Major League Rugby held its inaugural championship game on the weekend.
The game featured the Glendale Raptors and Seattle Seawolves which was ultimately a match-up of the best of season one. The Raptors were the top team through the regular season, and for their part the Seawolves were arguably the best team in terms of fan support with regular sell-outs.
The Seawolves would prevail 23-19 in what had to be a bit of a surprise finish, thanks in part to a try from Canadian Ray Barkwell, and the planning of Canadian player-coach Phil Mack.
Seattle is actually spotted with Canadian players including Brock Staller, Cam Polson, George Barton, Mozac Samson, and Nakai Penny, so they were the team I have followed most closely this season.
While the MLR season was generally positive for the sport, it wasn’t without concerns in the sense that any new league would like more fans in the stands. The league has been cautious settling into smaller venues, but full stands were still not an every game occurrence.
But the season has been one that would seem to lay a solid foundation for rugby to get a permanent foothold in terms of a pro level league in North America.
The sport will get another boost in 2019 with the next world cup to be held in Japan with the United States already qualified, and Canada with a backdoor chance.
And, growth in the MLR is going to happen. New York has already been announced for 2019, and it is expected at least two other cities will be part of the loop. Where those teams are will be interesting to see, with my hopes clearly on the Ontario Arrows being one of them. That said Washington, Los Angeles, Dallas, Sacramento, Boston and Chicago are among a list of nearly 20 cities mentioned in various online threads in recent months to want into the league.
As a sports fan I’ve always been interested in new leagues that pop up every once in a while.
For example, the Global T20 Canada cricket tournament has been going on in Toronto the last couple of weeks.
Apparently, Canada has a long cricket history, dating back to the 1800s when it participated in the first ever official International cricket match staged in North America against the USA. This tournament has teams representing teams from Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Winnipeg and Vancouver, and former YTW reporter and cricket fan Thom Barker tells me via Facebook the tourney is hoped to be a prelude to a full-fledged Canadian league. I can’t say I list cricket anywhere near my top-10 team sports to watch, but I recognize it is popular in countries such as India and Pakistan and that we have many immigrants from those countries in Canada which could create a fan base for a new league. And, if a league started and a sports channel picked up games, I would at least check out a game or two to see if cricket could grow on me as a sport to watch.
It is interesting that new pro sports leagues in Canada are being considered.
The Canadian Professional Lacrosse League was promoted to start this year, but the field lacrosse league never took flight, although the league’s Facebook page is now suggesting a spring 2019 launch. It would be outstanding if the league got off the ground, but it does seem like a long shot.
It would seem the same scenario surrounds the Canadian Arena League a new proposed professional arena/indoor football league designed to bring three-down Canadian rules action to arenas across Canada.
“Each team will be made up of a 20-man roster,” notes their website at www.canadianarenaleague.com “... Each team will play on a 50-yard field similar to our counter parts in the United States. All teams will play a 10 game schedule.”
Again, it’s said set to launch in the spring of 2019, this would be great to see, but sadly it’s hard to envision it happening.
Thankfully the MLR seems set to grow, and that is good enough for now in my world.
