The 2025 Major League Rugby Championship is barely a month old, but the MLR silly season has well and truly begun! A trio of groundbreaking announcements shocked the league and it’s fanbase within a week. This article will cover of those as well as addressing .
Welcome back to NARDB.com! With two huge announcements now public and a third imminent, we’ll take a look at where we go from here and what the 2025 Draft (set to take place on August 21st) will look like now, and what changes we can expect to the 2026 season. For those that prefer to listen, a video covering the California Merger and NOLA Gold withdrawal is available below and on the NARugbyDB Youtube Channel:
Pooling resources in California
The first bombshell to hit was over in California. On 30th July 2025 the San Diego Legion, a founding member of Major League Rugby and the winningest team in League history by games won, Rugby FC LA, and Major League Rugby announced that the two California teams were merging to create 1 professional rugby team for the state of California that would begin play in the 2026 MLR season and be known as the California Legion.
Major League Rugby issued this press release on their website about the merger. The release confirms that the California Legion would be splitting their home games between San Diego, Los Angeles, and Orange County, with the possibility of also playing a home game in northern California as well. Assuming a 16 game Major League Rugby regular season in 2026, this means that each city will only host 2/3 home games per season. Even though you are now appealing to the whole of California and it’s 40 million people, with only a couple of games a year in each location it’s going to prove incredibly difficult to establish a loyal fanbase, and that’s just the start.
The above Instagram post seems to suggest that there may be different Legion branding for each city (including Long Beach, which isn’t mentioned anywhere in any press release regarding this merger). While this may help to establish ‘fan chapters’ in each city similar to what the Free Jacks are enjoying in New England, it’s hardly going to save on costs and again, with only a couple of games in each location how are fanbases going to grow?
How will season tickets work for this bold move? Given the traffic situation in Southern California, it doesn’t sound like many fans will be willing to travel even the roughly 100 miles between LA and San Diego to watch games in other cities. Season ticket numbers could plummet. Perhaps the Legion could sell ‘City Packs’ for all games in each location?
On the subject of fan willingness to travel, many San Diego fans are already viewing this as Los Angeles taking another of their professional sports teams, and are justifiably outraged. With the NBA’s San Diego Clippers moving to Los Angeles in the 1980s, and the NFL’s Chargers making the same move in 2016, San Diegans are sick of their teams turning their back on the city and heading to the City of Angels, and many in the Legion’s fierce fanbase have seen it all before and had enough.
That is not necessarily the case. NARDB understands that it was either merge or fold, resulting in potentially zero teams in California which has, as newly appointed California Legion CEO Adam Freier stated ‘the most registered rugby players in the United States’ so it would be a disaster if there was no professional team to tap into that market. To try and sell fans on this being the plan all long however, is doing them a disservice. The question of ownership is another talking point. Owner of the San Diego Legion Ryan Patterson also serves as Chair of the MLR Board. Is he still chair? Are Patterson and RFCLA owner Pete Sickle now equal partners or is there a majority owner? As usual, MLR is as clear as mud.
“Major League Rugby will always prioritize long-term growth of the game in the U.S., delivering an exceptional on-field product and an incredible fan experience, and The California Legion is a way to showcase that in Southern California,” – MLR CEO Nick Benson – 30th July, 2025
The above quote from Major League Rugby CEO Nick Benson (named as MLR Commissioner in the official press release, which would be a title change for Benson) suggests that MLR are aware of the importance of maintaining a professional team in the Golden State to the long-term growth of rugby in the US, and that this merger was the only way to sustain that. The release tries it’s best to put a positive spin on it but the bottom line is that California now has 1 professional team rather than 2, and MLR has 1 fewer team for the 2026 season.
We will have to wait for their home opener to see what the impact to the fanbase is, but there are some questions lingering that need answering long before then. With two rosters merging into 1 team, there are obviously only so many spots available. Who will make the California Legion roster? Who will be the head coach? Are any multi-year contracts signed with San Diego/RFCLA still valid? Questions like these will be answered in time as the team begins unveiling their 2026 roster, but are worth keeping in the back of your mind when thinking about what the team will look like next season.
