Grand Prix Entertainment Extends U.S. Exclusive Sanction and Worldwide Broadcast Rights for Professional Rugby Sevens Through 2018
"The Sport of the 21st Century"




LOS ANGELES, Mar 09, 2012 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Grand Prix Entertainment, a Los Angeles-based sports and entertainment company, and USA Rugby, a member of the United States Olympic Committee, announced today the extension of their U.S. Exclusive Sanction and License Agreement for a 2nd six year term through 2018.

This ground breaking partnership between a national governing body and private enterprise exclusively grants Grand Prix the rights to own and operate USA Rugby sanctioned Professional Rugby Sevens, including the equally exclusive worldwide broadcast distribution rights across all media. The exclusive and extensive sanction rights cover both indoor and outdoor professional rugby sevens leagues and/or tournaments.

USA Rugby is a member of the United States Olympic Committee, governing the new Olympic sport of Rugby Sevens, as well as the U.S. member of the Rugby World Cup's International Rugby Board.

"To say the least, much as happened since we joined USA Rugby in this crusade to bring the World's Contact Sport to the World's Largest Market" said William Tatham, Founder and Chairman of Grand Prix Entertainment. "When USAR initially awarded Grand Prix these unparalleled exclusive, extensive and long term rights in 2005, we decided to honor USA Rugby's trust and instead of staging "on the field" events prematurely, we wisely committed to a multi year -- multi million dollar "off the field" investment focusing on the three critical pre launch start-up phases of planning, protecting and projecting. We've been blessed by exclusive rights that are invaluable, a sport that has gone Olympic, and USA Rugby partners that are priceless."

Newly appointed Grand Prix Chairman Alan Rothenberg said, "The exclusive long term rights granted to Grand Prix Rugby, including global distribution rights, coupled with the mutually beneficial partnership with USA Rugby, provide Grand Prix Rugby with a unique opportunity to develop and grow the sport to its fullest potential."

USA Rugby CEO Nigel Melville concurred, saying "USA Rugby is pleased to see Grand Prix's progress and is equally excited to continue this exclusive partnership with Bill and his Grand Prix team. Grand Prix has exciting plans; the next six years will be equally exciting times for American Rugby."

GPE broadcast representative and former President of CBS Sports Neal Pilson echoed the unique opportunity these exclusive and global media rights represent stating, "These live telecast rights to Grand Prix's exciting rugby sevens tournaments have great value here in the US and abroad. We fully expect to finalize a carriage agreement with a U.S. network partner very soon."

"On a global basis, these exclusive multi year rights make my job much easier as the ability to deliver consistent major league sports content over a period of years vs. a single season is what international carriers strive to acquire," said former President of MGM Worldwide Television Gary Marenzi, who now oversees Grand Prix's international distribution rights.

Tatham and Rothenberg believe that there is overwhelming evidence that the time is right for the launch of major league professional Rugby Sevens in the United States.

-- From an Olympic perspective, Rugby Sevens was approved by the International Olympic Committee as an Olympic sport and will be included in the upcoming 2016 Olympic Summer Games in Rio de Janiero, Brazil.

-- Taking a global view, the international HSBC Sevens World Series and IRB Sevens World Cup continue to break attendance and broadcast records ( www.hsbcsevens.com ; www.sevensrwc.com ); and the 2011 Rugby World Cup was once again the third most watched sporting event in the world ( www.irb.com ).

-- In the United States, Rugby Seven's popularity has seen significant domestic growth as evidenced by NBC's live broadcast of the February 2012 HSBC Las Vegas tour stop, the USA Rugby hosted USA Sevens, which saw a record paid attendance of over 64,000 in Las Vegas and impressive TV ratings for its national NBC telecast ( www.usasevens.com ).

In anticipation of the six year extension of this historic partnership with USAR, recent moves by Grand Prix in preparation for a 2012 launch include expanding the Grand Prix Entertainment executive board to include some of most powerful names in sports, entertainment and gaming including former President of CBS Sports Neil Pilson; Olympic attorney Kelly Crabb of the international law firm of Sheppard & Mullin, Rich Rose, former President of Caesars Palace World Sports and William Tatham, Sr., professional sports entrepreneur who owned franchises in the World Football League, the United States Football League, and the National Basketball Association.

