Rugby FC Los Angeles ( RFCLA ) is an American professional rugby union team based in Los Angeles , California, that competes in Major League Rugby (MLR). The team began play in 2020 as Rugby ATL , based in Atlanta, Georgia , but announced they would relocate to Los Angeles for the 2024 season, under new ownership.
51-465: On September 21, 2018, Major League Rugby announced that Atlanta was one of the expansion teams joining the league for the 2020 season. The team name Rugby ATL was revealed on February 26, 2019. The team was unofficially known as the Rattlers and in 2021 an alternate logo with a rattlesnake was unveiled. Rugby ATL played its first three seasons at Lupo Family Field on the campus of Life University in
102-482: A 17-game package covering six of the seven MLR teams for games not broadcast on the CBS Sports Network. Home-and-away matches for Austin, Houston and New Orleans were carried on AT&T SportsNet Southwest . Seattle's matches were carried on Root Sports Northwest and all Colorado and Utah games were hosted on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain . On March 16, 2021, MLR launched The Rugby Network . It
153-546: A closed system and, similar to other American sports leagues, does not have promotion and relegation . It operates as a single entity similar to Major League Soccer , with each team or "franchise" owned by the league and the franchise operators owning a share of the league. The Houston SaberCats, New Orleans Gold, San Diego Legion, Seattle Seawolves, and Utah Warriors have been a part of Major League Rugby since its founding in 2018. The New England Free Jacks, Old Glory DC, and Rugby FC Los Angeles (as Rugby ATL) joined in 2020; and
204-441: A core mission of developing American rugby players and originally had limited teams to three foreign players, although this expanded to five players before the first season began in 2018. MLR had expanded from seven teams in 2018 to 12 in 2020 without having enough American players to fill out rosters and had raised the ceiling on foreign players to 10 per team. The Raptors believed that both this overall number of foreign players and
255-608: A partnership with OVAL3 , the brand specializing in Web3 and fantasy rugby. OVAL3 will be the "Exclusive NFT Fantasy Game" of Major League Rugby. OVAL3 plans to provide "world-class immersive experiences" and Web 3.0 engagement to rugby's rapidly-growing North American fanbase. On October 6, 2023, MLR signed a partnership with Legends to lead sponsorship sales and commercial outreach. Austin Huns The Austin Huns Rugby Football Club
306-648: A playoff-caliber team in whatever division they competed in, both before and after this 1993 appearance at D II Nationals. In 2016, the Huns announced they would start moving towards professionalism, a relatively new concept in the US. The Austin Huns were one of the teams of the Major Rugby Championship, a one-off friendly series of games in the spring of 2017. The friendly games included the Austin Huns,
357-574: A total of 159,000 attendees. George Killebrew reported that in 2022 an additional 70,000 tickets were sold compared to the 2021 season, with crowd averages remaining around 2,000 per game. Major League Rugby's instagram account reported a 13% increase in attendance between the 2023 and 2024 MLR seasons. Commissioner/CEO Deputy Commissioner The Gem Garden in San Marcos, California, makes all MLR Championship rings, as of 2018. On October 28, 2019, Major League Rugby announced that, starting for
408-702: Is a Men's Rugby Club American rugby union team based in Austin, Texas . In June 2017 they became U.S. Division 1 National Champions beating New York Athletic Club RFC 27-23 in the final match. The Austin Huns were formed in 1972 by Patton "Pat" Lochridge as he didn't believe he and some of his teammates were getting a fair shake as to playing time from the Austin Rugby Club that they had been playing for previously. The Austin Huns Rugby Club has competed in all 3 National USA Rugby 15s divisions and
459-561: Is a free streaming platform in conjunction with RugbyPass which streams MLR matches and highlights. This digital network provides rugby fans with a single destination to stream select MLR matches, international rugby matches, game highlights, and other content. In 2024 MLR announced that there were over 271,000 subscribers to The Rugby Network with 55% year on year growth. On March 17, 2021, MLR launched its official mobile app. This allows MLR fans to view MLR news, schedules, match scores, team profiles, statistics, and other video content. The app
