As the Dallas Jackals blew out visiting Anthem Rugby, 68-28, in a March matchup, team Chief Operating Officer Rodd Newhouse checked out a crowd of about 4,000 at Choctaw Stadium in Arlington.
That’s a smallish turnout, indeed, since there are almost 40,000 seats. Lots of room to spread out. Lots of room to add fans.
And also better than last season, when home crowds averaged 2,300. On the bright side, statistically, attendance is up 74%.
“Pretty soon we’ll be drawing maybe 10,000 on average,” Newhouse says.
He’s an optimistic sort, but he also has a lot of background in professional sports, though not of the rugby genre. He played football at Rice University (he was on the last Owls team to beat the UT Longhorns), then in the NFL at Baltimore. His father, Robert Newhouse, played running back for the Dallas Cowboys, winning a Super Bowl in the process. Pro sports is the family business. The difference is that Rodd Newhouse’s focus is on rugby.
Who knew Arlington had a professional rugby team? Not nearly enough, Newhouse figures, also predicting that will change in the not-too-distant future. The “Dallas” in the name notwithstanding, the Jackals play in Arlington. Its headquarters — the team belongs to a company called Top Tier Sports — is in Arlington. Top Tier is the team’s second ownership group. Offices are a block from Choctaw Stadium. Newhouse says some of the investors in the Texas Rangers are also involved with the rugby team.
“Rugby is the 11th most-watched sport in the world,” the ever-promotional Newhouse says. “Ahead of the World Series or Wimbledon.”
Sports trivia: FIFA soccer, the Tour de France and world cricket (yes, cricket) lead the top three in audience numbers, no doubt to the dismay of the NFL, MLB and NBA.
Nevertheless, rugby is wildly popular in places like South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, and also big in Great Britain. But so-so elsewhere. Including this country. For now.
Rugby in an assortment of forms has been around for a while. The first written description of the game and how it’s played dates back to a monk, William Fitzstephen, in 1174, though formal rules weren’t codified until the 1800s, technically 1871. Rugby didn’t welcome professional players until 1995. As team sports go, it’s at least 1,000 years old. As a professional endeavor, it’s a newbie.
Rugby: a brief overview
Fifteen players per team, a game running 80 minutes with two 40-minute halves. The field is football-like with goalposts. Score by running across the goal line carrying the ball (the ball is sort of a football, but flat on the ends), or kicking football-like field goals (yes, football has a lot of rugby in it). Punt in any direction, but passes can only be backward or lateral — no forward passes. Tackle whoever has the ball, and they have to surrender it. Think push-push scrums instead of scrimmage lines. No pads. The jersey numbers indicate position, not identity. And, yes, there are attractive dancers/cheerleaders on the sideline. It’s something of a testosterone-oriented game, an old saw on the sport being “Give blood, play rugby.”
Clearly, Newhouse is sold on the game. There’s also this: Rugby is not difficult to understand. It’s something like the childhood takeaway game with rules and an actual score. Easy to figure out except for that tossing the player skyward during the lineout thing — fun to watch, whatever it is. As might be expected for a sport trying to attract new fans, games include assorted special nights — Just Dance Night or Late 1900s Night to name a couple.
Rugby is also not a pricey pro game yet. Good seats generally run in the $12 to $16 range.
As for the team itself, in the 2022 debut season, the Jackals lost 16 of 16 games — speculation might suspect this was related to an ownership change. Last year the team improved. Ever so slightly, winning two games. They started this season 2-1, a positive upswing. Things are looking up, Newhouse believes, both for the team and its fan base.
“Rugby is a worldly popular game, akin to where soccer was 20, 30 years ago,” Newhouse said. “Soccer wasn’t really a big sport in the United States, and then slowly you got the World Cup that came through, and then you wound up getting the Men’s World Cup in ’94 and the Women’s World Cup in ’99. Well, that’s where I see rugby today.”
The next couple of home games? March 29, 7:30 p.m., the Dallas (read Arlington) Jackals vs. the evil Houston Sabercats. It’s not too late to buy tickets. It’s also Texas Strong Night with free “Jackals” bandanas for the first 2,000 fans. After that, the next homer is on April 12, also 7:30, vs. the Utah Warriors.
Newhouse is counting on more fans. Literally.
Contact O.K. Carter at o.k.carter@arlingtonreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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