Americas Rugby News Rugby news from across the Americas!
Major League Rugby owners are set to make big decisions on the competition’s future this weekend. After months of speculation, multiple sources have confirmed that the immediate fate of two existing franchises should be determined along with the potential of a new addition.
Seismic announcements came from the league just before the 2022 Championship series that two teams – Austin and LA – would not be permitted to compete in the postseason. The suspensions of the Gilgronis and Giltinis were the result of irregularities found during the due diligence of a potential Austin sale, and subsequent actions by team owner Adam Gilchrist.
It was deemed that Austin was likely in breach the salary cap, though MLR were denied the opportunity to complete a full investigation. LA were pulled after Gilchrist was determined to have violated the owners participation agreement.
Gilchrist’s fortunes have since plummeted with the near-collapse of F45’s value on the stock market. The elusive Australian is a co-founder of the gym franchise but is no longer CEO and appears to have gone into exile. He recently sold two multi-million dollar houses located at Sydney’s Freshwater Beach.
Rumors of a potential sale of Austin have circulated since the spring, along with allegations that the team’s staff had been left unpaid for a large part of the season. There has also been outside interest in LA but as of yet nothing has been finalised for either team.
As for potential new entries, prior to the Gilchrist fall-out the Midwest was looking likely to welcoming their first team with both St. Louis and Chicago said to be submitting strong bids. St. Louis have since put their plans on hold, but Chicago remains on the table.
Owners will now have to decide what the outcomes for each situation will be, and time is of the essence. Some are concerned that the runway is too short to add a new team in time for 2023, and efforts are best spent salvaging one or both of the existing teams in question.
It’s unclear at this stage what would happen to contracted players if either LA or Austin dropped out of the 2023 season. Several have already moved on, others remain in limbo. The Colorado Raptors are the only team to date to pull out of the league following the shortened 2020 campaign. On that occasion a dispersal draft was held for unsigned players. A similar draft was used when Dallas postponed their entry by a year from 2021 to 2022.