510-644: Is broadcast on American TV including Cox Communication's YurView Channel 4 in San Diego and Santa Barbara, and Channel 118 in Orange County and Palos Verdes, YurView California. YurView Arizona, YurView Vegas as well as Marquee Sports Network in Chicago. Previous television partners include AT&T, CBS, and ESPN. ESPN had the national and international rights to an 18-game package covering regular season matches to audiences across its various platforms for
561-453: Is part of a multi-platform deal with digital sport innovators PT SportSuite for MLR's digital media capabilities. The MLR app is available to download on iPhone App Store and Android Google Play . Top ten attendances for Major League Rugby matches all time, from 2018 onward: Attendance for the inaugural season was approximately 1,800 per match. That average increased by about 300 per game in 2019 with an average of 2,133 per game and
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#1732787228331612-661: The 2018 season . The CBS Sports Network televised select matches nationally during the 2019 season . This included a Game of the Week during each of the 10 rounds of the MLR regular season along with all three post-season matches. Dan Power (Play By Play), Brian Hightower (Color Analyst) and Stacy Paetz (Sideline) were the CBS Sports commentators for the 2019 season. The remaining games were available on ESPN properties and regional sports networks . AT&T Sports Networks had
663-471: The 2019 season were exhibition games and did not count in the MLR standings. On March 12, 2020, MLR announced the season would go on hiatus immediately for 30 days due to fears surrounding the 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic . It was cancelled the following week Major League Rugby Major League Rugby ( MLR ) is a professional rugby union competition for clubs in North America . In
714-475: The 2020 season , Paladin Sports will be the new supplier of all uniforms/kit for the league. On November 1, 2023, MLR announced a 3-year partnership with Italian sportswear brand, Kappa , as the official kit partner of the league, beginning with the 2024 season. On January 2, 2020, MLR partnered with Rhino Rugby for the 2020 season. Rhino Rugby is the official ball and technical training equipment supplier for
765-514: The 2022 season . Twelve teams competed in the 2024 season. Major League Rugby implemented its first collegiate MLR Draft in 2020 . Also in 2020, Major League Rugby teams started forming youth academies . In September 2016, with at least five amateur rugby union clubs across the United States discussing a possible professional league, Dean Howes, who had previously been an executive with Major League Soccer's Real Salt Lake and
816-562: The 2023 season . On February 8, 2023, Major League Rugby announced that the Miami Sharks would join the competition for the 2024 season. Following the 2023 season, Rugby ATL relocated from Atlanta to Los Angeles and rebranded as Rugby FC Los Angeles . In November 2023, the Toronto Arrows announced they would cease all operations following the death of founder Bill Webb and a failure to secure new investors. A week later,
867-519: The 2027 Rugby World Cup , and improve the USA Eagles as a competitive entity, before the USA-hosted 2031 Rugby World Cup . Major League Rugby spans five months from late February through to early July. The 2019 regular season was a double round-robin with all clubs playing each other home and away. Each team played sixteen games, half of them at home. This was followed by a postseason for
918-850: The Glendale Raptors , Rugby Utah, the Dallas Griffins, and New Orleans RFC . In June 2017, the Huns Rugby Football Club beat New York Athletic Club in the U.S. Division 1 final to become National Champions. The Huns were the first Austin team to win the DI National Championship and the second Texas team after the Dallas Harlequins. In August 2017, the Austin Huns Rugby Club announced they would not be joining
969-644: The New Orleans Gold , Utah Warriors , and Seattle Seawolves respectively, interests in Minneapolis were replaced by the San Diego Legion . With Kansas City and Dallas still in planning stages, the league continued as seven members for its inaugural season . On November 6, 2017, Major League Rugby and CBS Sports Network announced a multi-year television partnership which marked MLR's first major television deal for broadcast rights. It
1020-593: The New York Ironworkers announced they would also fold. On January 19, 2024, the league announced the creation of Anthem Rugby Carolina for the 2024 season. The team will serve as development team for US-eligible players, based upon the USA Hawks Under-23 men's development side. The team is financially supported by World Rugby , and unlike the other teams, its primary purpose will be to develop US-eligible players, in order to help qualify for
