Emirates in Eagle 7s pact

Emirates Airlines, title sponsor of the Dubai 7s tournament, will underwrite the 7s Eagles.

The agreement is a 'landmark deal for USA Rugby,' chair Kevin Roberts said in a press release. 'Emirates is passionate about rugby and will bring fresh impetus to the game's development in the U.S.'

Terms of the pact were not disclosed. 'Following the weekend’s action we will certainly be looking at developing this partnership with USA Rugby further,' Emirates president Gary Chapman said in a prepared statement.

But Al Caravelli's squad lacked gear for the season-opening opening tournaments in Dubai and South Africa until the USA 7s tournament stepped in, Rugby Magazine reported.

The team will wear USA 7s-branded jerseys during the season's first two tournaments, according to the publication, whose parent company also owns the USA 7s. Union officials contradicted the report, saying the Eagles will wear adidas kit.

The airline pact underlines seven-a-side's increased commercial appeal following its admission to the Summer Olympics. Emirates, which also backs the English and Samoan 7s teams and and three other Sevens World Series stops, apparently will feature on 7s Eagle gear, as USARFU distributed photos of Emirates logos on adidas-made jerseys. However, the Eagles are contractually required to wear USA 7s-branded jerseys at the Wellington, Las Vegas, and Hong Kong tournaments.

The 15s squad purchased adidas uniforms for last month's World Cup qualifiers, as the US has lacked a gear sponsor since Canterbury declared bankruptcy. Boulder is in the midst of a Massachusetts lawsuit with Kooga over allegations that the union repeatedly violated several clauses of its agreement, notably exclusivity, and improperly terminated the deal. USARFU has set aside $50,000 for damages, seeming to signal it does not consider the matter significant.

Separately, the US has climbed to 16th in the IRB rankings after Russia fell to Canada, capping a resurgent 2009 for Eddie O'Sullivan's Eagles.

A new podcast with a familiar voice has joined the American rugby scene.

RuggaMatrix USA, featuring Bruce McClane, yesterday debuted with an interview of English coach Simon Hardy. Should New York's answer to Ireland's George Hook manage to land interviews with senior American figures, the show could be revealing.

Comments

[USA Hobos]

How to mooch sponsorships when you are from a country that is the ghetto of world rugby.

1 - Show up at high profile event billed as 16 of the best 7s teams in the world without a kit sponsor (most basic sponsorship to sell).

2 - A few days before the event starts say your new kit sponsor is a rival event in the same IRB World 7s Series.

3 - Event title sponsor steps in with off the shelf Adidas kit with their logo on it.

Pure Class!

[clueless hobo]

This deal was started long ago when someone with the USA 7s LLC dropped the ball on the Emirates sponsorship negotiations.

This is a fact.

The timing of the announcement was clearly planned to send a message.

Don't know this is a fact...but I'd bet quite a bit on it.

[Beagles]

Emirates is the title sponsor of the Dubai (their HQ) South Africa, England and Scotland stops, which makes sense because they have a significant route system in those areas and are a known brand. Not sure how much interest Emirates has in the USA 7s sponsorship since they only fly to 4 cities in the USA and are not a known brand what so ever. Also, the only other stop on the series that has a title sponsor is Hong Kong, which is sponsored by another airline in Cathway. New Zealand, USA and Australia do not appear to have a title sponsor, so saying USA 7S LLC dropped the ball is a stretch.

[yeah but...]

USA 7s LLC actually had the inside track on Emirates and let it slip. They were at the table and didn't close it.

[good for once]

Haha.... USA Rugby FINALLY does something right, and the peanut gallery goes silent. Only 4 comments, and bad ones at that.
Don't you clowns who post on this blog have anything constructive or positive to say? I didn't think so.

[USA Hobos]

Well done USA Rugby! You got your best product in world rugby (7s team) the following commitment from a sponsor:

Emirates Airline has become the Official Airline of the USA Rugby National Sevens teams. Both the USA men's and women's Sevens teams will wear the well-known 'Fly Emirates' strap on their shirts during the IRB Sevens World Series, which starts this week with the Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens.

New kits for the boys and they look dandy. Just like the off the shelf ones you can buy from Worldrugbyshop.com! But with cool logos.

And this new sponsor sounds excited! Gary Chapman, President Group Services and Dnata, Emirates Group said, "Following the weekend's action we will certainly be looking at developing this partnership with USA Rugby further."

This looks promising. Can you say free flights?

Reality check guys. Until I see a press announcement that says, "Emirates Airlines has partnered with USA Rugby through the 2011 World Cup to be the official sponsor of the USA Rugby Eagles national 7s and 15s teams. Sponsorship includes working with (Canterbury, Adidas, Puma, etc) to launch a new team kit and to underwrite travel costs to compete in the IRB 7s World Series and future internationals of the 15s side." I am not going to think this is any more than the 7s team getting a kit for the current 7s world series and maybe some flights.

In a couple months people will be posting, "What ever happen to that Emirates sponsorship?"

[USA Hobos]

Another thing. Here is a case where an entity that should be an asset of USA Rugby (IRB 7s Stop in USA i.e. USA 7s LLC), but was sold off for a bargain price because of poor management, brought a sponsor to the table. What did USA Rugby do? Nothing! USA 7s LLC offered to sponsor the 7s Eagles and got the attention of Emirates who knew the people at USA 7s LLC because they could not come to agreeable terms in a sponsorship deal for the USA 7s event. Imagine if USA Rugby owned the event in Vegas? Maybe a real sponsorship deal could have been struck combining the two assets (7s event + national teams) for something special. I wonder if USA 7s LLC is going to get a finders fee from USA Rugby for handing them a new sponsor?

[Devil's in the details]

Good for Once,

USAR is hyping the sponsorship. This can only mean another Sony/Bravia deal which was worth less than 6 figures, for title sponsorship of the team and the front of the shirt.

For the front of the shirt this needed to be a big payday, sorry this sounds like another fire sale. Missing from the press release were the key phrases "long term", "significant", "major partner" etc.
There are lot's of indicators which suggest a major sponsorship without providing the term and amounts.

More hype I'm afraid. Although it was nice to see the Chairman crawl out from under the rock at the first opportunity to brag.

[you're still clueless, hobo]

How long did you want to report a money losing entity as an asset? Maybe you should check with USA 7s LLC and see what their reported losses have continued to be.

The Emirates deal, when the final numbers are tallied, will prove to be a great deal for USA Rugby. Not just kit...real money. And much more significant than the Bravia deal.

Be happy...stop being cynical, and enjoy a win for USA Rugby.

Someone accused my earlier post of being negative...which is not the case. I was trying to point out that this wasn't a last minute deal, and that the negotiations had been going on for months.

I still believe the announcement timing was precisely calculated. I think the intent was to send a message to some that have been trying to pull shenanigans with some of USA Rugby's other current sponsors.

DPR

[Hobo Supporter]

Let's see facts Hobo basher. Historic performance is not in USA Rugby's favor, so show your cards or stand down.

[Bobby Roberts]

Any improvement, is still an improvement.

Whatever the end result, you always want it to be bigger, it still shows a program that is better off than it was the day before this announcement.

Off topic: I do hope that the new kit provider agreement would come soon. Those off the shelf tops from adidas look jinky. Not to be overly critical, but when the US National teams play w/o Red, White AND BLUE! on, it's well disgraceful.