Women’s elite rugby wants to become the next big thing in professional sports

Sports News

“A lot of our high-level athletes go abroad and play. They’ve been doing it for years and we want to take them home.”

Kittery Ruiz was able to see the writing on the wall six years ago. A professional female rugby league has arrived. In 2019, it was a question of “when” rather than “if”.

Lewis was a female Premier League commissioner at the time and an amateur, player-led, pay-to-play league that made up some of the top clubs around the country. A former national team member and longtime WPL player, Lewis knows firsthand how difficult it can be to balance his full-time job with five practices a week, not to mention the out-of-pocket costs required to play at the elite level in the US.

As a result, women’s rugby in America is lagging behind its peers at the international level.

The new professional league, the women’s elite racer, is trying to solve that problem.

“I think we knew it as leadership and honestly as someone who played in this country for a very long time. This had to be the next step if we wanted to compete on the world stage.” “We really need to have something in this country where athletes can focus on honing their craft. This was what we needed and that was the only logical next step.”

Born from six of the city’s top WPL clubs from Boston to the Bay Area, WER will begin its first season this weekend as the Boston Banshee travels to face New York exiles on Saturday at 3pm.

Other teams competing in the league include Beybreaker, Twin City Gemini, Chicago Tempest and Denver Onyx.

While debate about the future of professional rugby for women in the US began decades ago, in 2022, plans for the professional league became serious with the launch of a campaign called “Ignite the Change.”

WPL’s external advice board was formed and we first met in April 2023, and a year later – almost until that day – announced the creation of WER.

In the months that followed, the league announced that six existing WPL markets would become WER’s founding cities, debuting branding and logos for all teams, hiring coaches and staff, and selecting the roster of top 15S rugby players in the US.

It was a whirlwind process, but the timing was intentional, according to President and co-founder Jessica Hammond-Graf.

For one thing, players spent around $5,000 per WPL season on travel, insurance, gym memberships and other fees, and Hammond Graf wanted to remove that financial barrier as soon as possible.

Many WER players are also preparing for the 2025 Rugby World Cup, which will be held in the UK from August 22nd to September 27th, and WER wants to provide dedicated training and competitive space to help prepare World Cup candidates.

“Our goal is to continue to increase and provide opportunities for rugby players at these elite levels and give them space to do that in the US soil,” Hammondgraf said. “A lot of our high-level athletes go abroad and play. They’ve been doing it for years and we want to take them home.”

Until recently, many American-born players had to seek opportunities overseas if they wanted to compete for Team USA spots. Some played in the WPL, while others moved to Europe and Oceania, where women’s rugby historically had more funding and support.

The league saw an opportunity to attract public attention this summer, and announced it the day after Team USA won its first Olympic medal in women’s rugby 7 at the Paris Games in July, the day after it won its first Olympic medal, rugby was probably the first time in the forefront of many Americans’ minds.

“It was just a catalyst, right?” Hammondgraf said. “It was a great game. Success really attacked rugby like that.”

WER begins with a pre-seeding funding round that raised $500,000 in April 2024 and is funded through private investors and venture capital companies. The league is currently putting together a seed round that had its first goal of $3 million and will embark on the Series A round in the coming months.

The wage structure of the players has not been revealed, but the league has confirmed that it covers all travel expenses and provides accident insurance to players.

Most players will remain on Day’s job knowing that they will not make fortune on the rugby pitch, but they see that sports specialization is a major step forward.

“To form the WER and remove the management worries from the players’ shoulders, to remove the financial burden from the players’ shoulders, it’s incredibly freeing up as a player, as you have to focus on being the best player I can.”

The biggest concern for players and the league as a whole is sustainability.

In 2015, a professional men’s league called professional rugby was born, and by 2017 it had been completely folded. Five major legacy gugby teams using the franchise model have folded since the league began in 2017.

I want to avoid the same fate.

“Players deserve that sustainability,” Weigel said. “Players deserve to know they can continue playing here for years to come.”