1071-612: The Seattle Saracens , announced their intentions to form a professional league to begin play the following year. On August 15, 2017, the Austin Huns announced that it would opt-out of MLR in favor of allowing a newly branded spinoff, the Austin Elite compete in the league. The Houston Strikers rebranded themselves as the Houston SaberCats . Whereas the elite players of New Orleans, Utah, and Seattle became
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#17327872283311122-596: The St. Louis Blues of the National Hockey League , stepped in as senior strategic advisor for Rugby Utah in an attempt to provide a pathway for expanding professional rugby stateside. By February 2017, a total of nine amateur rugby union organizations including the Austin Huns , Dallas Griffins , Glendale Raptors , Houston Strikers , Kansas City Blues , Minneapolis, New Orleans RFC , Rugby Utah and
1173-528: The Toronto Arrows joined the league ahead of 2019 season as the first Canadian team in MLR. Three further American clubs began play in 2020: the New England Free Jacks , Old Glory DC , and Rugby ATL . With the opening of SaberCats Stadium as Houston's permanent stadium in April 2019, MLR gained its first stadium that was specifically built for league play. Later in April, RUNY announced
1224-611: The coronavirus pandemic , but then cancelled the remainder of the entire season on March 18, after five rounds had been played. The LA Giltinis began competition in the 2021 season , followed by the Dallas Jackals , who entered in the 2022 season . At the end of the 2022 regular season, MLR announced that the Giltinis and the Gilgronis—both owned by Adam Gilchrist, co-founder of F45 Training —were disqualified from
1275-507: The 2020 MLR season. The Rhino Rugby "Vortex Elite" ball is the official MLR match ball for all 12 teams. The Vortex Elite is currently the official ball of Rugby Europe, and Asia Rugby, and has been used in the Penn Mutual Collegiate Rugby Championship (CRC) the past several years In March 2021, American Airlines became MLR's official airline and travel partner. On February 23, 2023, MLR signed
1326-647: The 2023 season it was contested by twelve teams: eleven from the United States and one from Canada . While operating outside of the governance and oversight of the national governing body, the league is officially sanctioned by USA Rugby —a member union of Rugby Americas North (RAN)—and is consequently part of World Rugby . The league was founded in 2017 and is headquartered in Dallas, Texas . MLR began its first season in 2018 with seven teams. The league has since expanded, reaching an all-time high of 13 teams in
1377-470: The 2023 season, FOX Sports 1 broadcast three regular season matches, with average audience figures ranging between 53,000 and 147,000. Fox Sports 2 broadcast one regular season match with an average audience of 36,000. Several teams have separate local rights agreements. MLR Weekly presented by Rugby Wrap Up is a weekly Major League Rugby magazine show featuring weekly highlights, previews and interviews with players, coaches and rugby personalities. The show
1428-588: The 2023 season, but that neither the Austin Gilgronis , nor the LA Giltinis will participate. With the uncertainties surrounding Austin and Los Angeles' team ownership, it was determined to suspend operations of the two teams to ensure a successful 2023 season, and protect the long-term strength and continued growth of the league. On November 27, 2023, Major League Rugby announced that the Toronto Arrows would cease all operations, and not compete in
1479-465: The 2024 season. The Arrows had sought new funding following the death of their CEO, Bill Webb, but were unable to guarantee the new backers in time. In December 2023, Major League Rugby announced that the New York Ironworkers were withdrawing ahead of the 2024 season. In September 2024 the Dallas Jackals, who joined the league in 2022, informed the league that they will not participate in
1530-552: The 2025 competition. † Franchise no longer competes in MLR In Major League Rugby, several teams annually compete for secondary rivalry cups. Most cups are deliberately conceived as local derbies between teams in the same region. Each win is counted as an official title. Only official MLR games are considered as official rivalry games unless an exhibition game is specifically marked as a Rivalry game. Several teams now participating in cups played matches before
1581-526: The Atlanta suburb of Marietta . The field was damaged by flooding in September 2021 and the team moved to Silverbacks Park ahead of the 2022 season. Following the death of their original team owner, S. Marcus Calloway, the ownership of the team was placed into an investment group, acquiring control of the franchise on an interim basis. The move kept Rugby ATL operational, until a permanent ownership group
