On Oct. 27 the London Irish rugby club announced it would play a regular-season fixture against Saracens at Red Bull Arena in New Jersey, the first Aviva Premiership match overseas.
Last week we spoke with club CEO and former rugby player Bob Casey during a trip to N.Y. about the experiment. The London Irish has signed a three-way deal with The Legacy Agency and the Aviva Premiership to organize and promote the match.
Q: Bringing British rugby to the U.S. is not a new idea. Why did it finally come together now?
Casey: The timing is good, in terms of post-Rugby World Cup, which was a huge success. American rugby is on the rise, their 7s is very strong. They had had some trouble in the World Cup, but you can see they have some good, quality players and I expect them to improve. Plus, they’ve just announced the PRO League, so that’s a good step. March is a good time to come by because it’s St. Paddy's Week and there’s not as much competition in the American sports market."
Q: What are the plans for Year 2 and 3 of the deal?
Casey: We want this to be a success in Year One, and hopefully we can go again to Red Bull Arena the following year. And if it’s a real success, and we sell out and we need more seats, we’ll look at a potential different venue. But we’re committed to making this work.
Q: Any hopes of bringing rugby matches to other American markets?
Casey: Right now, we’re focused on New York. There’s a big Irish community. Rugby’s growing here in terms of the club scene, and it’s the biggest sport city in the world, isn’t it? There’s a good fit of London and New York.
Q: What would be success for you in March?
Casey: I think success would be a relatively full stadium, a cracking atmosphere and a really good game of rugby. That’s success for us.
Q: You started as CEO in July. Where does this fit into your larger vision?
Casey: I’ve been with the new owners for about a year now, working as operations director, reviewing what had gone on the previous last three years under the old regime, and restructuring the organization with a team around me. There’re premiership and there’s championship leagues, and when the review came back, it said, "We’re effectively a championship side, both on and off the field." The previous owners wanted to get out, and a lot of budgets were slashed. You can’t just turn a franchise around like that. You’ve got to work at it, and we’ve got a very clear five-year vision, and we’re only in year two. … We’re making real progress and this is a huge statement of where we want to go as a club, signing a three-year deal to come here.
Q: You’re pursuing this American series while also rebuilding. Are you stretched too thin?
Casey: That’s a very valid question, but the fact we’re working with Premiership and the Legacy Agency on this helps. They’re on the ground and their remit is to deliver the game. So for us, I’m here this week with the owners, and this week we’ll go back to London and focus on the core business. But we’ve got good people back at the club and we’re confident we can deliver this project and the other projects we’re working on.
Q: How has interest been from your fans?
Casey: There’s huge uptake from our fans. We had 1,400 register interest for the travel packages we put together, just since it’s been announced. That’s only, what, a couple of weeks? One of the things we did was, we did not include this fixture in our season ticket package. So our supporters aren’t out of pocket and we’re offering a discount to come over. (Travel packages start at $684 (£450). Game tickets start at $50.)
