With MLR set to start in just over 3 weeks many teams are looking to see what sort of gate revenue they’ll be able to generate. The Old Glory DC franchise in Washington D.C. were relieved to find out their seating capacity will go up to 30% of maximum, meaning they’ll be able to fit over 1,000 people into their home opener. Canadians Doug Fraser, Luke Campbell and Ciaran Hearn play for the franchise.
Major League Rugby opens its schedule in just over 6 weeks and there has been some scrambling to make it happen in the COVID world. San Diego has moved to Vegas, Dallas dropped out and now Toronto has moved home base to Atlanta. The schedulers at MLR HQ are trying to keep up and just released a revised schedule which can be found here.
With MLR about to start in just over 7 weeks, teams may be getting a little nervous about local COVID rules and regulations in their area. The San Diego team acted decisively and announced they’re playing home games in neighbouring Nevada, and where else but in Vegas, about 400km away as the crow flies.
MLR will have to rejig their schedule as they’ve just lost a team to the 2021 season. The Dallas Jackals were planning on entering the league this year but couldn’t pull it off with the deadline looming in March.
Our rugby articles on Michael Smith began in January 2015 when he represented the BCRU at the Vegas 7s, he was at Earl Marriott HS at the time.
Nanaimo born Travis Larsen has signed with the San Diego Legion for the 2021 MLR season. DJ Coil had this to say in his article:
There are 18 weeks in the 2021 MLR regular season running from March 20th to July 18th. Each team has 16 matches with 8 home games.
Only in 2020 you say? Three of Canada’s top backline players, Cole Davis, DTH and Jeff Hassler have signed with sister clubs Austin Gilgronis and LA Giltinis. Cole Davis and Jeff Hassler are going with Gilgronis and DTH to Giltinis. Both teams are owned by the Loyals Rugby Group out of Australia. The terms Gilgronis and Giltinis are trademarks owned by the Giltini Group LLC of Australia. In case other MLR teams come up for sale, they also own the trademark on Gilacolada, Gilgarita and Gilpolitan.
MLR announced the parameters of its 2021 season with a season start of March 20th and an end date of August 1st. In between will be an 18 week regular season, topped off by an Eastern and Western conference final and a League final.
He won two MLR championships as a player/coach but wasn’t given the head coach’s job, a mystery to many, now he’s parted ways with Seattle and looking for the next opportunity.