The USA Sevens is a
rugby sevens tournament held annually during March in the United States. The USA Sevens is the largest annual rugby competition in North America, drawing over 60,000 fans, and is broadcast live in the United States by ESPN. The USA Sevens was introduced in 2004, originally in the
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
suburb of
Carson, California. The event moved to
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
in 2007, and from there moved to
Sam Boyd Stadium
Sam Boyd Stadium (formerly the Las Vegas Silver Bowl) is a football stadium in the western United States, located in Whitney, Nevada, an unincorporated community in the Las Vegas Valley. It honors Sam Boyd (1910–1993), a major figure in the hot ...
in
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the state of Nevada, and the county seat of Clark County. The city anchors the Las Vegas ...
in 2010. It then spent the entire decade of the 2010s in Las Vegas before returning to Carson in 2020. The USA Sevens tournament features 16 teams representing countries from every inhabited continent, including the host, the
U.S. national team.
The USA Sevens is the fifth of ten tournaments on the
World Rugby Sevens Series
The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...
. The Sevens World Series is played throughout the world at nine other venues:
Dubai
Dubai (, ; ar, دبي, translit=Dubayy, , ) is the most populous city in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the capital of the Emirate of Dubai, the most populated of the 7 emirates of the United Arab Emirates.The Government and Politics of ...
,
South Africa
South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring countri ...
,
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...
,
Hong Kong
Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...
,
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...
,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
,
France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
, and
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
.
Format
The tournament consists of 16 countries participating in 45 matches over a three-day weekend. The 16 teams are divided into four pools of four teams, with seeding determined by finishes in the previous competition in the Sevens World Series. Wins are worth three points, draws two, and losses one. The top two teams from each group progress to the quarterfinals to compete for the Cup (places 1-4) and Plate (places 5-8). The bottom two teams from each group participate in the Bowl (places 9-12) and Shield (places 13-16) competitions.
Through the 2011–12 edition, the sixteen participating teams were the 12 "core" members of the
Sevens World Series
The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...
circuit, along with 4 additional qualifying teams—other teams that qualified multiple times during the 2009–2012 span included Japan, Canada, Uruguay and Guyana. Starting with the 2012–13 season, the number of core teams increased from 12 to 15, with Canada, Spain and Portugal earning the three new slots.
Popularity and Growth
The USA Sevens is the 2nd largest annual rugby competition in North America after the Vancouver 7s in Canada The tournament has grown in popularity since the tournament began in 2004. In recent years, a number of events have accelerated the surge in popularity, including the announcement in 2009 that rugby would return to the
Summer Olympics
The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The inau ...
, the general growth of rugby in the United States, the improved performance of the
U.S. national rugby team including their success in reaching the semi-finals of the
2009 USA Sevens
The 2009 USA Sevens competition took place on February 14 and 15 at Petco Park in San Diego, California. It was the fourth Cup trophy in the 2008-09 IRB Sevens World Series. The USA Sevens is played annually as part of the IRB Sevens World Serie ...
, and NBC's decision to begin televising the tournament beginning in 2011.
Attendance
Tournament attendance has grown rapidly since its inception in 2004. The tournament drew 15,800 fans in 2004, 25,000 fans in 2007, 35,773 in 2008,
and 37,000 fans in 2009.
The tournament switched to a three-day format in 2011.
The 2012 tournament's second-day attendance of 30,112 set a new record for the largest crowd to watch a rugby event in the United States.
The 2013 tournament broke attendance records again, with total attendance of 67,341.
The 2014 tournament again saw record attendance, with 68,608 fans, despite the fact that the tournament had been moved to January to avoid the 2014 Winter Olympics.
Media coverage
The profile and visibility of the USA Sevens has increased in the United States since NBC began broadcasting the tournament in 2011, marking the first time that the tournament had live television coverage on network TV in the United States.
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...
and
Universal Sports
Universal Sports was an American sports-oriented digital cable and satellite television network. It was owned as a joint venture between InterMedia Partners (which owned a controlling 92% interest) and NBCUniversal (which owned the remaining 8%). ...
broadcast eight hours of live coverage of the 2011 tournament, including 4 hours of coverage on NBC. NBC increased its television coverage for the 2012 tournament, showing 10 hours of live coverage, including 4 hours on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
and 4 hours on
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...
. The 2012 USA Sevens earned strong ratings of 0.7 on NBC, beating other popular sports events that weekend such as the Detroit v. Philadelphia NHL game (0.4) and the Alabama v. LSU basketball game (0.3). NBC again increased its TV coverage in 2013, with 16 hours of coverage across three channels, including 4 hours on
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...
and 6 hours on
NBC Sports
NBC Sports is an American programming division of the broadcast network NBC, owned and operated by NBC Sports Group division of NBCUniversal and subsidiary of Comcast. The division is responsible for sports broadcasts on the network, and its d ...
