USA Rugby
USA Rugby is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugby." USA Rugby is responsible for the promotion and development of the sport in the U.S., and promotion of U.S. international participation.
USA Rugby was founded in 1975 as the United States of America Rugby Football Union, and it organized the first U.S. national team match in 1976. Today, USA Rugby has over 130,000 members, the largest segment being college rugby with over 32,000 members. USA Rugby oversees 1,200 high school teams, 900 college teams, 700 senior club teams, and 400 youth teams. It administers all United States national teams: senior men's and women's teams, sevens teams for both men and women, and under-20 national teams for both sexes. The organization also sponsors college rugby for both sexes, although since the 2010–11 academic year the NCAA has designated women's rugby an emerging varsity sport.
USA Rugby is governed by an 11-member Board of Directors and four National Councils across Youth & High School, college, Senior Club and International Athlete, and its CEO is Bill Goren. It is a member of World Rugby through membership with Rugby Americas North, and a member of the United States Olympic Committee. The headquarters for USA Rugby is located in Glendale, Colorado.
History
The U.S. men's national team, the Eagles, won the gold medal in Olympic rugby in 1920 and 1924. After that time, rugby in the U.S. stagnated while continuing to grow in other parts of the world.Beginning in the 1960s and continuing through the 1970s, the sport of rugby union enjoyed a renaissance in the US. This created the need for a national governing body to represent the United States. On June 7, 1975, four territorial organizations gathered in Chicago, Illinois, and formed the United States of America Rugby Football Union. USA Rugby then fielded its first national team on January 31, 1976, in a match against Australia in Anaheim, California, which Australia won, 24–12.
In 1993, the Southern California RFU, a local area union of the Pacific Coast RFU, applied to become a separate territory. This was an impetus for others around the country to do the same, changing the make-up of USA Rugby, which now has seven territories.
USA Rugby lobbied for several years for participation in the IRB Sevens World Series. It was finally awarded the annual USA Sevens tournament, beginning in 2004 with Los Angeles as the venue for the initial USA Sevens tournaments. In summer 2006, the tournament was moved to Petco Park in San Diego. Since 2010, the tournament has been held every year at Sam Boyd Stadium in Las Vegas Valley and has been broadcast live on NBC.
USA Rugby is a Founding Sports Partner of the Sports Museum of America, joining more than 50 other single-sport Halls of Fame, national governing bodies, museums, and other organizations across North America, to celebrate the history, grandeur, and significance of sports in American culture. Opened in New York City on May 7, 2008, the Sports Museum of America showcases USA Rugby in its Hall of Halls Gallery, in return for their support of the creation of the nation's first all-sports museum experience.
In 2014, USA Rugby created Rugby International Marketing, a for-profit company that is responsible for promoting the sport of rugby.
Recent achievements
- In the 2009–10 Sevens World Series, the men's sevens team finished the season ranked 10th in the world, their highest ranking to date at that time.
- In 2010, USA Rugby became an Olympic Sport member of the United States Olympic Committee.
- In 2011, the International Rugby Board, now known as World Rugby, gave its Development Award to USA Rugby for its Rookie Rugby program that introduced over 100,000 new children to youth rugby.
- In 2014:
- In 2015:
- In 2017:
- In 2018:
- In 2019:
- * U.S. Men's Sevens team finished second in the 2018–19 World Rugby Sevens Series, their highest-ever finish. The team would make five Cup finals including a win in the 2019 USA Sevens against Samoa.
- In October 2021, the U.S. vs New Zealand match at FedEx Field in Washington DC. The final score was 104–14 to the All Blacks.
- the U.S. Women's Sevens team finished third at the 2024 Summer Olympics
Governance and leadership
- Tom Cusack
- Koma Gandy
- Denis Shanagher
- Rick Humm
- Bill Stevens
- Paul Keeler
- Jamie Burke
- Steve Argeris
- Brett Thompson
- Victoria Folayan
- One open seat
Simon Amor is the head coach of the men's national sevens team. Sione Fukufuka was appointed as the Women's Eagles head coach in November 2023. Emilie Bydwell is the head coach of the Women's Sevens team, who ranked 2nd in the world through the 2018-19 Women's World Rugby Sevens Series.