In a more pressing matter, where with the California Legion draft? The 2025 MLR Collegiate Draft has been confirmed for August 21st, just over 2 weeks away. The San Diego Legion already traded their 1st Rd pick (3rd overall) to Anthem RC. Will Anthem get to keep that pick? Will the Legion draft as if they were an expansion team which would put them 1st overall? As usual, only time will tell.
Even though this merger is a first in Major League Rugby, it is easy to see through. There has been an argument floating around that this merger is part of a bigger plan to split out into 2/3 teams in the future. If that is indeed the plan, why not say it? Instead, we have been fed this story about how pooling resources will allow the team to better capitalize on the large California rugby market. A market that is easily capable of supporting at least two fanbases. Although nothing has been confirmed, it is far more likely that this is a case of merge or die, than part of some larger plan.
There is only a short press release from 30th July to go off and nothing since. This California merger clearly has a lot of moving parts, as shown by things like the new team’s website is still copyright of RFCLA, and the media contact is an RFCLA email address. For now, MLR fans are left with more questions than answers. Hopefully in the coming weeks, we’ll be given answers to at least some of these. The California Legion means that professional rugby remains in the Golden State at least for 2026 which is at it’s core a good thing. The Legion might think themselves lucky that the 2nd bombshell of the week took the spotlight off of them.
No More NOLA
On the same day that Major League Rugby announced the merger of their two California franchises, another of the League’s founding members, the NOLA Gold, posted the following statement to their website:
“NOLA Gold has informed the League that we do not intend to participate in the 2026 season. Discussions are ongoing with the League regarding future opportunities and potential pathways forward.”
After weeks of rumours and speculation about the future of New Orleans’ professional rugby team, this short statement confirmed that the NOLA Gold would not participate in the 2026 MLR season. Fans who supported the team through 8 seasons of competition, players who gave their all for the white & gold, and staff that worked tirelessly to create fantastic gameday atmospheres weren’t thanked or even mentioned. Just a vague two line statement that heralded the end of the Gold’s participation in Major League Rugby without even mentioning MLR itself.
San Diego Legion fans are entitled to be angry at another local team moving away from their city, but NOLA Gold fans are outraged. Given what has happened with the team in the last year they might be justified. Following the 2024 MLR season in which the NOLA Gold finally earned their first ever postseason berth, the team received an influx of French investment with Intervalle Capital becoming the new majority owner of the team and Partner Thierry Daupin becoming Chairman. Remember that name. In November 2024, the NOLA Gold unveiled ‘Vision 31’, a 7yr roadmap to revolutionise the franchise, making it the standard for professional rugby in the USA by their home World Cup in 2031.
Intervalle Capital’s comprehensive Vision 31 stated that ‘Over the next 7 years, we are committed to transforming NOLA Gold into a dominant force in US rugby’ but less than a year after this ‘vision’ was published, the Gold have withdrawn from Major League Rugby.
“This isn’t just a plan; it’s our commitment to lead rugby’s growth in America. We’ve poured our hearts into creating a 70-page game plan that captures years of dedication, collaboration, and ambition. Vision 31 represents a turning point—not just for NOLA Gold but for the sport itself.” – NOLA Gold Chairman Thierry Daupin – 22nd November, 2024
From a commitment to rugby in the USA and the NOLA Gold in November 2024, to withdrawing from MLR in July 2025. It seems impossible that Intervalle Capital thought that investing in MLR would be a short term money making scheme, so why pull the plug just 1 season in after creating a 7yr roadmap for the team? NOLA Gold Chairman and Intervalle Capital Partner Thierry Daupin is intimately familiar with Major League Rugby, he’s been here before. Daupin was involved in the Austin Elite ownership group back in 2020, pulling out at the 11th hour causing MLR and Commissioner George Killebrew (at the time) to scramble to find other investors, coming up with a certain Adam Gilchrist. I’m sure plenty of MLR fans still shudder at that name, so no need to go any further there. Clearly Daupin is a smart guy, and having been involved with the League in the past he would have known the financial status of MLR heading into this. Is this just the Austin situation all over again? Who knows.
