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Women’s Elite Rugby plans to launch in 2025 with at least six teams and a commitment to pay its players. The U.S.-based league hopes to build on the momentum women’s sports have seen in recent years.
WER president Jessica Hammond-Graf walked through some of the league’s financial details and its plans during a call with media members Wednesday. While team locations have yet to be announced, the single-entity pro league is in the midst of raising investment capital to support the organization. Full compensation details for WER players have not been announced.
“U.S. elite players are traveling overseas to compete, and we want to evolve the revenue landscape and create opportunities for those elite athletes to really play domestically while being compensated,” Hammond-Graf said.
WER says it is now halfway through a pre-seed funding round, without announcing how much it intends to raise or where money has come from to date. The group plans to leverage growing interest in the sport ahead of the 2031 men’s and 2033 women’s Rugby World Cups, which are each slated to take place in the United States.
“These are massive events that bring the spotlight, but they also bring financial support from international corporations and World Rugby,” WER vice president Katherine Aversano said.
Internationally, New Zealand has dominated the sport, winning six of the last seven world cups. Meanwhile a record 58,498 fans watched England’s match with France during last year’s Women’s Six Nations Championship, the most attendees at a women’s rugby match.
WER said 2.7 million players engage in the sport at high levels around the world.
The WER announcement comes 15 years after the debut of the Women’s Premier League, a player-run organization in partnership with USA Rugby that currently features seven clubs stretching from Boston to California. WPL players, however, are still expected to pay for their own travel and dues.
“For 15 years, women’s rugby players in the Women’s Premier League have played in an amateur, pay-to-play, cross-country league, and the consensus is this model is no longer sustainable,” Hammond-Graf said in a statement. “The mission of the WER is to be the defining standard of rugby in the United States.”