London Irish has announced that their Aviva Premiership fixture against Saracens will take place in New York, at the Red Bull Arena on March 12th 2016.
The home of the New York Red Bulls can hold up to 25,000 fans, while it will be the first ever Premiership fixture to be staged on foreign soil. London Irish confirmed that the fixture is not part of season ticket holders’ package, but that they would receive a 10% discount on tickets.
It will take place in the build up to the city’s St Patrick’s Day festivities, with a club statement suggesting the game would be a “celebration of Irish culture for the many thousands of first, second and third generation Irish people living in the New York region.”
March 12th, however, is also a Six Nations weekend, with England hosting Wales at Twickenham on the same day and Ireland taking on Italy in Dublin.
London Irish Chief Executive Officer, Bob Casey said: “This is an enormous opportunity for London Irish and a chance for our Club to gain exposure in one of the biggest sporting cities in the world. The New York region has a significant Irish community and is renowned for its annual St. Patrick’s Day Parade, so it’s the perfect time for our Club to venture into this market.
“Rugby is set for an exciting time with Rugby World Cup 2015 reaching its final stages, the inclusion of Sevens in the 2016 Olympic Games, and now the first ever Aviva Premiership fixture in the USA. We are well placed to capitalise on these exceptional opportunities to create a lasting legacy for both rugby and London Irish. We intend to continue to be at the forefront of the development of the game in the USA.”
Mark McCafferty, Premiership Rugby’s Chief Executive added: “This is a significant day in the history of Premiership Rugby and one that has taken a number of years and a lot of hard work to bring to fruition. Premiership Rugby is the most competitive league in world rugby with a fast-growing following outside England and we are delighted to stage a competitive match in the USA.”
USA Rugby CEO Nigel Melville, meanwhile, said the game represented “another big step” for the sport as it continues to grow in the country.
“We are looking forward to bringing these two world class clubs to the New York area for what will be a memorable matchup,” he said.
“Our sport continues to grow in the United States, and we believe this event will be another big step forward in the growth of the game.”
What do you make of the plan – a clever marketing initiative, or merely a gimmick?
Photo by: Patrick Khachfe / Onside Images
I’m just too old to understand this. I support my local team, Cardiff. I would be beyond annoyed if they moved a home fixture to another country. The Prem seem to want to head to the franchise model or something?
I suspect LI will get a bigger crowd over there than they do here. Must be getting paid a fair whack to take the game over there. Especially as they will probably get hammered ;-) (tongue firmly in cheek!!)
clever marketing or not this shows contempt for Irish’s loyal supporters. They have offered a miserley 10% discount to their season ticket holders, will they also contribute to airfares and accommodation costs? I thought not, they are just short changing their supporters in pursuit of some probably illusory commercial benefit for their foreign (irish) owners. Perhaps we should point out that London has a large population of irish ancestry and Dublin is within easy travel distance if they really must take the game overseas..
I would l;ike to think that the RFU or PRL would step in to clip the wings of two clubs with foreign links which do not apparently have the interests of English Rugby at heart but I’m not holding my breath.
Also, isn’t this a case of running before you can walk? They’re trying to ape the US model but without getting the fundamentals right. It’s widely believed that the NFL is at saturation point in the US. Something like 9/10 of the US’s biggest TV audiences last year were for NFL games. So they’re moving some games abroad to increase growth.
London Irish probably has people on it’s own front doorstep who don’t even know it exists, let alone it being anywhere near saturating the local market. It just seems like insane economics to chase an audience 6000 miles away when you haven’t even managed to maximise your potential within a 100 yards of your pitch yet.
Odd that Saracens didn’t push for it to be played at their home i.e. South Africa…..
That’s without mentioning the total brainfart of treating this like american sport – a system where locals support their colleges/Uni’s and the brand clubs are just passed around the country depending on where the backer wants to place them this year.
At the end of the day Brighty this is all about the egos of the ‘owners’. They no doubt enjoy all the publicity and their spurious claim to be expanding the game! Now no doubt LI will support Saracens when they want to play in Cape Town.
Quite. If they were really serious about doing this to ‘expand the game’, they’d be arranging matches in Georgia or Romania
If memory serves me right Brighty Sarries have tried this before. I seem to remember they were trying to get one of their Heineken Cup games to be played in Cape Town, but for whatever reason it fell through.
You’re right Mac, I think it was about three or four years ago.
They made a better offer to their fans than what’s on the table here though. I think you could exchange this match ticket for an extra ticket to any other match if you couldn’t go. It did fall through, but I can’t remember why.
I think it was moved from one stadium to another and then fell through anyway.
I bet they get a full house. All those sillyarses over there who reckon they’re Irish when most of them are about as Irish as my arse.
Agree with Brighty and Ray on the contempt for the fans point – if you’re a LI season ticket holder, the game against Saracens is probably one of the highlights of your season, so to have that snatched away with a minuscule ticket price discount takes the piss.
It’s not in New York though is it? It’s in New Jersey. So will they now be the Not Not Nots?
LI made it quite clear that one of the “home” games would NOT be covered by the season ticket price when we renewed our tickets.
Why is it English clubs doing this. It would make more sense if an actual Irish club did this with Irish players.
The search for money always seems to trump anything fans want.
What’s next? My club Leicester Tigers plays in Bengal?