Rugby League In Dallas Tx, Usa

[yankeeboy]

I am an American teenager, who first got interested in League and Union after seeing a game or two on old Fox Sports World. I now play union. League is a much better sport to watch, but I have never seen a live game.

I think that I would be too young at first to play for the Dragons, unless we can get some kind of U19 team started. I am almost certain that, besides the "After School All Stars" in NYC, there is no Jr RL in the USA.

Here are the contact details for the St George Illawarra Dragons: http://dragons.com.au/contactus/index.asp

And here is the site to contact Les Catalans (they have introduced a new domain name, www.lescatalans.fr, but everything links to the old site): http://www.utc13.com/contact.php

One thing that could be in the future for Dallas RL would be if a major match, perhaps USA vs GB or France, or something like that, could be organized to be played at FC Dallas' new venue in Frisco. In my opinion, it looks like it will be the perfect venue for top level rugby league. I remember a few years ago, they had "World Arena Rugby." With very little advertising, they got 3000 fans, many of whom were interested in finding out how to play rugby. With a good advertising campaign, a match like this could help bring attention to RL in Texas, and also kick start the Dallas RLFC. The match could also be played on a high school or college ground, maybe Highland Park's Highlander Stadium or SMU's GJ Ford Stadium.

Perhaps they could revive the St Patty's Day game, with USA vs Ireland.

 

[yankeeboy]

I am wondering whether ST George Dragons will want to be affiliated with more than one American team.

The seven NRL teams which do not have AMNRL affiliates are the Broncos, Sea Eagles, Cowboys, Storm, Roosters, Warriors, and Panthers.

 

[dallas dragons]

good thinking, I was exactly thinking the same thing about the new stadium in Frisco, it is the perfect size 20,000 seats amd the pitch laid out exclusively for soccer is the same size as a rugby pitch. I know that I am going to check it out when it is going to open in few weeks. This soccer complex is a dream with its 17 adjacent pitches for training. It is a world class venue. Plus that stadium has been designed to be expended to 45,000 50,000 seats in the future. The MLS is getting it right in soccer. Dallas FC is going to be one of the top team in the country for a long time with such a complex. I wish it was a rugby complex, what a gem it would be .
Ford Stadium at SMU would also be a perfect rugby stadium with its 35,000 seats. A brand new unused stadium except for 6 footballs games a year. What a shame. SMU should at least let the Harlequins used that stadium for superleague games. The best soccer teams in summer come to the USA for exibitions games and fill up stadiums . The IRB should do the same for Rugby Union . Why not a match between the Crusaders and Toulouse. In Rugby League they should do the same . A state of orgin game in the USA, and a World club Grand Final between the Superleague champ and the NRL champ in a US city . That would boost the interest in rugby as a sport in the USA.

 

[yankeeboy]

Yes, those would be good ideas, but they would never happen. The IRB thinks only of the Tier 1 Nations, and the RLIF likewise.

Any match held in the USA would have to include the USA. The only other possibility I could think of would be a RL Tri Nations match between AUS and NZ on the way to GB, perhaps held at LA's Home Depot Center.

If you can get the new Sports Illustrated (with the And 1 streetballers on the cover), there is an excellent article called "Up and Scrumming" about rugby in the states and how hard it is to get professional commitment. It is a good read.

I don't know why the USA v Wales game in Hartford had such a low turnout. RUgby Rugby said it was less than 7000. In a 40k seat stadium, that is embarrasing.

Does anybody know what the turnout for the Liberty Bell Cup was last year?

The scorline of the USA v Wales game tells me just one thing: that the Tomohawks can compete with top quality opposition (despite in a weakend strength), while the Eagles cannot compete with a basic Welsh 2nd side.

 

[yankeeboy]

Contact info for new AMNRL Clubs:

rugbyleague@condorsrugby.com (Chicago Westside Condors)
rl@biwrfc.com (Boston Irish Wolfhounds)
spinnerhowland@comcast.net (AMNRL South, Daryl 'Spinner' Howland)
info@wamnrl.com (AMNRL West, Loren Broussard; this seems to be the most recent WAMNRL site)
http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/wamnrl/ (WAMNRL Yahoo Group)

These are the fledgling RL clubs in the USA. They could be good to contact to possibly get games scheduled for 2006.

