Another World Cup Coming to America

The U.S. will be hosting the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and the Summer Olympics in 2028.  Those are the two biggest sporting events on the planet.  The third is also headed to American soil for the first time.  In 2031, the United States will host the Rugby World Cup for the men, as well as the women's event two years later.  This is huge news!

There had been interest by World Rugby for quite some time in bringing its marquee event to the United States.  The Rugby Sevens World Cup was in San Francisco a few years ago, but it didn't seem like they'd be able to make the 15-a-side version work simply because of the timing.  The Rugby World Cup is held in early fall, which is a very busy time for sports in the U.S.  So, I thought in order for it to work, they'd have to move it to the summer.

Which, even if they had to do, should've been a no-brainer for World Rugby.  The powers of the sport are Australia, New Zealand and South Africa, as well as a few nations in Europe (England, specifically).  They've all hosted before.  France will host the next one in 2023.  Japan hosted in 2019, which was the first Rugby World Cup in Asia.  Yet the event has still never been to North America, a massive potential market for the sport.  That'll change in 2031.

And the timing evidently will not be an issue.  They didn't announce specific dates.  Just that the 2031 Rugby World Cup will take place during its normal timeframe.  In football stadiums.  Which will cause some scheduling headaches to be sure.

Several cities that have NFL teams have expressed interest in hosting, which should've been obvious.  There's no way they would've chosen the U.S. if large stadiums in major cities weren't even an option.  But still, I'm curious to see how they'll work NFL games and Rugby World Cup games around each other.

Regardless of how many stadiums they ultimately end up using and which ones, one does seem to stand out as an obvious choice for the final.  It seats 100,000 people and, more importantly, doesn't have an NFL team.  It's also in Los Angeles, which is significant considering the timeframe and what the autumn weather can be like in some areas of this country.  I'm, of course, talking about the Rose Bowl, which hosted the FIFA World Cup Final in 1994 and would join a very short list of stadiums to host World Cup finals in both soccer and rugby.

That'll be less of an issue for the women's edition in 2023, when you'd figure at least some smaller stadiums will be used.  I can easily see them using some MLS stadiums instead of NFL stadiums.  Although, that creates a different set of complications since the MLS Cup Playoffs normally start around then.

Fortunately, they've got nine years to figure it out (11 for the women).  And I'm sure they will.  (BTW, stadiums for the 2026 FIFA World Cup still haven't been chosen.)  Even if it means the NFL team has to go on a lengthy road trip or play a London game while their stadium is being used for rugby.  Either way, this event is too big for the U.S. not to pursue it.

Just think about what this'll mean for USA Rugby.  The U.S. is a second-tier rugby nation.  By that I mean the USA Eagles always qualify for the World Cup, but are rarely competitive.  In 2019, they lost all four of their games.  Same thing in 2015 (when they got embarrassed by South Africa's Springboks in the first game).  Their last win was a 13-6 victory over Russia in 2011.  And they still haven't qualified for next year's edition (they're playing a home-and-home with Chile in June for the second spot from the Americas).

Hosting the World Cup could go a long way towards changing that, though.  Look at the U.S. Men's National Soccer Team.  In 1990, a bunch of college kids went to the World Cup and got their butts kicked.  In 1994, the U.S. hosted the World Cup.  Two years later MLS was born, and the U.S. made the World Cup quarterfinals in 2002.
  
Likewise, when rugby sevens was added to the Olympics, it was huge for both USA Sevens teams.  Neither has reached the medal round in the two Olympics that have included rugby, but the USA men are one of the top teams on the World Series.  They both, in fact, qualified directly for the Tokyo Games as one of the top four teams in the 2018-19 point standings.

For 15-a-side rugby, hosting the World Cup could have the same effect.  Especially when you consider how easy it would be for a country like the U.S. to get good at rugby.  There are so many college club programs out there, so there's clearly already an interest.  There's also a pro league in the U.S.  And the game is so similar to football that there are already plenty of converted football players, and it wouldn't be hard to imagine others being convinced to switch to rugby.

Whether any of that will actually happen remains to be seen.  But the chances that it will are far more likely than if the U.S. were simply playing in the Rugby World Cup at some early-morning hour in a different country.  And, even if it doesn't lead to the grassroots growth of the sport, simply having the games played on U.S. soil in front of American fans will create a financial windfall for USA Rugby regardless.

It's not just the USA Eagles, either.  How many American fans have ever gotten to see the All Blacks play?  Or the Springboks?  Or the Walabees?  We'll get to see all of them.  Plus England, Fiji, Argentina, France, and all the others.  That alone is enough to get excited about.  And, frankly, I'm more excited about the possibility of seeing a New Zealand-South Africa or England-Australia game!

World Rugby sees the potential that a World Cup in the United States can bring.  That's why they were so eager to figure out a way to make it work for 2031 and 2033.  So eager, in fact, that the U.S. being officially awarded both tournaments was nothing more than a mere formality.  It's something everybody wanted to happen and has the potential of being a win for everyone.

So, yeah, things are gonna be busy over the next few years with all of the major international sporting events headed to the U.S.  But that also means we're gonna have an exciting next few years.  Because you won't need to go anywhere to watch the world's biggest and greatest sporting events.  And, personally, I can't wait for any of them!