Arrows aiming for Major League future

Canadian rugby fans will orbit around the backyard this weekend to celebrate the nation’s 151st birthday. The hot topic for ‘cue-side conversation will no doubt be thoughts on the future as a winless June test series fades into memory and eyes turn to the World Cup Qualifiers in November. For most the question will be the same – how do we get our national senior men’s team back on track?

Not long after, our neighbors directly to the south will be grilling up their own stories. Theirs will be of a different timbre. An historic victory over Scotland, the rise of American rugby, and the arrival – at long last – of a professional domestic competition with teeth. By the time their cans are cracked the Major League Rugby Semi Finals will be done and dusted and the Grand Final just days away. A celebration of a new dawn, the true birth of independent American rugby.

Those in the north need not wait in the cold. As the west prepares to sail in hostile international waters, domestic progress stirs in the east. The Ontario Arrows have completed their spring campaign but have not sat idly. Plans are well afoot for the fall and if imminent discussions go swimmingly, there are brighter days ahead on the horizon for Canadian rugby.

Blair Kinghorn’s conversion drifted past the uprights in Houston as if persuaded by magnets sent from Salt Lake. For the first time in their history the Eagles were able to field an entirely professional squad and at first opportunity the Scots were overturned. It might be an exaggeration to claim that MLR won the day. After all it was the class of AJ MacGinty and the destructive Joe Taufete’e who had carried the tune, but every star needs a supporting cast.

To a man the Eagles looked sharp in June. Fit for duty and battle hardened. There were no stragglers. Among those missing out – Ben Cima, Ryan Matyas, Siaosi Mahoni, Tony Lamborn, David Tameilau. Gary Gold is not scraping the bottom of the barrel any time soon. Suddenly there is real strength in depth, and a clear path to test honors.

It’s a fact not lost on Kingsley Jones. Canada’s newest conductor spoke frequently in the build-up to the match against the Eagles in Halifax about the need for a proving ground to test his top domestic players and build squad depth.

“We can’t have 15 players knowing that they’re in the team, guaranteed. I have to create competition. It’s a challenge to do that, because the competition that some of the players play in is not the same as international rugby. Unless we expose players to the level, we’ll never find out.

“Unfortunately we haven’t got a training pool to teach them in at the moment, to make that transition from our clubs to that international level against top teams. The USA have similar issues but they’ve got a helluva lot of their team now playing in a good competition. The MLR has really supported that.”

 

 

Enter the Arrows. It’s been nearly 10 months since their ‘soft launch‘ at Infinity Park, and the foundation is now settled in place. Eight games are under their belt. Road trips south to Texas, Utah, New York, and New England. They enjoyed the company of more than 3,000 spectators who came out for two home matches. An academy side has been launched and two months ago they announced a formal connection with the Hurricanes of Super Rugby fame.

Arrows co-founder Bill Webb says the trial has met all expectations.

“We were very happy, first of all with the players. There was a lot of interest, and their commitment and work ethic was fantastic. The support from the fans, the players, the sponsors, and the unions – Rugby Canada and Rugby Ontario – has all been terrific.”

The next step? According to Webb, there is only one answer.

“We’d love to be a part of MLR in 2019.”

After weeks of speculation, the Arrows management group – headed by Webb and General Manager Mark Winokur – have entered formal negotiations with Major League Rugby to bring a team to Toronto for the 2019 season. This weekend they will travel to Denver to take in the Semi Finals and continue discussions with league stakeholders.

Don’t expect an announcement straight away, however. While the Arrows are now officially interested in joining the startup competition there are still logistics to work out, and the team must gain the approval of the league’s expansion committee. Only one new team – New York – has been given the green light for 2019 to date. The league appears to have targeted two more additions but it’s unlikely they’ll be confirmed until the end of July.

Webb has his concerns – as any investor would – and concedes that there are no guarantees but maintains the will is there to make a deal.

“It’s a commercial enterprise – it’s got to be financially sustainable over time. It’s also a two-way street. MLR has to want us in too. There are certain challenges to being the first Canadian team that we need to work through – for example our weather is a bit different from out west, the Canadian dollar, and so on – but we think they are all manageable.

“This isn’t a make or break weekend for us. We’ll continue to move forward, we’ll keep studying and evaluating. Given what we bring, I think we’d be a great fit. I think we’re an appealing market. By North American standards the GTA [Greater Toronto Area] is a huge market.

“It’s not just about financial risk. Everybody that’s involved in our ownership group really cares about the game in Canada. Having a professional team in Canada would be a great step for the future of rugby in this country. It gives something other than the national team for players to aspire to.

