USA Sevens Rugby Tournament Moves From San Diego To Las Vegas

The USA Sevens Rugby Tournament "will make its Las Vegas debut in February 2010 at Sam Boyd Stadium as part of a multi-year commitment," according to Hepi Mita of the LAS VEGAS SUN. The event had been held at San Diego's Petco Park since '07. The tournament is "set to become an Olympic qualifier" on the heels of rugby sevens' addition to the Olympic Games, which was "key to the tournament's relocation to Las Vegas." Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman said, "When we started to talk about rugby coming to Las Vegas I really wasn't turned on. Having been advised that it has elevated to an importance that it didn't have when we started our initial discussions, because now it's an Olympic event for 2016 down in Rio, it is as good as it gets." Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority CEO Rossi Ralenkotter said the city expects "about 25,000 fans" to attend the tournament, which features the "national teams of 16 countries that will play 44 games of sevens rugby over two days." Organizers noted that the accompanying fan festival, which "could be compared to a multi-cultural rugby tailgate party," will be "almost as important as the action on the field" (LAS VEGAS SUN, 10/16).