World Cup 2031 will be a tough sell in USA
WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 12: A general view of the USA Rugby goal line flag before the match between Team United States and Team Scotland at Audi Field on July 12, 2024 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Scott Taetsch/Getty Images for Scottish Rugby)
Nick Cain
World Cup USA is six and a half years away. Yet, outside the fraught situation World Rugby (IRB) faced in scheduling the 1995 tournament in South Africa when it was in a state of social and political flux, the world governing body has never taken a bigger risk in choosing a venue than awarding it to the Americans in 2031.
While rugby clubs like that at Yale University were established in the States as early as 1875, in the intervening 150 years it is a sport which has not impacted much on American sporting consciousness. The only exceptions were at the Olympics, first in 1920 (Antwerp), where a group of Californian students representing the USA beat the only other competing team, France, to win the gold medal (8-0). Then the USA retained their status as Olympic champions in 1924 (Paris), beating the French again (17-3) in front of a raucous 50,000 crowd.
It makes the USA reigning Olympic champions in fifteens, because rugby was dropped as a sport until its seven-a-side reintroduction in 2016 in Rio de Janeiro. In the interim rugby union has been swamped in the USA by the growth of home-grown pro sports like baseball, American football and basketball – and, more recently, football/soccer.
Hopes that the introduction of a professional rugby union competition, Major League Rugby, in 2018 would galvanise the sport have failed to materialise so far, with salary cap bans and the collapse of a number of franchises hampering progress.
This was reflected in the failure of the USA to qualify for the 2023 World Cup – and six years is a short time-frame for the national team to emerge as a credible force.
To add to the concerns, the favoured World Cup window of September/ October overlaps with the seasons of each of the giant American sports, like the NFL & NCAA (American Football), MLB (baseball), NBA (basketball), MLS (soccer), and NHL (ice hockey).
The impact of this on stadium availability and media coverage could see the tournament shunted into the sidings. To say World Rugby has a huge job on its hands is an understatement.