This year, Boston are playing a limited schedule (i think that after the season, they will play against the non-finals clubs).

Perhaps that would also be a good way for the Dallas Dragons to start, by playing the lower clubs of the AMNRL East.

 

[joshreading]

What about this logo in my sig - it was the logo of a defunct professional womens football team in Dallas

 

[yankeeboy]

The USAFL website has some helpful information about starting up a club. Despite the fact that it was written for Aussie Rules clubs, it looks useful.

The website is: http://www.usfooty.com/usfooty/content.aspx?section=clubhowtos.

 

[yankeeboy]

Do you think that a USA-France match held in Dallas would be successful? Dallas is very patriotic, and the chance to watch an American team whoop on the Frenchies would be a great way to expose Dallasites to RL.

They could hold the match at SMU's Ford Stadium, perhaps over the 4th of July weekend next year. It would take some planning and advertising, but I think that such a match could draw up to 10,000 fans to be exposed to RL for the first time.

The AMNRL should really be taking Tests, etc. all across the country. They want to spread the league, but people really haven't seen it or know what it's about.

I think they should play a test at the Home Depot Center in LA. They could probably get AUS or NZ to agree to play there after the Tri Nations (like the Liberty Bell Cup), and it would be a great chance to expose the West Coast to the Greatest Game!

 

[gaterooze]

That's a brilliant idea, yb -- but on recent form the French are looking pretty damn strong! Would still be a great game though.

 

[hgfds]

Have the french ever been approached to play a match in the states?they have a range of teams and besides playing lebanon,have matches arranged against serbia,malta and perhaps png on this years southern tour.How is the amnrl funded it would be difficult for them to take matches nationwide,perhaps a full strength usa team could get a crowd in the uk.

 

[yankeeboy]

Any match played here would probably have to be privately funded.

Lachlan Murdoch would be the first person I would approach, but I don't think that he cares about league coming into the USA.

If FOX could show a match on a real channel (FSN or Fox Free to Air) instead of FSC, and showed it in a decent time slot with little competition, I think that they could also get a lot of potential viewers.

The key to any RL game in the States would be advertising. Billboards, Newspaper/Radio Promotions, TV Commercials, etc. would all be imperative to get a decent crowd at an RL game in Dallas or elsewhere.

 

[joshreading]

I still think USA V Russia would be great - imagine what you could do for advertising. Also the standards are similar. France would probably flog USA on a normal field.

 

[BatiFan]

An exibition game featuring the Tomahawks and anyone would be ideal for Dallas. I personallt think that Ireland or Russia would eb worthy opponents and hopefully advertising would ensure a good crowd. It might be worth you guys calling Dave Niu and the AMNRL to see whether a proposal for such a game would be recieved well from their perspective. Remember last year they took a game to Savannah, Georgia as an exibition game (I wonder what happened to that dream - seperate thread?) and as little back as 1999 games were being held in Orlando, Florida. So the AMNRL seem like they are willing to promote the sport in new areas, however, one thing that I would suggest the AMNRL would want to see along with a proposal for such a game is development plan for the game in the area and what lead up work would be done following the game to ensure that the game was not a waste of time. I think in the past they might have been burnt by a few cities and be a bit more reluctant to venture outside the North East region, but I for one think that if you can provide them with a sound buniess and development plans for an exibition international game then they would be more than willing to play a game down in Dallas.

On a slightly seperate note, as a Australian poster, could you guys give me an idea as to how far in distance and travel time Texas cities are like Dallas to the following cities: Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, San Antonio?

I ask because in time it would be great to think that a Texas State League would fetaure sides from all these cities.

 

[yankeeboy]

Fort Worth is 30 minutes from Dallas. Dallas and Fort Worth combine with the surrounding suburbs to form the "DFW Metroplex," which has approximately 6 million people. At first, there would probably be just one Metroplex team, which could then expand to multiple teams.

It is about a 3 hr drive to Austin (200 miles), 4.5 hrs to SA (280 miles, 80 miles further south on I-35 than Austin), and 4 hrs to Houston (240 miles).

The Houston metropolitan area has about 5 million residents, and the Austin-San Antonio region has about 2.5 million people.

 

[joshreading]

Just thought I would get this back up the top - Any more info on the Dallas developments or any other developments?