Most recently, Tatham and Rothenberg announced the appointments of Gary Marenzi, former head of MGM International Television to head up Grand Prix's recently formed Grand Prix Studios production unit in Los Angeles and London; and award winning and Los Angeles based Premier Partnerships as GPE's exclusive sponsor and naming rights agency led by long time Rothenberg partner, Randy Bernstein.

Grand Prix continues to finalize a broad range of pre launch objectives, including the selection of both domestic and international network broadcast partners; live tournament and reality show production teams; final decisions re championship dates and venues; major market franchise offering documents; and a wide array of key sponsor, branding, naming and licensing arrangements.

Tatham concluded stating, "Rugby is not only the "Father of American Football," but more important is the "World's Contact Sport." When the Olympic committee caught Grand Prix's vision and approved Rugby Sevens for the 2016 Rio Summer Games, we knew the time was right for us to accelerate our launch plans. Grand Prix firmly believes Rugby Sevens has what it takes to be the hottest new professional "Sport of the 21st Century."

About Grand Prix Entertainment

Grand Prix Entertainment is a diversified multi-media production and distribution company that owns and manages sports, entertainment and gaming properties. In addition to the above, key members of the Grand Prix executive team include general counsel Scott Earnshaw, Bruce Skinner, Bob Finkel, Tom George, Carl McMahan, Jeff Zimmerman, Gino Grajeda and Jamison Davis, Managing Partner of the branding consultancy Davis & Partners Worldwide. For more information about Grand Prix Entertainment, please visit www.grandprixentertainment.com .

About USA Rugby

Founded in 1975, USA Rugby is an official member of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the International Rugby Board (IRB). The organization has approximately 98,000 members and is responsible for the development of the boys, girls, high school, collegiate and club rugby programs, and ultimately all of the national teams representing the U.S. in international competitions. USA Rugby's national headquarters is located in Boulder, Colo., and is run by full-time staff under the direction of current CEO and President of Rugby Operations Nigel Melville. For more information, please visit www.usarugby.org .

SOURCE: Grand Prix Entertainment

Utah Warriors Rugby
Everyone that is talking shyt without knowing the battle that has gone down to save what I believe can be one of the greatest programs in American rugby can go kick rocks!!!!!!!!! We are workin with someone right now and we have a week to get our affairs in order! We are trying to save the program and doing it for my brothers on the field and you fans that are loyal and don't talk shyt!!! I'm sorr...y we will not be playin tomorrow! The Denver barbarians will be playing the univ of Utah... Stay tuned for updates and further progression because if this can be saved it will be, we have the resources to do it over the next week with a lot of changes! Instead of down talking us support us. You don't know what we're going through! Cheers; BYRDSee More

LikeUnlike · · Share · 1814 · 8 hours ago via mobile · .18 people like this..Tevita F. Heitonga Byrd....dont about people that are talking shyttttt....tteu wont stop us from moving forward.....5 hours ago · LikeUnlike.Write a comment.....
.Utah Warriors Rugby
I want to apologize to all the Warrior fans, and to Denver for the Warriors not being allowed to play tomorrow. The Super League has made some very disappointing decisions which will be addressed legally by the Utah Warriors next week. There is MUCH more to what's going on with the RSL than simple CIPP registrations, or rumored lack of funding. The bottom line is that the RSL management will be ma...de to answer for what has been forced upon the Warriors and for how the Warriors have been dealt with.. Regardless, I personally appreciate and wanted to thank all the players and their families for the sacrifices made thus far with the Warriors. I know first hand how much time and energy goes into this program. Although the future is yet to be determined, the Warriors ARE NOT shutting down. We have too much passion for this sport and for rugby in Utah. It's unfortunate things have transpired this way because many people have been working hard, and because we were poised to SMASH this season! We will continue to move forward regardless. Again thank you to everyone for your support. We will be at the Denver match tomorrow as scheduled with Warrior sweatshirts so come get one! (Ladies, we have awesome PINK hoodies just for you!)
Much Love..... @ Sean Whalen

Warriors Out


According to USA Rugby Super League president Sean Kelly, the Utah Warriors have been tossed out of the Super League for the 2012 season.

