
RugbyTown USA Statement
Today, PRO Rugby announced that the remaining four home games of the PRO Denver team will be moved from Infinity Park to the University of Denver. At the end of April, Infinity Park offered to release PRO Rugby from its contracts for those games (with a full refund of all deposits paid) so that it could locate a venue that would be more suitable to its current situation.
As anyone who has either played or watched a game in the stadium at Infinity Park can attest, we have always adhered to the highest quality standard for webcast production and fan experience. However, when we found ourselves in a venue-rental-only situation, we found that many of the things that we believed to be critical parts of the fan experience (scoreboard, live camera, replays, announcers, music) were viewed by PRO Rugby as unnecessary. While we respect the right of anyone renting this venue to create its own unique experience, it has been particularly challenging for us as RugbyTown USA to understand the choices that have been made.
Through our on-going commitment to the development of rugby in the United States, we have supported many competitions, including USA Rugby’s National Club Championships, the National Small College Rugby Organization’s championship, the Women’s Premier League finals, the Pacific Rugby Premiership finals, and all of the Glendale Raptors rugby programs. However, as a publicly-owned venue, we are not able to subsidize the training or game day operations of a for profit entity such as PRO Rugby. While our fees were only a direct pass-through of our costs, PRO Rugby made the decision to not utilize the scoreboard, cameras, replay, announcers, and webcast facilities of Infinity Park. Contrary to the misinformation posted on various social media sites, as a venue-rental only, those decisions were not ours to make.
We wish only the best for PRO Rugby as it continues its season at the University of Denver. And we hope that everyone will continue to support the development of rugby at every level in this country.