. The 2014 USA Sevens drew ratings of 0.7 on Saturday and 1.0 on Sunday. The 2016 USA Sevens had 7 hours of TV coverage across NBCSN and NBC, but only 1 hour on NBC.
NBC Sports has displayed an increased interest in broadcasting rugby since the
International Olympic Committee
The International Olympic Committee (IOC; french: link=no, Comité international olympique, ''CIO'') is a non-governmental sports organisation based in Lausanne, Switzerland. It is constituted in the form of an association under the Swiss ...
's announcement in 2009 that
rugby would return to the Summer Olympics in 2016.
[Adweek, NBC Lines Up 4 Sponsors for USA Rugby Tourney, Feb. 8, 2011, http://www.adweek.com/news/advertising-branding/nbc-lines-4-sponsors-usa-rugby-tourney-125685] NBC Sports has recognized that its partnership with USA Sevens to broadcast the tournament will help grow the sport of rugby in the United States.
Sponsors
Fueled in part by the publicity generated by the NBC broadcasts and rugby's return to the Olympics, the USA Sevens has been successful in lining up several blue-chip corporate sponsors. For the 2011 tournament, sponsors included Bridgestone, Toyota, Subway and ADT.
The tournament was similarly successful in landing commercial sponsors for 2012, including Adidas, Pepsi, DHL, Subway and others.
Effective with the 2010–11 series, the London-based global financial services company
HSBC became the title sponsor of the overall IRB Sevens World Series.
History
The USA Sevens tournament has been a part of the
World Rugby Sevens Series
The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...
every year since its 2004 debut. This makes the USA Sevens tournament one of the longer running consecutive hosts on the circuit.
The USA Sevens debuted at the Home Depot Center, now known as
Dignity Health Sports Park
Dignity Health Sports Park is a multi-use sports complex located on the campus of California State University, Dominguez Hills in Carson, California. The complex consists of the 27,000-seat Dignity Health Sports Park soccer stadium, the Dignity ...
, in the Los Angeles suburb of
Carson, California in February 2004. This competition marked the first time the United States ever hosted an official IRB event of international importance. USA Rugby was awarded the right to host the USA Sevens for three years, in part because rugby was recognized as one of the fastest growing team sports in the U.S.
In 2005, USA Rugby sold a 90% interest in USA Sevens, LLC to United World Sports, LLC, with USA Rugby retaining the remaining 10% ownership interest. In August 2006,
USA Rugby
USA Rugby (officially the United States of America Rugby Football Union, Ltd.) is the national governing body for the sport of rugby union in the United States. Its role is to achieve and maintain “high levels of quality in all aspects of rugb ...
and the International Rugby Board renewed the contract for the USA Sevens to remain in the IRB Sevens World Series.
The USA Sevens tournament was held from 2007 to 2009 in San Diego at
Petco Park, the home field of the San Diego Padres of Major League Baseball.
San Diego
San Diego ( , ; ) is a city on the Pacific Ocean coast of Southern California located immediately adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a 2020 population of 1,386,932, it is the List of United States cities by population, eigh ...
was an appealing location because the average high temperature in San Diego in February is a balmy 72 °F (22 °C).
Las Vegas then won the right to host the annual event beginning in 2010, beating out competition from San Francisco,
Phoenix
Phoenix most often refers to:
* Phoenix (mythology), a legendary bird from ancient Greek folklore
* Phoenix, Arizona, a city in the United States
Phoenix may also refer to:
Mythology
Greek mythological figures
* Phoenix (son of Amyntor), a ...
, and
Orlando
Orlando () is a city in the U.S. state of Florida and is the county seat of Orange County. In Central Florida, it is the center of the Orlando metropolitan area, which had a population of 2,509,831, according to U.S. Census Bureau figures re ...
. In 2015, World Rugby reached an agreement with USA Rugby and with the tournament's organizers: World Rugby would continue to place the USA Sevens tournament in Las Vegas if the tournament organizers agreed to widen the field at Sam Boyd Stadium and install approved artificial turf.
The USA Sevens was a financial success during its run in Las Vegas, partly because its venue of
Sam Boyd Stadium
Sam Boyd Stadium (formerly the Las Vegas Silver Bowl) is a football stadium in the western United States, located in Whitney, Nevada, an unincorporated community in the Las Vegas Valley. It honors Sam Boyd (1910–1993), a major figure in the hot ...
was surrounded by playing fields. This allowed the complex to host the Las Vegas Invitational, a major rugby union event involving club, school, and
university
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...
teams, alongside the USA Sevens. During the USA Sevens' run in Las Vegas, the entry fee for the Invitational has included tickets to the USA Sevens, providing a large built-in attendance base.