“We’re ready now, we don’t need another exhibition season. We beat Utah in the preseason, and they’re in the playoffs. We know we would be competitive. We’ve proven ourselves on the field and our focus now is getting involved [in MLR] for 2019.”

 

Should the Canadian dream come to fruition it would not be the first professional rugby team in Canada, or even Toronto. The Wolfpack – a rugby league side – is now in its second year and continues to draw strong crowds despite spending a sizable portion of their season in the UK and employing only two North American players on their roster, both of whom are currently out on loan to London Skolars.

Some have questioned whether a second professional rugby team is viable in Toronto given the Wolfpack’s head start. Attendance has been somewhat modest for the two Arrows games but given the context of the matches and the opposition, the numbers – 1,604 against the Boston Mystics and 1,469 for the Canada Selects – are pretty respectable. Webb is not of the mind that there will be any clash between the two sides.

“We think there’s room for two teams of different codes. There’s a much more established rugby union base, because that’s the game everyone plays here. Of course we’d both like to appeal to people who never watch rugby. They’ve done a great job of that actually, bringing new people to game, and I think we can do the same, but we’ll have a larger base of support from the people who actually play the game around here.

“The other element is that we’ll be in a North American league, they’re in a British League. We’ll have local players fans will recognize and I think the local rivalries – New York being the obvious one and maybe Boston down the road – are very compelling for a Canadian audience.

“Purposely, we didn’t have much of a marketing budget because we only had a couple home games. We were very pleased with the reception [from the fans]. We know that if we crank up the budget we can do even more there, by MLR standards very attractive crowds.”

 

 

Of course North America has been seduced by the promise of professional rugby before. The specter of PRO continues to creep through the hallways of USA Rugby’s head office and fans will recall that Rugby Canada were not on board with that competition – in retrospect a wise decision. Webb says the Arrows have “no concerns” about sanctioning this time around, and on that point he seems to be correct.

While Jones’ desire for Canadian teams in MLR are well known, until now Rugby Canada itself has largely been guarded about its public statements on the league. Chairman Tim Powers says that the new competition is viewed in a very different light than the dearly departed.

“We are certainly keen to see Canadian teams involved [in MLR]. We applaud the effort of the Arrows. I’ve met with their management team on a few occasions. I think, unlike PRO Rugby, we view MLR as having more potential. The early signs have been good.

“With any professional rugby league that has an interest in Canada, our board wants to do its due diligence and be thorough and proper. We want to be sure we are able to enable professional rugby in Canada, and make sure that our athletes and our fans get the opportunity to participate. We believe that professional rugby [in Canada] is a key pathway for the betterment of our national men’s team.”

If that sounds at all ambiguous, CEO Allen Vansen’s comments remove any doubt as to Rugby Canada’s stance on the idea of MLR in Canada.

“We’ve had an extensive engagement with MLR for well over a year now. We want to be very supportive of the league coming into Canada, and very supportive of the Canadian franchises. That’s where we see a number of our national team players actually playing the game at the professional level in the future.

“We continue to work with the Ontario Arrows and the various groups that have interest in bringing a franchise to Vancouver. We’d love to see two, three, or four franchises in Canada as our market grows, as our game grows, and we can commercialize the sport of rugby together.

“We are fully behind it. It’s been a great initial season. We have been monitoring it very closely, and look forward to working with MLR and our Canadian franchises to bring teams to Canada hopefully in 2019.”

 

With next season set to begin earlier – tentatively late January 2019 – the Arrows would be forced to play the early parts of the campaign on the road, but that doesn’t mean fans will have to wait until well into the new year to see the team back in action. Webb has confirmed that the team is already moving forward with fall matches scheduled regardless of any outcome.

“We’ve got some games already scheduled that will be announced. There will be a high profile game in September, I can’t reveal who yet, but we’re expecting to have our national team players available and for us to play a part in Canada’s Repechage preparations.”

There’s still a postponed match against New York that needs to be rescheduled, and the group has an established connection with Glendale though Webb would not confirm either yet. He did however name one opponent that is on the team’s wish list.

“The Arrows would like to extend an open invitation to the MLR champion, whoever that is, to play in Toronto this fall. Please bring the trophy with you so we can borrow it for the evening.”

That sounds like an ideal event to help kick off the first season of professional rugby in Canada. With a little luck and lots of crossed appendages the two teams could be facing each other for the real deal around this time next year. After all the turmoil that has surrounded Canadian rugby in recent months there may yet be a flicker of light at the end of the tunnel.