The club failed to register their players with USA Rugby (used as the verb "to CIPP") by 5pm local time on Thursday, March 8.

Their games are no byes, and the Denver Barbarians will not have a game with the Warriors this weekend.

League rules require teams to be properly CIPP'd by Thursday evening before the start of play, and Kelly said in an earlier interview with RUGBYMag.com that it would be unfair to have one game forfeited and others played, so failure to be ready for the season means a season disqualification.

http://www.rugbymag.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3697%3Awarriors-out&catid=58%3Asuper-league-&Itemid=228



WTF??

To continue on the topic of turning college rugby clubs into varsity teams, as much as I hate to make comparisons to lacrosse, rugby can learn a lot from what lacrosse is doing now. Even though lacrosse is an NCAA sport, many teams at big schools have club status, and as they try to become varsity they face the same challenges as rugby does, i.e. Title IX, etc. A recent successful example is University of Michigan turning their lacrosse club into varsity. The main lesson for rugby is -it takes major $$$. In this era of shrinking budgets, schools want to see that the team will not become a drain on the budget. Rugby has the advantage of being a lower-cost sport than lacrosse, but any school that considers adding varsity rugby will most likely require the team to show that they can be self-sufficient and have strong alumni donations, similar to how Cal operates. Michigan lacrosse club had to fundraise $6 million before the university elevated them to varsity status. Even though a rugby team costs less to operate than lacrosse (most top lacrosse teams have budgets of over $700K), the university will probably require that the team raise at least a couple million bucks before elevating to varsity. GoEagles, can Colorado rugby team raise $2-3 million? I doubt it. I found this interesting bit on the UCLA rugby website:


So less than 20% of UCLA rugby alumni give any money to their team. And UCLA is considered to be one of the better-run rugby programs in the USA. It would be interesting to know what the situation is at other colleges. In any case, it seems we are miles behind lacrosse on the path towards varsity.

1. Male vs. Female (gender equity related issues with Title IX) We strive for proportionality
2. Conference Alignment if not in the Pac-12 and the opportunity for a conference sponsored championship
3. Playing competition and recruiting competition for players (which universities already offer it, scheduling matches)
4. Facilities in place or needed
5. Support systems needed for Student Athlete success, such as sports medicine, academic support, strength & conditioning, compliance,
6. Recruiting base, local, state, regional
7. High School participation (are the high school programs growing, steady or in decline)
8. Collegiate participation (club sports on campus already and interest in varsity status)
9. Interest from Alumni, do we have a history or tradition
10. Interest in supporting the sport from a variety of sources, community, current donors, potential donors, alumni and associations such as the one you mentioned.
11. Budgetary impact and our sustainability for sponsoring the sport long term (scholarships, equipment, travel, recruiting, coaching, facilities, etc.)
12. Fall Sport vs. Spring Sport - Spreading the Athletic Department resources and staff over equal time periods

6ft
215-lbs
40 yard dash - 4.48 sec (4.46 was the best time one of the scouts had, but most had him at a 4.48)
Bench Press - 23 reps
Vertical Jump - 39 inches
Broad Jump - 10 feet 8 inches
Short Shuttle - 3.91 sec
3 Cone Drill - 6.25 sec
60 yard long shuttle - 10.9 sec

A growing school-age team is turning to an old tradition, the student exchange, in an effort to expand its horizons.

Later this month, Sacramento, California's Land Park will receive a 14-year-old Welsh boy for a two-week stay. Next year, the rural school in Brecon where Sam Maggs plays will take in an American student-athlete.

'I dream of taking an entire team on tour, but the economics are too daunting for 12- and 13-year-olds. One night I figured if I can’t send a whole team, I’ll start by sending one or two, and thus the idea of an exchange came up', Land Park coach Matt Eason said in an email.

