The major USA Rugby financial problem stems from horrible financial stewardship in the 2018 Rugby World Cup 7s, plus a very bad deal negotiated for the South Africa vs Wales game in DC. But the senior national teams have a heavy hand in this, too.

The Golden Eagles is a philanthropy group of former national team players that supports the USA teams. They have become an enabler for overspending, rubber-stamping excessive expenses, especially by the men’s 7s team. You may say: “big deal; they cover the costs, so what?” But every dollar sent one way means the USA U20 men and women, or the U18 boys and girls, or training and education, or the Eagle women 15s program, or other services don’t get that dollar.

The Golden Eagles could be spreading the wealth, and they’re not.

But that doesn’t mean the national team coaches are off the hook. Mike Friday, deservedly the 2019 World Sevens Coach of the Year, just has to tell the Golden Eagles that he needs another assistant coach, from overseas, of course, and he assumes (rightly) they’ll pay for it. 

Gary Gold used the capital from a very successful 2018 to hire more coaches, also from overseas, and spend additional money on assembly time that resulted in a winless 2019 World Cup. 

Pay for the players has risen, but neither Men’s National Team coach is working all that hard to economize. They both live overseas, so their travel is a cost. They hire coaches from overseas (sorry, but the United States is full of strength & conditioning coaches—there’s no reason to not find one on these shores) and there doesn’t appear to be a transparent coach search or any debate on their pay.

For the last 20 years or so, national team coaches have been told that their job includes training elite-level coaches in America. With a few exceptions, they don’t do it, or only pay lip service to that job. So we’re paying more for coaches who aren’t fulfilling a key part of their mandate—train some Americans to be your replacement.

But USA Rugby hasn't really backed up that request, and once the Golden Eagles start writing checks, USAR has allowed them, rather than being guilted into trying harder.

Solution

By separating out USA Rugby into HP, Club, College, and Youth & HS, you leave every group to sink or swim on its own.

Each group creates its own executive board, and they handle stuff like championships and disciplinary and eligibility. If they want to start a territorial championship, they can. If they want to fund recruiting efforts, they can, and probably more efficiently than USA Rugby ever did. Meanwhile, the Eagles will all answer to the Board and their stakeholders. And someone (the Board, the CEO, the head of HP) has to start making smart decisions about how much we pay coaches, where they come from, and if there's a problem mid-year, how to address it.