Along with a great many long term commitments, Vision 31 also includes an ambitious ‘Stadium Project’ which seems to hint at either creating a new purpose-built home for the Gold, or refurbishing the Shrine on Airline to create an entertainment hub ‘operating 7 days a week’. What is interesting here is that the hints at a new venue for the Gold were echoed in the team’s 2025 end of season statement from CEO Alexandre Maumont less than a month before their withdrawal announcement.
Despite a tough season on the pitch, this end of season statement shows that the NOLA Gold made some significant strides on the business side. Statements such as ‘More than 4,500 local children were introduced to rugby’, ‘Our high school rugby championship expanded’, and critically ‘On the professional front, we saw a 30% increase in ticketing revenue’ caused fans across the league to applaud the Gold, and gave no indication of the heartbreak that was to come. Circling back to the stadium hints, the statement goes on to say that NOLA’s ‘long-term vision for a permanent home for NOLA Gold continues to advance, and we look forward to sharing significant updates soon’. Unfortunately, those updates were never shared. Nor was the promise of ‘sharing additional updates with our fans and partners in early July, including a detailed roadmap for the 2025-2026 season and beyond’. Instead, the Gold withdrew from MLR in late July.
“We are moving forward with determination, clarity, and the full support of a committed ownership group that believes in what we are building for this region” – NOLA Gold CEO Alexandre Maumont – 9th June, 2025
There is a glimmer of hope for Gold fans. Even after their 2-line statement, rumours persist that the NOLA Gold are sitting out on the 2026 season, with plans to return in 2027. This would be hugely ambitious and very optimistic, given that they would essentially be starting from scratch. With teams that have withdrawn in the past, we see a statement posted, and then everything goes silent. If the Gold plan to return to Major League Rugby in the future, they would essentially be starting from scratch as an expansion team. Why not say that, though? It can’t hurt to have some of the fanbase looking forward to your return. Looking into the idea of a return in 2027, the NOLA Gold’s home in Metairie, LA, the Shrine on Airline, affectionately known as the Gold Mine, is undergoing major renovations later this year to finish converting it from a baseball stadium to a rectangular field, and would not have been finished in time for the 2026 MLR season. There was also rumblings that the Gold had their eyes on another facility in the New Orleans area that was also undergoing renovations, that would be complete in time for 2027. To add to this, there are rumblings that the team’s deal for a temporary home for 2026 fell through at the last minute that contributed to the withdrawal, but this is nothing but rumour.
Are the NOLA Gold are just sitting out the 2026 season to save costs as they had nowhere to play, and do plan to return with a shiny new venue in 2027? It’s possible, but don’t hold your breath. If the Gold maintain a presence during the offseason and through 2026, it would show that someone is still paying to keep the lights on, and improves the chances of a return. If it goes silent, it is likely that the Gold have sadly joined the list of defunct Major League Rugby franchises. With GM Ryan Fitzgerald already joining the Loyola University New Orleans rugby program, it’s leaning towards the latter.
Miami Makes it Three
One of these announcements would have been enormous, two on the same day is almost cataclysmic for the League, but less than a week later on 6th August 2025, it was confirmed that a third team had pulled out of the 2026 MLR season: The Miami Sharks.
Just a couple of days after Major League Rugby announced Miami Sharks CEO Milagros Cubelli the inaugural winner of a new award for MLR Executive of the Year, decided based on ‘the success of the team, operational excellence, business growth, community engagement, innovation, and leadership.’ The sister of Sharks player Tomas Cubelli, Milagros was voted for by her peers, League Office, and select media members, and was the winner by a landslide. The Miami Sharks were a very impressive organisation both on and off the field in 2025 under Cubelli’s leadership, but now they too have withdrawn despite a good year. Will this award be rescinded? It seems strange to give the Executive of the Year to the CEO of a team that has withdrawn that same year. No-one looks good with the Sharks pulling out so soon after this award was given.
Despite being owned by Marcos Galperin, Argentina’s richest man with astronomical personal wealth, financial strain and lack of control were given as reasons for the withdrawal. NARDB understands that expansion teams had in the past needed to commit to at least 3 seasons of competition, the Miami Sharks withdraw from Major League Rugby after only 2 seasons in Florida and MLR is down 3 teams for the 2026 season. The Sharks qualified for the playoffs in the 2025 season but rumours of their withdrawal began to circulate even before the regular season finished.