Most American youngsters have little practical understanding of elite rugby. Welsh teenagers better know the routes to their national team, which sometimes includes precocious athletes like George North, just five years older than Maggs.

Maggs, who has earned age-grade honors and is part of a Welsh Rugby Union program for early teens, will thus be a kind of role model.

Like several programs in Northern California, Land Park has grown quickly, in 5 years reaching 110 players aged from 8 to 14, and is beginning to measure its achievements in terms of the exploits of 'alumni'. '[We are] a major feeding ground for [Sacramento's] elite high school programs, and we are now starting to have an impact into the college ranks', Eason reported.

About an hour north of Cardiff, Brecon's Christ College was founded by royal charter in 1541. Maggs is the fifth generation of his family to attend the private school, which claims a fine rugby heritage.

The exchange was facilitated by Welsh-born Peter Hansford, like Eason a member of the Northern California referee society.

You need 6 schools to play the sport at a varsity level for the Pac 12 to "sponsor" the sport. The 6 are obvious: Cal + the CPD teams. However, you don't actually need all 6 because you can sometimes get another school to be an associate member for that sport only. Boise State is actually part of the Pac 12 for wrestling. I could see BYU or St Mary's doing the same for rugby.

Oh and to answer your question, as of right now there is no way CU could raise $2-3 million from their rugby alumni.

It was Boston rugby club - they were very good and well up for the game having flown over earlier this morning. Best American touring team I have played I think they had an ex eagle playing. There were 3 PR lads playing myself, eveready and even uncle fester played a bit. To show how serious they were taking it they even took a drop goal and were leading till we scored 2 late tries to win it.

T'was a good game. Our guys had to drop their usual "no kicking" rule to get the win.

Any photos? I'll let you know if I recognize any of the Boston lads.

Check it out.

Mark Bokhoven (Denver Barbarians; Ames, Iowa)

Andrew Durutalo (Old Puget Sound Beach; Seattle Wa.)

Nick Edwards (Sydney University; Sydney, Australia)

Tai Enosa (USA Rugby; San Diego, Calif.)

Colin Hawley (USA Rugby; Trowbridge, Calif.)

Folau Niua (USA Rugby; East Palo Alto, Calif.)

Mike Palefau (Unattached; Salt Lake City, Utah)

Nu’u Punimata (Old Puget Sound Beach; Seattle, Wa.)

Shalom Suniula (USA Rugby; San Diego, Calif.)

Zack Test (USA Rugby; Palo Alto, Calif.)

Peter Tiberio (USA Rugby; Naperville, Ill.)

Maka Unufe (USA Rugby; Provo, Utah)

Lions lure US loose forward
2012-03-14 22:38Email | Print


Cape Town - United States loose forward JJ Gagiano has joined the Golden Lions for the rest of the season.

Gagiano played for America at last year's Rugby World Cup in New Zealand and according to Beeld he joined the Lions earlier this week on a trial basis.

The Lions' Super Rugby coach John Mitchell wants to bolster his loose forward reserves and Gagiano impressed him enough to extend his stay in Johannesburg for the whole season.

Gagiano becomes the second American on the Lions' books in recent years after popular loose forward Todd Clever departed in 2010.

The 26-year-old grew up in Cape Town but qualified to play for America due to his mother's origin.

The eightman first caught the eye of the South African rugby public as captain of UCT's Ikeys in the Varsity Cup. He also represented the Eastern Province Kings in 2010.

He has played 14 Tests for the Americans since making his debut against Uruguay in 2008.

Ruben Moggee, the Golden Lions Rugby Union's CEO, said Gagiano will give them some much needed depth at loose forward.

"It was needed, given the duration of Super Rugby. We've already witnessed how big a role injuries play.

"JJ is a physical player and counts among two or three that really stood out for America in the World Cup."

Gagiano has been included in the Golden Lions' Vodacom Cup side for this weekend's match against the Falcons at Wits University.

