America’s First Professional Rugby Sevens League Launched

Grand Prix Entertainment (GPE) has launched America’s First Professional Rugby League, the Grand Prix Rugby Football League (the RFL).

The RFL, a sixteen-team league, will showcase the new Olympic sport of Rugby Sevens, which will debut at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Olympics.

Nigel Melville, CEO of USA Rugby, recently extended through 2018 the RFL’s U.S. exclusive Sanction and License rights to own, operate and globally broadcast the professional sport of Rugby Sevens.

“Buttressed by exclusively sanctioned and licensed competitive advantages and protections no new sports league in American history has ever enjoyed, Olympic endorsement of the sport, and Rugby Sevens explosion on the global stage, the time was right for America’s first professional rugby league,” said William Tatham, GPE Founder and Chairman.

“The RFL represents the greatest major market sports franchise opportunity in the last 50 years. Name the last time New York, Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles franchises were all available,” said Eric White, of RFL financial advisor, Capitol Pacific Group.

The RFL will kick off via a Phase One Championship Tour, showcasing the RFL’s 4 Founding Franchises vs. 20 of the worlds great teams in the world’s richest sevens championships. On the back of this Phase One Tour-built team, brand and market foundation, the RFL’s Phase Two regular season will open play with sixteen U.S. franchised teams.