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Taken from http://www.stuff.co.nz/sundaynews/4385100a15599.html
US Rugby boss tips LA-based Super 14 side
USA Rugby's influential chairman Kevin Roberts believes Sanzar can cash-in on including a team from Los Angeles in an expanded Super 14.
Roberts a former board member of the NZRU and currently the worldwide CEO for advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi says to include a team from the US in the competition will open up a massive market for rugby.
"The media partners, sponsors, apparel suppliers, Rupert Murdoch, they'd all be interested in seeing a West Coast side that is competitive," Roberts told Sunday News from Los Angeles.
"It would do for the Super 14 what Italy has done for the Six Nations because the most popular trip for fans is the weekend in Rome."
Throughout his professional career Roberts has been able to make things happen. With him chairing the board at USA Rugby the sport won't be standing still in the world's most powerful country.
The game will go professional in USA this year with Roberts having impressive plans for the sport.
"Playing in top-class competition is vital," he said.
"We'll have our own Super 6 with the Canadian teams this year, in 2009 we'll include the Argentinian provinces and within the next time-frame have a (Super 14) franchise based in LA.
"The whole world is interested in where the USA is going," he added.
"I had dinner last week in the UK with Sean Fitzpatrick and Stephen Jones, the Sunday Times journalist. For both these guys nothing is more important than the USA succeeding.
"The IRB help us with grants and they want us to succeed because they need the US to make rugby truly global.
"We've just signed Sony as our shirt sponsor, Guinness as our beer sponsor, Setanta as our media rights sponsor, we're about to announce a major apparel deal and we've just done a seven-figure recruitment deal with the National Guard because they want rugby players."
Last week, USA Rugby and the NZRU announced the signing of a formal agreement to promote rugby in the States.
While it will allow the USA to tap into New Zealand's knowledge and resources, it also gives the NZRU a foothold in the US market.
"For the USA side, what we need more than anything else right now is intellectual property, technical know-how, referee skills and player development skills," Roberts said.
"We looked around the world for that and it was no surprise I found the best systems and intellectual property is in New Zealand by a country mile.
"We had terrific co-operation from the All Blacks coaches during our World Cup preparation. Graham (Henry) allowed Mike Cron and Mick Byrne to come up for a couple of weeks.
"From the New Zealand perspective, the NZRU are interested in their most obvious commercial, trading and social partner.
"There's no doubt the commercial market in the States dwarfs any other. You can talk about Japan and China until the cows come home but the big opportunity for the All Blacks, the next unconquered terrain for them, is the US.
"If you want to think about how you can fund professional rugby in New Zealand against the might of England and France, it really is by opening up new commerical opportunities and the only one with any scale is the US.
"What we pledge to do for New Zealand is ensure we open up those commercial opportunities for the All Blacks and NZRU.
"The NZRU see the only real short and long-term solution to staying competitively positioned in the professional game, for a small country like New Zealand, is to pioneer the adidas deal Mk II outside of the norm.
"They did that with Iveco, the Italian truck supplier, and they need to expand that to the world's biggest companies. And they pretty much all have their HQs in the US.
"New Zealand are very far-seeing in that they see US rugby as a way of accessing that commercial pool."
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