International representation
USA Rugby became a member of the International Rugby Football Board in 1987. The worldwide body would become the International Rugby Board in 1998 and World Rugby in 2014. USA Rugby does not hold a vote on WR's 28-member Executive Council—the majority of votes are held by the 8 founding nations—although NACRA members collectively hold one vote on the Executive Council. In December 2011, for the first time, USA Rugby placed a representative on the 10-man executive committee. Bob Latham, in his role as chair of Rugby Americas North, represents RAN on the executive committee.USA Rugby also has relationships with international multi-sport organizations. USA Rugby is a member of the U.S. Olympic Committee and interacts with the International Olympic Committee. USA Rugby also interacts with the Pan American Sport Organization, and rugby has been a sport at the Pan Am Games since 2011.
Financials
USA Rugby generally earns between $8 million to $16 million in annual revenues, with the majority of the revenue coming from: membership dues, event revenue, grants, and sponsorship. Their principal expenses are: High Performance, Men's National Team, and Marketing and Fundraising. In 2010, USA Rugby paid over $200,000 each to its CEO Nigel Melville and its then head coach Eddie O'Sullivan. As of 2012, Nigel Melville's compensation was $250,000. USA Rugby experienced a financial crunch in 2016–17, due to the bankruptcy of kit sponsor BLK and currency exchange rates that affect grants received from World Rugby.USA Rugby lost more than $4.4 million in 2017, and $4.2 million in 2018. Most of the losses were attributed to USA Rugby Partners, formerly known as Rugby International Marketing, which was the majority owner of The Rugby Channel which was sold in 2018 to FloSports. In early 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, USA Rugby filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to develop a financial restructuring plan. USA finished the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process as the Delaware Bankruptcy Court approved USA Rugby's debtor plan and the sport's National Governing Body. On September 1, 2020, USA Rugby was reorganized and started paying back creditors.
USA Rugby annual revenues are below, along with the components that generated the majority of revenue:
| Year | Total Revenue | Member dues | Grants | Sponsors | Event revenue | Liabilities | Change in net assets | International comparisons |
| 2024 | $16.6m | $3.1m | $7.3m | $1.6m | $0.1m | $15.8m | $0.8m | |
| 2023 | $16.0m | $2.6m | $7.4m | $1.5m | $0.2m | $14.5m | $1.5m | |
| 2022 | $12.4m | $2.2m | $5.6m | $0.6m | $0.4m | $13.0m | ' | |
| 2021 | $10.3m | $1.9m | $5.0m | $0.5m | $1.1m | $10.1m | $0.2m | |
| 2020 | $13.1m | $3.0m | $1.8m | $1.3m | $0.1m | $6.6m | $6.5m | |
| 2019 | $13.4m | $5.2m | $5.1m | $1.6m | $1.0m | $15.3m | ' | England - £213.2m |
| 2018 | $27.4m | $5.2m | $2.8m | $1.9m | $2.8m | $25.6m | Scotland - £57.2m | |
| 2017 | $14.0m | $5.0m | $2.0m | $1.9m | $2.1m | |||
| 2016 | $14.7m | $4.8m | $2.0m | $2.3m | $2.7m | Scotland - £47.3m, Ireland - €76m/£67m, Wales - £73.3m | ||
| 2015 | $14.6m | $4.7m | $2.4m | $2.5m | $2.1m | Wales - £64m; Scotland - £44m. | ||
| 2014 | $16.4m | $4.5m | $2.0m | $2.2m | $5.4m | Wales - £58m, Scotland - £44m. | ||
| 2013 | $12.2m | $4.3m | $1.7m | $1.9m | $1.8m | Wales - £61m, New Zealand - £54m, Scotland - £39m. | ||
| 2012 | $10.2m | $4.3m | $1.7m | $1.6m | $1.1m | Scotland - £38m. | ||
| 2011 | $7.5m | $3.2m | $1.7m | $1.5m | $0.2m | Scotland - £35m; Canada - C$9m. | ||
| 2010 | $6.4m | $2.8m | $1.4m | $1.0m | $0.2m | Scotland - £34m | ||
| 2009 | $8.1m | $2.7m | $1.3m | $2.4m | $0.8m | |||
| 2008 | $8.0m | $2.0m | $1.4m | $2.7m | $0.9m | |||
| 2007 | $6.7m | $2.2m | $1.7m | $0.9m | $1.0m | |||
| 2006 | $5.3m | $2.0m | $1.3m | $0.2m | $0.7m |
Notes:
- Grants come mainly from World Rugby and from the United States Olympic Committee.