BOULDER, Colo. – Following USA Rugby’s decision, in 2005, to grant sports entrepreneur William Tatham, Jr. exclusive sanctioning rights to own, operate and broadcast all professional rugby sevens in the United States, USA Rugby officially announced today its decision to expand its partnership with Tatham, granting him the exclusive domestic and international broadcast rights for USA Rugby sanctioned sevens rugby events.

Further deepening the impact of Tatham on rugby sevens in America, this new multi-year broadcast agreement adds the following existing and new USAR rugby sevens events under Tatham’s sports and entertainment umbrella:

• USAR Collegiate Invitational Rugby Sevens Tournament (to be announced)
• USAR Men’s Club Sevens Championships
• USAR Men’s and Women’s All-Star Sevens

In addition, USAR awarded Tatham the Title and Presenting Sponsorship to the above events, and becomes an official sponsor of USA Rugby across the board.

“Not only do these exclusive broadcast and sanctioning agreements provide unheard of protections for our business launch,” Tatham said, “But, it also gives us added credibility in the world of rugby union.

“However, I’m most excited about the ability to play such a huge role in the development of collegiate sevens and creating an exciting and compelling broadcast that will appeal to the all-important college demographic. With USA Rugby by my side, we will provide the financial stability to offer very real scholarship opportunities for those young men and women who wish to play collegiate rugby,” Tatham added.

“This fits our mission of finding innovative ways to promote our sport,” USA Rugby’s CEO and President of Operations Nigel Melville said. “We are excited to be able to work with Tatham and his group of television and sports executives in our combined efforts to bring rugby sevens to mainstream television.”

Tatham’s $1,000,000 Las Vegas Sevens will be the signature event of Tatham’s innovative and intensive television strategy. Not only is it scheduled to produce live game broadcast and webcasts, but more importantly, a two hour television special followed by a thirteen episode reality show.

“With this new and expanded broadcast and sponsor agreement, we not only bring the world’s elite rugby players to Las Vegas, but, in effect, we’ve created a coast to coast underpinning of our new professional rugby sevens sport by taking USAR’s existing national tournament and providing significant broadcast coverage to raise the profile of rugby sevens in the USA.

“We absolutely believe that sevens is a perfect fit for today’s young television and sports demographic,” Tatham continued. “Our ability to broadcast on air, cable, via our internet network, and to hand held devices makes this exclusive right to produce and broadcast these national rugby sevens events an extremely valuable commodity.  We are committed to taking the internationally popular sport of rugby sevens to new levels on and off the field in America.”

Tatham’s partnerships with USA Rugby is unrelated to the USAR National Sevens Team events, including the existing USA Sevens, an international 16-team / 44 game sevens rugby tournament held in February in San Diego.  San Diego’s USA Sevens tournament, the only International Rugby Board (IRB) Sevens event currently staged in the U.S., has shown steady growth over its five year existence reaching over 35,000 in paid attendance in 2008.

 “We are delighted that the San Diego tournament has been so successful and we are grateful to USAR and USA Sevens, LLC. for proving that the fast paced rugby sevens and its 14 minute games will be as major a commercial success in the U.S. as it has been around the world.”

USAR and Tatham will be making further announcements as to the exact launch dates for the above events.

USA RUGBY, founded in 1975, is the national governing body for rugby and is a member of the United States Olympic Committee (USOC) and the International Rugby Board (IRB. The organization is responsible for the development of boys, girls, high school, collegiate and club athletic programs, and ultimately, all of the national teams representing the United States in international competition. For more information on USA Rugby, please visit www.usarugby.org.

For more information on Tatham’s Sports and Entertainment venture, call 888.88Rugby or visit www.AmericanRFL.com.