Several players part of their Super Rugby plans will get a much needed run in this game. They are: James Kamana (fullback), Michael Killian (wing), Andries Coetzee (flyhalf), Stephan Greeff (lock), Jacobie Adriaanse (prop), Martin Bezuidenhout (hooker) and Ruan Dreye

US team for Asian 7s legs. No Eloff. I like that as it returns his focus to 15s where we need him to play as much flyhalf as possible:

USA Eagles v Georgia National Team Infinity Park 6 p.m.

Is Durutalo being considered for the XVs? I know he's been primarily a no8 recently, but he played a bit of hooker for the Fiji u21s. Might be worth a look there.

As for prop, I doubt this guy is a secret, but I wonder if USA has approached Callum Black recently? He was at Worcester for a bit and went to Ulster to try and make Ireland, but it doesn't look as if he's anywhere close to their depth chart.

http://www.ulsterrugby.com/rugby/ulster ... ef=dynamic

Grand Prix Sports, a subsidiary of Grand Prix Entertainment a Los Angeles‐based sports and entertainment enterprise announced today in a press release that AEG Facilities’ Home Depot Center will be the future home of Grand Prix’s rugby world championships as part of Grand Prix’s exclusive partnership with USA Rugby.

“Following Grand Prix's March 12, 2012 announcement of its six year extension through 2018 of our exclusive partnership with USA Rugby, selecting the championship venue was next on our list,” said Grand Prix Chairman Alan Rothenberg.

“Since hosting the iRB Rugby Sevens World Series from 2004 to 2006, staged by Grand Prix’s partner USA Rugby, we are thrilled to welcome back world class rugby sevens and its fans to The Home Depot Center, and look forward to being the home of Grand Prix’s upcoming Rugby Sevens world championships,” said The Home Depot Center General Manager Katie Pandolfo.

USA Rugby had previously awarded Grand Prix the exclusive rights to own, operate and broadcast a professional 7s competition. The details of the agreement aren't clear enough to state how exclusive GPE's deal is - certainly they cannot control whether a club pays its players or whether a tournament or series of tournaments can pay prize money, and history has shown they've had little interest in claiming they can.

GPE Chairman William Tatham said, “America’s entry into world class rugby played by world class teams demanded that Grand Prix kick off with a world class venue partner. AEG is simply the world leader in sports and entertainment, and AEG Facilities’ Home Depot Center is exactly the right United States sound stage off which Grand Prix will domestically produce and globally distribute the richest Rugby Sevens championships in world history. To say the least, I’m grateful that the team at The Home Depot Center shares Grand Prix’s vision that the “Father of American Football” is now about to become the “Sport of the 21st Century.”

No details were given on dates, broadcasters, or other deals.

Tatham offered this:
“Trust me," he said, "we intend on rocking rugby world with the news that the United States, the most powerful sports market with the greatest athletes on the globe, has finally entered the game of major league rugby. No grass roots efforts here, we’re all about starting, and winning, at the top. By 2016, Grand Prix is committed to guaranteeing that USA Rugby fields a Rugby Sevens squad fully capable of successfully defending America as the last winner of Olympic Rugby Gold and taking home the gold medal at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. American sports fans deserve no less.”

GPE says their pre-launch phase is complete with the agreement from an as-yet-unannounced broadcaster. Tatham has assembled a team including Alan Rothenberg, one of the driving forces behind Major League Soccer; Neal Pilson, former president of CBS Sports; Gary Marenzi, former president of MGM International TV; Kelly Crabb, Senior Partner in sports law firm Sheppard Mullin; Rich Rose, former President and COO of Caesars (Palace) World Sports; and Randy Bernstein, co-founder of Premier Partnerships.

No idea. On another note, Rugbymag/Goff has really gone downhill. They fail to differentiate between their free content and their increasingly premium content. Pretty much everything free is a press release from USAR or something shilling one of their owner's products. Between that and the ridiculous veer off course from ARN/Weareleague there is a serious dearth of quality American rugby coverage out there.

It's alright visually I guess, but the tagline is fucki ... sorry ... IS FUCKING STUPID.

It's alright visually I guess, but the tagline is fucki ... sorry ... IS FUCKING STUPID.

Alright visually? I've seen better photoshop work on here. The Canadian players' hair...