Guest Blogger: The Pro12 trip to the USA

Guest blogger and Glasgow fan 'The Pen' discusses the Pro12 trip the USA

Robbie Williams, Cheryl Cole, Oasis, the Aviva Premiership… I could go on listing the number of people, bands and organisations that have tried and failed to crack the American market over the years but I do have a word limit you know! What am I talking about I hear you ask? Well it’s the Guinness Pro12’s attempt to break into the American market and make themselves some serious dollars.

This rears its ugly head every so often and to be honest it’s starting to get quite tedious really for many reasons. First of all, rugby is the fastest growing sport in America so we are told. Yet there attempts so far at starting a professional rugby have been at best shambolic. The league owner Doug Schoninger and USA Rugby are at loggerheads with claim and counter-claim and it’s all really a bit of a mess.

The Pro12 would be walking right into the middle of this melee. Why do they want to go to North America? Cash, that’s basically the only reason for it as far as I can see. The Pro12 monetary deal with Sky and the national broadcasters gives them a pittance in comparison to France and England. Canal Plus, the French broadcaster, pay the Top 14 approximately £75 million per annum.

In England, BT pay the Aviva Premiership receive £38 million a year. The Pro12? Well between the various broadcasters in Scotland, Wales, Italy and Ireland as well as Sky pay just £11.5 million a year. Not even enough to give each side £1 million a year! It appears that the Pro12 see America as the promised land and they want two North American sides, one in Canada and one in the USA, to join the league. I see several problems with this.

First of all, the teams and the infrastructure are not in place. The cities mentioned so far have been Vancouver and Toronto in Canada and Houston in the US. The logic behind the cities? Who knows but they wouldn’t be where I’d pick. Take a city like New York or Boston, huge Irish population, huge Italian population. That’s two of the leagues participants who could feasibly draw bigger crowds. But then New York has 2 NFL teams, 2 NBA teams, 2 MLB sides and 2 NHL franchises. Is there space for another sports team, especially one starting from scratch?

To start in Houston or Toronto they’d have to gather public support and spend a significant amount of money just to get the project off the ground. Then there is the logistics of teams flying to and from North America to compete in games. Take Glasgow to Houston for example. That’s at least a 14 hour flight and will involve one stop as there’s no direct flight from Scotland.

Do they then play the second team when they were over there? How does that work for the Houston and Toronto teams having to travel to Italy, Ireland, Scotland and Wales? The travelling time for those squads would be horrendous and they’d be forever in the air. Look at the Sunwolves and Jaguares in Super Rugby. Teams with great potential but crippled by the constant movement.

Sport in America is huge but is there really the market for rugby union? Fans are spoiled with American Football, basketball, baseball, ice hockey, soccer. All these sports have been professional for several years and are deeply ingrained in American society. Even soccer has only recently started to become popular and that’s only when team owners are prepared to throw some serious money to being in big name players. Even then, the players are usually approaching the end of their career. For me, the much more sensible thing to do it to look around at what we have within our own continent.

Rugby is huge in Georgia, Romania, becoming bigger in Russia and is starting to take hold in Spain, Portugal and Germany. Yes, there is not as much money in these countries as the American dream the Pro12 seems to be having but there is at least the market. Tapping in to that could itself prove to be money spinning and offer a larger chunk of cash. Keep the current 12 sides, although there is still talk of Zebre being sent to the knackers yard and being replaced by a Rome based team, and look to add at least 2 more sides.

One in Georgia is a given and then choose from the above. Russia has potential for a TV audience and for a decent chunk of money from a television deal but there may be questions over safety and again there is the amount of flying time that would be a concern. The sport is established in Romania so that could be worth while checking out or there is somewhere left field like Germany where the game could be grown and there could be a lot of viewers and marketers waiting to be tapped in to.

In my own personal opinion, America is just not the answer. I understand the need to raise funds but flying off half way around the world in search of the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is not going to help the integrity of the league nor raise the interest levels. Look on your doorstep and the opportunities might be there..

Follow The Pen on twitter here and for more blog posts you can catch him here.