The United States has entered the race for the hosting rights to the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.
The bid was submitted by Moore Sports International, a local sports agency headed by Jason Moore. Moore was the promoter who brought two regular season Major League Baseball (MLB) matches between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks to Sydney in 2014.
Pool matches between leading nations Australia, New Zealand and England would be played in National Football League (NFL) venues. Matches between smaller nations would be contested in Major League Soccer (MLS) venues.
Jason Moore, chief executive of Moore Sports International, is quoted by Fox Sports: “We’ve submitted a bid for the Rugby League World Cup in 2021 to be in the United States. A sporting power house, a great gene pool of athletes and not only that, commercially one of the great country’s to take a major sporting event to.”
“We’re going to have plenty of runway to market and educate that population but they are thirsty for those gladiatorial style sports and with a huge NFL and College football following we’re going to tap into that.
The United States joins England as the second confirmed bidder for the 2021 World Cup. The Rugby Football League (RFL) confirmed the English bid in June, with another submission expected to come from South Africa.
Moore added: “Our main opposition is the UK and the North of England. We think we’re going to offer a very compelling and competitive bid, not only financially and commercially but also for game development.
“We’re looking at starting an elite standard professional competition in the United States in a couple of year’s time, which will be a great precursor and lead into the 2021 Rugby League World Cup.
“We have strategically put it into the corridor of time that there are no contact sports in mainstream USA. So we are looking at an April to August timeline. When we can provide the NFL fan with an off season contact sport experience that your use to seeing.”
A winning bid is to be chosen in November.
Source: Fox Sports
The post United States enters race for 2021 RLWC hosting rights appeared first on Sports Business Insider.