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1632-535: The Championship Final; all other matches are available to stream live and for free on The Rugby Network. The 2019 Championship game was broadcast on CBS , the first MLR game to be televised on free-to-air TV. It gained a 0.32 Sports TV rating which equated to 510,000 two-plus-person households. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic , MLR adjusted its 2020 season schedule and turned its attention to ensuring
1683-623: The Chicago Hounds joined in 2023. The 2024 season includes two new clubs of the Miami Sharks and Anthem RC along with the relocated club Rugby FC Los Angeles, who had previously been Rugby ATL based in Atlanta. The expansion franchise fee is US$ 4 million as of 2019. On April 9, 2020, the Colorado Raptors announced that they would withdraw from Major League Rugby after three seasons in the league, effective May 2, 2020,
1734-525: The Huns Hall of Fame. Bill Overton, Luke Ashley, John Burns, Gerry Acuna, Jay Rudd, Jack Bloom, Kirk Tate, Carl Dahlberg, Dave Zack, Graham Watson, Shawn Rutledge, Luis Sanchez, and Chris Bugge. These thirteen men joined Pat Lochridge in the Huns Hall of Fame. In the summer of 2021, the Huns won the TOLA (Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana) 7s Rugby Championship for the third season in a row. This three-peat launched
1785-603: The Huns Youth Rugby Program also fielded 170 youth participants for the spring season. The total number of Huns in action for 2019/2020 was greater than 260 participants, making the Huns one of the largest and most successful clubs in the USA. Unfortunately, the 15s playoffs and Summer 7s were canceled in 2020 due to Covid-19. In August, 2019, the Austin Huns RFC welcomed its second class of inductees into
1836-711: The Huns had one of their most successful overall club seasons in its history: the D1 side finished the season 7 wins and 2 losses in all matches, beat the Dallas Reds three times and finished second in the league table; the D2 side finished 7 and 6 in all matches and finished in the middle of the D2 table, and the D3 side finished 7 - 3 and placed second in the league table. In addition to finishing an outstanding 21 and 11 overall in Men's competition,
1887-650: The Huns into the National Championship Tournament as one of only four play-in teams. The Huns made the most of their opportunity and finished 5th as Plate Champions, with victories over national 7s powerhouses Western Athletic Club, Oceanside, NY Old Blue, and Life West and with losses only to the eventual finalists the Chicago Lions and the Westside Ronins. Coached by Adam Scheidler, Brian Welborn, Ryan Kretchmar, and Alex Rees;
1938-782: The National 7s division. In 1993, the Huns competed in the Division II National Championships hosted in Mobile, Alabama . They lost in the semi-final to Santa Rosa Rugby Club 18-15 with Santa Rosa subsequently winning the final. In 1994, the Huns hosted the Division II National Championships in Austin, Texas (won again by Santa Rosa RFC) and in 1995, they hosted both the Division I & II National Championships in Austin, Texas. The Huns have historically been
1989-411: The creation of the cups. These Cups are currently listed as inactive, due to teams withdrawing from, or relocating within, Major League Rugby. Individual cups may return with new teams in the future. Major League Rugby players include those drawn from North American clubs, as well as foreign signings. Although the original concept was to limit club to three foreign players, the limit grew to five before
2040-553: The first team to do so. Their announcement explained their withdrawal by saying that "our greater responsibility lies in the development of American players who can win the World Cup for the United States ." Asked to explain how withdrawing from the league would help to develop American rugby players, the Raptors referred the question to Glendale City Manager Linda Cassaday, who said on April 10, 2020, that MLR had been founded with
2091-481: The higher proportion of foreign to American players no longer best served the goal of developing American players who could compete successfully in the Rugby World Cup , and therefore chose to withdraw from the league to better focus their efforts on the development of American players who could compete on an international stage. On October 25, 2022, Major League Rugby announced that 12 teams would compete in
