Major League Rugby

[Puja]

Dallas not having an enjoyable first season. Freak off-field injuries, several nasty on-field injuries, and they've just set an MLR points difference record in losing 3-57 to Austin: https://www.americasrugbynews.com/2022/ ... rd-margin/

Hopefully it's not putting off the Dallas rugby support base.

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Cos it made me lol

[Puja]

Cos it made me lol

TRN just have a superb social media game. Better than the MLR as a whole deserves honestly, cause the league itself's been terrible about its promotion.

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Cos it made me lol

TRN just have a superb social media game. Better than the MLR as a whole deserves honestly, cause the league itself's been terrible about its promotion.

Puja

They do. This is my favourite tweet:

[Mellsblue]

[morepork]

Good luck to him. He breaks quite often. Couldn't keep his foot in the door with the Hairy-Canes.

[Mellsblue]

[Puja]

Aaaaaand that appears to be all of the information available in the public domain rn. Not a good look for the league - if Austin have done something egregious enough to be automatically booted after comfortably qualifying for the playoffs, then information needs to be given so the fans know what's going on.

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Spot the link. It’s a toughie.

[Puja]

Yeah, was just coming here to post that. Not a great look for the league in general and will be even worse if they have to go on to strip LA of last year's title. Rumour has it that it's salary cap shenanigans, with some fairly egregious stuff going on under the table.

It might be a good thing for future ownership groups to see that the league enforces the financial fair play rules, but it's not great for the product for the fans. You have to wonder where this leaves Gilchrist's ownership - whether he can carry on, whether he wants to carry on. Risible team-names aside, he's done impressive things for growing rugby in those two cities and it'll be a massive hole in the league if he chooses to throw in the towel.

Well done to Houston for abruptly becoming no 1 seeds for the playoffs though. Only a few more disqualifications and Dallas will be able to join them.

Puja

[Mellsblue]

[Puja]

8t3fjddccv491.jpg

Rumour has it that LA weren't over the salary cap, but because Gilchrist threatened to withdraw them from the playoffs if Austin weren't reinstated, and the league made it simple for him be expelling both. Gods only knows what that''ll mean for both teams going forwards.

I'm not hugely impressed by Wade over all this - seems to be projecting the attitude that he's too good for the game and rugby will be lucky if he deigns to visit his talents upon a new team. He's good, but he's not good enough for that kind of ego, especially not after 3 years out of the game.

Maybe I'm being unfair, but that's what I've been getting from the interviews he's been doing.

Puja

[Puja]

Seattle are just ridiculous. Two places out of the play-offs, dead and buried, and then given a reprieve with both Gil-teams getting disqualified, before suddenly turning it on and winning both elimination games as the away team to reach the grand final. If they win and LA get stripped of last year's title (no rumours of that yet, but if Austin were engaged in salary cap shenanigans...) then they'd remain the only MLR champions, despite not being the best team in any of the 5 seasons so far!

The Eastern conference final should be interesting - RUNY versus Freejacks. The winner will host the final, so I am hoping Freejacks come through, as no-one wants to see that high school field in New Jersey do the final.

Puja

[Puja]

A field in Hoboken, it is! Bit of a step down from the Colosseum.

Puja

[Puja]

So, not a field in Hoboken then. Hope they've left themselves enough time to sell a good number of tickets if it's somewhere like the Red Bull Arena.

Puja

[Mellsblue]

Sell out at the MetLife, no worries.

[Mellsblue]

The Red Bull Arena it is.

[Puja]

Good result for the league. At the very least, the television production facilities will be quality for a nationwide television production. Just hope they can get a sensible crowd in. If I were the league, I'd be sacking off the idea of making money from tickets and just pricing them cheap and chucking out freebies to NY Red Bulls fans, schools, clubs, everyone that I thought I could get to put an arse in a seat. This is going to be a massive shop window for the league and the last thing they need is 1.5k crowd rattling around a 25k stadium.

Puja

[Puja]

Congratulations to RUNY - first Eastern MLR winner and a deserved result.

Fun game to watch as well - some exciting and decent quality play and a good advertisement for the league. Would've been better with a bigger crowd - about 2k, in the end. Feels like a missed opportunity - if there were 2 weeks between the semi and the final, I reckon that crowd could've been 9-10k, but there just wasn't time enough to get the word out with only 5 days' notice.

Puja

[Puja]

Gorgeous team try by NY in the final - incredible pick-up by a prop and then three offloads later, it's back in his hands to finish off the try!



Puja

[Mellsblue]

[Puja]

Looks very nice indeed, although I hope they can get a half-decent crowd in to justify the size. The league needs a bit of good news - no further info on the Gilty teams and whether they're being sold/moved/dissolved/still continuing as is and the crowd numbers are not growing as would be hoped.

Puja

[Puja]

https://www.americasrugbynews.com/2022/ ... ague-rugby

Bit of an update on what the hell the plans are for 2023.

Puja

[Mellsblue]

[Puja]

The league's turning into a bit of a dumpster fire of late. No communication with fans, a complete lack of clarity about what's actually due to happen next year - this is no way to bring in new supporters and investors, both of which it drastically needs. Sooner or later, the owners are either going to run out of money or patience and then the whole thing will collapse like an Ikea deckchair.

Only bright spot is that it's rumoured Chicago are entering (probably replacing Austin). I'm hopeful they'll be called the Old Department Store.

Puja