MLR X KAPPA
America’s Major League Rugby (MLR) competition is moving into the playoff phase of the 2024 season and excitement is building ahead of the August Championship final. And Kappa will be there to lend its unique style to the occasion.
MLR, with 12 teams split equally into Eastern and Western Conferences, is just finishing its seventh, 18-week regular season. The playoffs kick off on July 20th to decide who goes forward to the final of each Conference the following weekend.
FROM ALL CORNERS OF THE USA
The Eastern and Western Conference winners will then meet in the August 4th Championship final in California at San Diego’s 35,000-seater Snapdragon Stadium. Neutrals will be hoping for a repeat of last season’s nail-biter when New England Free Jacks came from behind four minutes from time to squeeze by the San Diego Legion by 25-24 points.
Promoting a ‘new’ sport in America’s crowded landscape is a tough job, but MLR has established a strong foothold since its 2017 founding. Rugby has already reached into all corners of the United States, with teams spread right across the country, from California to Florida and up to New England.
Growing from the bottom up is critical for any sport, and MLR has embraced this by getting youth teams involved and boosting participation at college level. The goal is ‘getting rugby balls into kids’ hands’ through PE lessons and after-school programmes, while the longer-term ambition is to make rugby part of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to complete the player pathway.
THE COMMUNITY
The community aspect is also critical, with rugby being presented as something of an antidote to the commercial juggernaut that is the NFL, MLB, NBA and other long-established US sports franchises. The atmosphere at MLR games is more intimate, with an opportunity to mingle with players that would be inconceivable in the worlds of football, baseball or basketball.
At the other end of the scale, no discussion of the future of American rugby would be complete without looking forward to 2031 when the Rugby World Cup will come to the country. That the hosts are taking the opportunity to develop the game in the USA very seriously is reflected in the introduction for the 2024 MLR season of a new team, Anthem Rugby Carolina. The team funded, uniquely, by two governing bodies – USA Rugby and World Rugby – will help to develop the USA Eagles national team with a view to qualifying for the 2027 and 2031 World Cups.
All-in-all, the future for rugby in the United States looks bright. And image is, of course, a key component of any sport. With that in mind, in the 2024 season, all 12 MLR teams have been fitted out with a range of striking Kappa match kits, training kits and fan-wear. So whichever teams make it through to the Championship final, everyone is already a winner in the style stakes.