In 2017, the
Oakland Raiders were given permission by the
NFL to
relocate to Las Vegas, with the team to play in a
new 60,000-capacity stadium on a plot of derelict land near the Las Vegas Strip. Due to the fact that $750 million of the construction costs was expected to come in the form of public funding, a deal was thrashed out to allow the
UNLV Rebels football
The UNLV Rebels football program is a college football team that represents the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV). The team is a member of the Mountain West Conference, which is a Division I Bowl Subdivision (formerly Division I-A) conferenc ...
team of the local University of Nevada, Las Vegas to move in as co-tenants of the new stadium. This meant that Sam Boyd Stadium faces an uncertain future with multiple sources suggesting that it would be demolished. In March 2018,
United World Sports CEO Jon Prusmack stated his intention on initiating talks with the Raiders over the next few months to allow the USA Sevens to use the new Raiders stadium for future tournaments.
In January 2019, ''
The Province
''The Province'' is a daily newspaper published in tabloid format in British Columbia by Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network, alongside the '' Vancouver Sun'' broadsheet newspaper. Together, they are British Columbia's on ...
'', the main newspaper in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
, reported that the then-upcoming
2019 USA Sevens would be the last in Las Vegas, at least for the immediate future. At the time,
World Rugby
World Rugby is the world governing body for the sport of rugby union. World Rugby organises the Rugby World Cup every four years, the sport's most recognised and most profitable competition. It also organises a number of other international rug ...
was preparing to announce the hosts for the Sevens Series events for its next four-year cycle, starting with 2019–20 and running through 2022–23. Reasons cited were stadium issues and poor living environment at the team hotels. Possible options were a return to San Diego, or moves to
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
(which hosted the
2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens) or
Miami
Miami ( ), officially the City of Miami, known as "the 305", "The Magic City", and "Gateway to the Americas", is a East Coast of the United States, coastal metropolis and the County seat, county seat of Miami-Dade County, Florida, Miami-Dade C ...
.
[ WR ultimately announced that the event would return to its original home of Dignity Health Sports Park for at least the 2020 event.]
Apart from the uncertain future of Sam Boyd Stadium, its playing field had been the source of many issues. During the first years of the event's run in Las Vegas, the stadium's standard artificial pitch was used, leading to many safety-related concerns. Some of these concerns were alleviated with the installation of temporary grass surfaces for the 2017–2019 events, but other safety issues inherent to the stadium's design remained. Sam Boyd Stadium was built for American football, a sport with a playing field (including the end zones) that is approximately the same length as a standard rugby pitch but is nearly 20 meters narrower. Because of this, the pitch in Las Vegas was noticeably narrower than at other series stops, with team benches unusually close to the touchlines.[
]
Results
Results by year
Sources
USA Sevens
Rugby7
ref name=rugby7-2004>
Results by team
Updated to include the 2022 tournamenent:
Leading scorers
See also
* World Rugby Sevens Series
The World Rugby Men's Sevens Series is an annual series of international rugby sevens tournaments run by World Rugby featuring national sevens teams. Organised for the first time in the 1999–2000 season as the IRB World Sevens Series, the com ...
* Sports in Las Vegas
* USA Women's Sevens
On October 4, 2012, the International Rugby Board, now known as World Rugby, announced the launch of a circuit now known as the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series, the women's counterpart to the World Rugby Sevens Series for men. The inaugural 2012 ...
* Rugby union in the United States
Rugby may refer to:
Sport
* Rugby football in many forms:
** Rugby league: 13 players per side
*** Masters Rugby League
*** Mod league
*** Rugby league nines
*** Rugby league sevens
*** Touch (sport)
*** Wheelchair rugby league
** Rugby un ...
* United States national rugby sevens team
The United States national rugby sevens team competes in international rugby sevens competitions. The national sevens team is organized by USA Rugby, and the team has been led by Head Coach Mike Friday since 2014.
The main competition the team ...
* Canada Sevens
The Canada Sevens is an annual rugby sevens tournament held every March. It is one of the ten stops on the World Rugby Sevens Series, and is played the weekend after the USA Sevens in Las Vegas. Canada secured a four-year deal to host to event ...
References
External links
Official USA Sevens Homepage
*
Index of World Sevens series
{{DEFAULTSORT:Usa Sevens
World Rugby Sevens Series tournaments
International rugby union competitions hosted by the United States
Rugby sevens competitions in the United States
Recurring sporting events established in 2004
2004 establishments in California
Sports competitions in Las Vegas
Sam Boyd Stadium