Australian actor Russell Crowe is promoting rugby in America by bringing together two of the world’s best teams, South Sydney (Australia) and Leeds Rhinos (UK), in a match to be played later this month in Florida.
Crowe came up with the idea in an effort to drum up interest in the sport here in the US. He owns a team called the Rabbitohs in Australia, which played in a game last year in Jacksonville — and was considered a success. Some details,
More than 3,500 tickets and all reserved seating has been sold for the game, which will be staged at the 10,000-seat Hodges Field on the grounds of North Florida University. [link]
Obviously, much interest with a whopping 35% of the massive 10,000-seat arena sold out! Oh, there’s more interesting tidbits…
It was also announced Thursday that stars of the hit television show “American Chopper” will be featured as part of the pre-game entertainment and present a motorcycle to the Rabbitohs in return for their hospitality while visiting Australia last year.
Great tie-in! I see strength in the cross-promotion potential of American rugby and construction of choppers….these guy’s are seriously on top of their promo game. I bet ratings would be gigantic if they could get this on Spike TV or a similar caliber of cable behemoth! Throw in a couple of lion pits ala The Gladiator and they could easily walk away with a .0025 share of the northern Florida TV market!
