Canada Sevens merges men's and women's tournaments for 2023 & More News Here

Article content material

Change is coming to the HSBC Canada Sevens.

Article content material

No longer will there be males’s and girls’s occasions hosted at separate venues on totally different weekends. The Canada Women’s Sevens had been held in April or May in Langford since its inaugural event in 2015 — however starting subsequent 12 months, it is going to now be folded into the identical weekend as the lads’s event, March 3-5, at B.C. Place Stadium in Vancouver.

It’s a dramatic shift for Rugby Canada, which had discovered success with the ladies’s event, one thing that was not often frequent on this planet of worldwide rugby sevens. World Rugby has tried numerous stand-alone girls’s sevens tournaments over the previous decade, however none matched the success of the Langford event, which often drew sellout crowds to Starlight Stadium.

Article content material

World Rugby officers had been repeatedly impressed by the success of the event and took classes from Canadian organizers to share with different tournaments across the globe.

But regardless of all this success, Rugby Canada believes merging the 2 tournaments into one weekend — which additionally means the occasion will now span over three days — is the way in which ahead.

Rugby Canada interim CEO Jamie Levchuk admitted there have been execs and cons to merging the occasions. Starlight Stadium in Langford, which serves as Rugby Canada’s nationwide coaching centre and can be dwelling to Pacific FC of the Canadian Premier League, has been a tremendous host he stated.

But there are price efficiencies gained in shifting to at least one facility, that are counterbalanced by the prices of internet hosting extra groups in Vancouver.

Article content material

“We had the opportunity in 2021 to have both our Men’s and Women’s teams compete as part of our hosted events in Vancouver and Edmonton. Having two ‘home teams,’ and being leaders in the provision of equitable competition opportunities, is important to Rugby Canada,” he stated in an e-mail. “The HSBC Canada Women’s Sevens in Langford was a great success and showcase for the women’s sevens game, but we feel 2023 will be an appropriate time for our events to evolve.”

“In terms of financial impact, there are fiscal efficiencies, and also some increased costs, to operating a combined event,” he added, saying he believes the monetary affect of merging the 2 occasions shall be roughly impartial.

Although Rugby Canada is clearly betting that three days will make for a rise in total ticket gross sales, the longer weekend received’t essentially imply added prices per ticket.

Article content material

“As such, fans will be provided flexible ticket options, giving them the opportunity to take in three days of intense, thrilling, world-class rugby sevens,” Rugby Canada stated in an announcement.

And whereas Levchuk wouldn’t reveal something specifically about occasions that may exchange the ladies’s sevens on the Langford calendar, Rugby Canada’s press launch does say they’ll proceed to host worldwide video games and tournaments in Langford.

One occasion that may make sense sooner or later is the ladies’s Pacific Four event, which kicks off its first version subsequent week in New Zealand and options the hosts alongside Canada, Australia and the USA. There are not any official plans but, however presumably the opposite three nations would look to host the occasion in coming years and clearly Langford can be a powerful candidate to host ought to that turn into an choice.

[email protected]

twitter.com/risingaction