Los Angeles Invitational to Build Grassroots Rugby Competition around LA7s Internationals

Los Angeles Invitational (LAI) expects to have over 200 male and female Youth, Collegiate and Senior Clubs play, as the official amateur tournament of the HSBC LA Sevens at Dignity Health Sports Park, Feb 28 – 29, 2020.

Open to all ages and all skill levels, LAI offers the opportunity for teams across the USA, and the world, to play rugby and participate around the largest international rugby event in the USA.

Competition formats within the LAI are to include tackle, flag and for the first time ever, beach rugby at nearby Manhattan Beach.

Team Registration now open at lasevensrugby.com/register and available through February 8th, 2020.

Hotel incentives and Ticket discounts to the HSBC LA Sevens, are available for teams participating in the Los Angeles Invitational Tournament

LOS ANGELES, CA – As has been tradition with the United States stop on the HSBC World Rugby Seven Series, the international event will span beyond the pitch inside Dignity Health Sports Park with over 200 amateur teams competing in the Los Angeles Invitational (LAI). Projected to be one of the largest amateur rugby tournaments in the country, the LAI will feature teams of all ages and skill levels, spanning youth, high school, collegiate and adult divisions. For the first time in amateur tournament history, LAI will also feature a Beach Rugby competition in partnership with USA Beach Rugby. The LAI tournament will take place Feb. 28th & 29th; Friday at the OC Great Park in Irvine and Saturday on the Dignity Health Sports Park Campus, immediately outside the stadium where the 16 international Olympic rugby sevens teams will compete for gold on the 5th stop of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series.

Registration for the LAI, including the Beach Rugby division, is now open with a sign-up deadline of February 8th.

Dan Lyle, Director of the LA Sevens & AEG Rugby: "The LAI is an integral part of the LA Sevens and something we were keen to continue, build on and develop. We know that many of our fans are also players who want to participate before they watch the best teams in the world, and we have a vision that from these same fields will come some of the future American Rugby Olympians who will take the field at Dignity Health Sports Park during the Olympics games as part of LA 2028. Equally, we want to add to the vibrant community that is SoCal Youth Rugby as well as the SoCal Rugby Union, and finally give both Mike Friday and Chris Brown a home tournament for those vying for their place to play in the HSBC Sevens World Series next year and beyond."

Beginning Friday, February 28th on more than 16 top level fields at Orange County Great Park in Irvine, over 20 divisions ranging from Youth Under-8 Flag to High School, Collegiate and Men’s and Women’s Adult Club rugby will compete across Open and Elite Divisions. Moving to the Dignity Health Sports Park Campus on Saturday, February 29th for championship match-ups, each participating club will have the opportunity to play rugby and watch rugby with the LA Sevens kicking-off steps away, inside the stadium.

Steve Albrecht, Director of Los Angeles Invitational: "With a chance to build the Invitational in one of the most important rugby regions in the US, we wanted to focus on a few aspects of the tournament to enhance participants’ overall experience. One of these key areas was the location of the event. Orange County Great Park, Friday’s site, is a world-class facility that for the first time in Invitational history, enables all divisions to play side by side, creating a true rugby festival. That is followed by Saturday, providing the opportunity for all teams to play at the Field Complex that surrounds Dignity Health Sports Park, which routinely hosts pro soccer teams and national level academies. Offering this level of quality facilities to amateur players makes us proud to host the LAI."

The new Beach Rugby division, will feature a 5-on-5 format in the idyllic location of Manhattan Beach, only a few miles west of Dignity Health Sports Park. The Beach Rugby competition will take place over one single day, Friday, February 28th, and is the first of the kind to be tied with a major international event, as well as offering an amazing social atmosphere to Collegiate and Adult clubs looking to take advantage of the California landscape. Set in a SoCal beach town famous for its music, food, and fun, the event will likely become a mainstay of the Invitational for years to come.

"It’s wonderful to see a grassroots tournament of this size compliment the global sevens series on home soil," added USA Rugby VP of Rugby Operations, Kurt Weaver, "Steve Albrecht and the AEG team have set up an exceptional opportunity for hopeful future Eagles to compete with their peers and be inspired by Olympic competition."

Alongside the tournament bracket, USA Rugby High Performance scouting will also be in attendance with events of this size providing a high frequency of up and coming athletes for talent identification within the Eagles pathway.

With the excitement of the LA Sevens tournament encompassing the amateur tournament, accommodation and ticket incentives are offered to each participating team, making the international full event accessible to the grassroots game. Teams will be offered a discounted LAI registration fee for staying at a Marriott brand hotel, including a significant discount on room rates. Participating teams will also be offered discounted tickets to the international tournament inside Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday and Sunday. For more information and tickets to the Los Angeles Sevens, visit lasevensrugby.com

About Los Angeles Invitational (LAI)

The Los Angeles Invitational (LAI) is the official rugby tournament for all ages and all skill levels associated with the HSBC LA Sevens, the 5th stop of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series. The LAI 7’s provides the opportunity to teams from all over the country and the world to play rugby and participate in the World Series event itself. Teams and their fans are then invited to come watch the International Event at Dignity Health Sports Park Stadium on Saturday, February 29th and Sunday, March 1st.

About HSBC LA Sevens (LA7s)

The HSBC LA Sevens is the hottest new event coming to Los Angeles. It is part of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, an annual series of 10 international rugby sevens tournaments featuring national teams from 16 countries. The US leg of the international series, held most recently in Las Vegas, has grown to become one of the most popular stops on the global circuit. Now moving to LA, the two-day event will take place at the Dignity Health Sports Park, the current home stadium for the LA Galaxy (MLS) and the LA Chargers (NFL), as well as a future host venue for the 2028 Summer Olympic Games. Featuring the world’s 16 best teams, the weekend event captures international attention with its exciting brand of play in front of passionate fans. Rugby takes center stage over the two days, with over forty games providing more than eight hours of play on each day. Each game of the round-robin style tournament is less than twenty minutes, with fast and intense competition. Watching some of the quickest and most agile athletes in the world, spectators are entertained by the fast paced, high scoring games, as well as the electric atmosphere created by the avid fans. In addition to the competition on the field, a Fan Festival will take place around the venue over the weekend, providing international music, food, culture and entertainment, adding to the unique experience for spectators. With expected weekend attendance of over 45,000, the event will also be broadcast by NBC Sports, the exclusive broadcaster for the LA Sevens and the entire HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series, with more than 300 hours of programming of the series annually across NBC Sports platforms. Independent Nielsen research has found the USA to have the highest proportion of rugby fans worldwide with more than 33 million people who are either ‘interested or very interested’ in the sport, demonstrating the huge potential for the growth of rugby in the USA.

About USA Rugby

Established in 1975, USA Rugby is the governing body for the sport of rugby in America and a Full Sport Member of the United States Olympic Committee. Currently headquartered in Lafayette, Colorado, USA Rugby is charged with developing the game on all levels and has more than 120,000 active members across the youth, High School, College and Senior club level. USA Rugby oversees four national teams, multiple collegiate and High School All-American sides, and an emerging Olympic development pathway for elite athletes. It also hosts more than 30 national playoff and championship events each year as a service to its members. In 2018, USA Rugby welcomed the world for Rugby World Cup Sevens in San Francisco, the first-ever Rugby World Cup hosted on American soil. With over 100,000 in attendance, the event broke various American records and has acted as a launching point for the game’s future growth. Visit www.usarugby.org for more information.

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