North
  • Washington Centre: Baltimore (Former), Washington (Former), Northern Virginia (Current)
  • NYC Centre: New York (Former), Connecticut (Former), New Haven (Former), New Jersey (Former), Brooklyn (Current), White Plains (Current), Southhampton (Former)
  • Philadelphia Center: Bucks County (Former), Philadelphia (Current), Wilmington (Current), Delaware (Former)
  • Boston Center: Oneida (Former), Rhode Island (Former), Boston (Current)
Naturally the above simplifies things a bit, as some new clubs were formed by old, and there were was of course politics, and other factors which saw some leave, but it does raise some 'what ifs'.
 

yakstorm

First Grade
Messages
5,293
Good stuff. Are these 2 new teams additions to other teams in California?

Yeah, they currently have 4x teams which will take part in the Exhibition clash later this year and the inaugural season next year:
  • LA Mongrel
  • SF Savage
  • Sacramento Diehards
  • Santa Rosa Braveheart
They have also announced that they'll be holding a youth clinic (Ages 6 - 17) in LA on November 9 in the hope of even running some youth clashes.
 

siv

First Grade
Messages
6,546
There is a lot of traction

Noticed the NFL Arena FL just folded

More players available to the US
 

yakstorm

First Grade
Messages
5,293
Match Day Schedule:

11am - Youth Clinic at Balboa Park
11am - San Francisco Development v Sacramento Development
1pm - Sacramento v Santa Rosa
3pm - San Francisco v LA

Will be a massive day. Match will be live streamed on Facebook.

Tickets available at https://www.eventbrite.com/e/los-an...co-savage-tickets-67354526201?aff=efbeventtix including a special Overseas Supporter Ticket which I highly encourage people on this forum to buy one or two of!
 

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