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2142-623: The inaugural season of Major League Rugby (MLR). The Huns parted ways with the organization managing the bid for an MLR team in Austin which was subsequently re-branded as Elite Rugby Management and formed the Austin Elite Rugby team. The Austin Huns 1st, 2nd, and 3rd teams play in Division I, Division II, and Division III, respectively, within USA Rugby's club system in the Red River Conference. In 2019 / 2020
2193-488: The league would rebound with a strong showing in 2021. Matches were televised on CBS Sports Network and Fox Sports 2 , among other national and local market platforms. The MLR Championship was broadcast on CBS on Sunday, August 1, 2021. For the 5th (2022) and 6th (2023) seasons of MLR competition, FOX Sports nationally broadcast select matches on FS1 and FS2 . FOX broadcast the 2022 Final between New York and Seattle, with an average audience figure of 281,000. During
2244-414: The other conference, for a total of 16 regular-season games. The postseason consists of the top three teams from each conference: a wildcard game between the second and third ranked teams, followed by a playoff game between the wildcard winner and the first ranked team in the conference. The resulting playoff winners from each conference then face off in the championship final. The league is structured as
2295-456: The playoffs due to a violation of league rules, allegedly including salary cap issues. At the time of their disqualification, the Giltinis and Gilgronis were ranked first and second in the western conference. Gilchrist filed suit against the league and the two teams were expelled from the league in October following a failed attempt to sell both teams. The Chicago Hounds began competition in
2346-815: The removal of the former LA Giltinis in October 2022. On the same day, it was announced that RFCLA would play out of Dignity Health Sports Park in Carson, CA . The Los Angeles squad for the 2024 Major League Rugby season is: Note: Flags indicate national union under World Rugby eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-World Rugby nationality. Rugby ATL started with an exhibition side, called 404 Rugby . From September to November 2019, 404 Rugby played exhibition matches against Mystic River , NYAC , Old Blue , and USA Rugby men's club champions Life University . Note: Flags indicate national union under World Rugby eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-World Rugby nationality. All games in
2397-529: The signing of French international Mathieu Bastareaud on a loan deal from Toulon for the 2020 season. In October 2019, another major signing was made when it was announced that All Blacks international and multiple World Cup winner Ma'a Nonu would join the San Diego Legion for the 2020 season. The following December saw another World Cup winner sign with the league, namely South Africa prop Tendai Mtawarira with Old Glory DC . On March 12, 2020, MLR initially suspended its 2020 season for 30 days due to
2448-419: The start of the first season, before then being increased to ten. This increased allotment of foreign players led to some criticism that MLR was not providing enough opportunities for American players to develop. Major League Rugby programming runs in prime weekend time slots on Saturday afternoons and Sunday evenings. As of 2024, FOX Sports broadcasts select matches nationally on FS1 & FS2 , including
2499-666: The top four teams consisting of two semi-final matches and the Championship Game to determine the season's MLR champion team. Since the 2020 season, MLR used a conference format. Both conferences, the Western Conference and the Eastern Conference, consisted of six teams (seven teams took part in the 2022 Western Conference). Each team plays a double round-robin within their conference, home and away, in addition to playing six games against teams from
2550-420: Was acquired in 2023. On August 2, 2023, Major League Rugby announced that Rugby ATL would be relocating to a yet-to-be announced location for the 2024 season. On August 17, it was announced the team would relocate to Los Angeles . On December 21, it was announced that the team would be renamed to Rugby FC Los Angeles , abbreviated to RFCLA. This marked the return of Major League Rugby back to Los Angeles since
2601-773: Was the first time in American history that a new sporting league had a national television deal prior to launch. The first regular-season game in Major League Rugby history was held on April 21, 2018, when the Houston SaberCats hosted the New Orleans Gold . The final was contested between the Seattle Seawolves and the Colorado Raptors , with the Seawolves winning 23–19 to become the inaugural champions. In addition to Rugby United New York ,
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