Ex-All Black Nehe Milner-Skudder in action for Rugby New York in their June 3 Eastern Conference semi-final against the New England Free Jacks. Photo / Getty Images
UPDATE: New York Rugby won the final 30-15 as the temperature hit 32C. Bolton's prediction of a modest crowd proved correct. Watch on-demand here.
While it's fair to say members of its squad are far from household names in the US, Rugby United New York has made the final of the American equivalent to Super Rugby.
And locals are learning a bit more about the game in the build-up.
"If you could combine football with ice hockey, that's what rugby looks like," Rugby New York CEO Ric Salizzo explained to a ABC 7 reporter during a recent TV news profile (click the tweet below to see the clip).
Field Trip: Fun with Rugby New York https://t.co/PRK4uVJw5V
— Chris Keall (@ChrisKeall) June 22, 2022
Rugby United New York - the team owned by Kiwi Murray Bolton - has made the final of the US equivalent to Super Rugby.
The team will take on the Seattle Seawolves in the Major League Rugby (MLR) final on Saturday (Sunday NZT) at the Red Bull Arena in New Jersey. (Seattle topped the Western Conference after the two top teams - Austin and LA - were disqualified for breaking salary cap rules. Austin has filed a lawsuit).
The venue - usually home to Major League Soccer team Red Bull New York - has a capacity of 25,000 - but Bolton can't be accused of over-hyping the match.
"We might get 3000 to 5000 people," he tells the Herald from Mexico, where he has been in self-imposed exile from NZ since the New Year (Bolton was a prime mover in the successful legal challenge against MIQ).
Winning the championship will help, but this is a long haul.
The rich lister says it could take 20 years for rugby to gain serious traction in the US, and there's no certainty it ever will.
And Bolton is under any illusion Rugby New York will be a money-spinner, any time soon.
"It's a long way from making money," he says. He estimates he will have to pour in between US$20 million to US$25m before he sees a return.
If this doesn’t pump you up, we don’t know what will…
— Rugby New York (@rugbynewyork) June 11, 2022
New York, it’s #Playoffs time 😤
Tonight, NY @ ATL | 8:30pm ET pic.twitter.com/mRL9EOZx56
In the Bolton universe, New York Rugby is less like transaction services company Xplor - in which he holds a stake worth around half a billion - and closer to his quixotic ventures like his multi-year, money-sink ongoing bid to relaunch the Kamo wildlife park established by "Lion Man" Craig Busch. (Some would also put Bolton's period as Auckland Blues part-owner on that list.)
Still, things are stirring in top-tier US rugby, where it's still early days in terms of a national competition (the MLR had only been going for two seasons before it was decimated by Covid. Bolton invested in New York Rugby after the competition was cancelled in 2020, then took full control in early 2021).
Ex-pat Ben Young - who now serves on the team's board - says he went to his first New York Rugby game with a group of other Kiwis.
"Ex-pats and local clubs were the initial audience. But now it's growing out of that," he says.
MLR began in 2018 with seven teams. Today it has 13 across the US and Canada, and at the grassroots level, numbers have been growing at a rapid clip over the past few years. There are now an estimated 125,000 registered players across 2500 clubs, high schools and sevens teams.
"Rugby is a sport that predates football in the US and actually has a lot of players, they just haven't all been connected nationally before," Young says.
Young - who cofounded ad agency Young & Shand before relocating from Auckland to New York last decade, where he runs content analytics company Nudge and serves as a director for Parrot Analytics (which delivers streaming-age ratings and new content feedback for clients including Disney+ and HBO Max) - is drawing on his tech and marketing skills as a Rugby New York director.
"It's like a startup. It's a content and media company, that has to grow fans and build partnerships. Our aim is to make rugby world-class, here in the US."
There are a couple of major developments that could help.
Bolton - who has dealt with Silverlake and visited its head office, albeit not on the sports side of its operation - says the US venture capital firm will be good for NZ Rugby. It will be a logical step for Silverlake to encourage the All Blacks to return to the US for more exhibition games as it looks to build the team's brand value, which will help boost rugby's profile.
And on May 12, the US was announced as the host for the 2031 Men's Rugby World and the 2033 Women's Rugby World Cup.
Young is hoping that will offer a boost akin to that enjoyed by Major League Soccer after the US hosted the 1994 Fifa World Cup.
"The US has seen what happened with MLS and the World Cup effect. So I think it will help bring awareness, and confidence in the wider support for rugby," Young says.
The tech entrepreneur is far from the only Kiwi at New York Rugby.
The franchise's chief executive is the aforementioned Salizzo - the former NZ Rugby PR man best known for his stint as a SportsCafe producer and presenter.
There's a Kiwi shirt sponsor: Mainfreight (which serves the American market).
The coaching staff is headed by Marty Veale, who played for North Harbour and Canterbury in the NFC during the 2000s.
And on the field, former All Black Nehe Milner-Skudder signed for New York Rugby in May, joining former ABs Waisake Naholo and Andy Ellis. While marquee signings, all are into their 30s - and likely aren't seeing a France or Japan-level payday.
A New York Times report said the average RUNY player was paid between US$20,000 and US$35,000 ($31,000 to $54,000).
Foreign players can earn more, although, like Major League Soccer, it's a retirement gig.
MLS focuses a lot more on home-grown talent these days, however. Inter Miami, co-owned by David Beckham, was recently valued at between US$600m and US$650m (a tidy sum, if still chump change next to top NFL, MLB and NBA teams), and Apple recently paid
US$2.5 billion for a 10-year MLS streaming rights deal. Bolton and co will be hoping Major League Rugby follows a similar trajectory.
The Rugby New York-Seattle Seawolves final will screen on Fox Sports in the US, and stream globally free on the MRL-run World Rugby Network (where you can also see a replay of Rugby New York's Eastern Conference final against the New England Free Jacks).
Kickoff is 12pm Saturday (4am Sunday NZT).
'This decision has not been made lightly'.