At the 2025 Championship Game, Miami’s ownership had been calmed and they were back in the fold for the 2026 season. However, news of other the California merger and NOLA Gold’s withdrawal in late July likely spooked the Sharks ownership who might’ve seen MLR as a sinking ship and pulled the plug. NARDB understands that Miami Sharks players were informed of the team’s withdrawal on 6th August 2025 with an announcement coming shortly afterwards. With such a heavy South American presence, it is likely that many Sharks players will be seen in Super Rugby Americas next season, and MLR will be worse for it.
What does the 2026 Season look like?
As of the publication of this article, Major League Rugby has contracted from 11 teams in 2025, to just 8 teams in 2025. The last time the League consisted of single-digit teams was in their sophomore season way back in 2019. This was before the introduction of the conference system, where each team played every other team both home and away to make up a 16 game season. It’s possible that this season structure is what the league returns to for the 2026 campaign with a move away from the conference system, resulting in a 14 game regular season . Should MLR do away with the conference system, the top 4/6 teams qualifying for the postseason would still make sense.
The playoff structure is almost guaranteed to change as well. There are now only 4 teams in each Conference and under the 2025 playoff structure, 4 teams from each conference qualify. This means that every team is already guaranteed to make it. It’s possible that this is changed to the top 3 or even two from each conference will make it. A 6-team playoff isn’t unheard of, and was the norm for the 2022-2023 season with the Top seed earning a bye to the Conference Finals, and the 2 & 3 seeds playing an ‘Eliminator’ game. Even a 4-team playoff was the norm from 2018-2021, although both of these options would reduce the number of playoff games and with it, the all important gate revenue.
As of right now, the 2025 MLR Collegiate Draft is set to be the smallest draft in League history assuming it follows the same structure of all previous years. With only 8 teams in the competition, this would mean 24 picks over 3 rounds. This may increase to 26 picks due to picks already traded by the NOLA Gold and San Diego Legion, however. Does Major League Rugby choose to add a 4th round to this years’ draft? This would mean 32/34 picks across 4 rounds but, with minutes hard to come by for rookies, does this just add to the log jam? Maybe. MLR might consider reducing the foreign player slots per team from 10 to 7-8, adding 15-25 more opportunities for domestic talent across the league each week. Have they thought of this? Probably. Will they go for it? Who knows.
A Silver Lining
Losing teams is never a good thing, and the MLR fanbase is unfortunately all too used to that in it’s short history. However, Major League Rugby is down but not out. AS difficult as it may be to picture right now, the League could come back from this stronger.
It seems that MLR may have expanded too much too fast, and falling back into single-digit teams could serve as a ‘soft reset’ for the league. NARDB understands that the League is already planning to do away with undeclared ancillary benefits going forward (additional player benefits other than base salary) in order to better control costs and League spending in a failed attempt to keep the Miami Sharks in the competition. If MLR chooses to expand the draft and reduce international slots, this may also help with costs as a domestic player, especially a rookie, is generally cheaper than importing international talent. Major League Rugby can use the 2026 season to consolidate around a strong core of owners, stabilise, and look to grow slowly and surely with plenty of time left until the 2031 World Cup.
Although it might be hard to see right now, this is an opportunity to strengthen rugby in the United States. The comparisons to the early years of the MLS are always made, with teams joining and leaving regularly, but as Major League Rugby’s 10th season begins to come into sight on the horizon, will they take this opportunity? As with many things in this article, only time will tell.
Thank you very much for reading. With a few huge pieces of news to cover this article is longer than most others on the site and as you may be able to tell, this is my first foray into writing so I hope you found it interesting, informative, and entertaining. NARDB continues to strive to keep fans informed and aware of the goings on both for each team, and around both the League. You can stay up to date with all the MLR news by following NARDB and/or James on social media: @MLRStats on Instagram/Threads, @JamDelay & @NARugbyDB on Twitter/X, and @JamDelay & @NARDB on Bluesky! Alternatively, you can reach out to NARDB via the ‘Contact’ tab on this site.
Finally, if you’re looking to jump into the End of Season sales, visit shopmlr.com and use code ‘MLRSTATS’ at checkout for 15% off of your order!
