Logo GLOBAL SPONSORSHIP Proposal 2020 www.IGRugby.org Registered Office: 71 Holland Road, West Ham, London, England E15 3BP, United Kingdom. A WARM WELCOME I’m thrilled to welcome you to International Gay Rugby (IGR) and provide you with information about our rapidly growing, ever-passionate, rugby family that today reaches all four corners of the globe and plays a huge part in thousands of our players’ and supporters’ lives. IGR was founded in October 2000 by a small group of Inclusive Rugby Clubs and, as we approach our third decade, we continue to provide opportunities for members of the LGBTQ+ community to enjoy competitive rugby whilst improving respect and tolerance worldwide. This document aims to provide you with a quick overview of the IGR and the opportunities for your brand to powerfully connect with our global organisation as Official Partner. We are very proud of our community, our people and our purpose and very much look forward to developing a profitable and meaningful relationship together. Your Faithfully, Ben Owen Chair & Trustee International Gay Rugby 2 WE’RE HERE... ....To grow inclusive rugby and achieve equality, diversity and personal development in sport. To do our part to eliminate discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation or identification and to promote good health through the playing of rugby by: Providing opportunities for the LGBTQ+ community to compete in welcoming, inclusive rugby clubs that are primarily LGBTQ+ /LGBTQ+ friendly Eliminating homo & transphobia in rugby through community outreach &competitive play Working with governing bodies to improve acceptance of LGBT athletes at all levels Co-ordinating the largest amateur rugby union tournaments in the world Providing our members with support and resources We are recognised by World Rugby as the representative LGBTQ+ rugby organisation via a 2015 Memorandum of Understanding and are an Associate Member of the Federation of Gay Games 3 4 23 NATIONS Our member clubs sit within 23 national unions under the aegis of ‘World Rugby’ 5 KINDS OF RUGBY IGR members of all genders play rugby formats including A GLOBAL XV’s, 7’s, 10’s, Touch and Tag COMMUNITY International Gay Rugby is International by nature, not just in name. 1 SHARED PASSION IGR clubs can be found in countries on five continents with the majority found Our members are powerrful in the USA, UK and Continental Europe. advocates for Inclusive Rugby and passionately engage in the sport Latin America is one of the fastest growing regions and we’re also thrilled to have just welcomed two new clubs from Japan! 85 ASSOCIATED CLUBS... There are over 100 stakeholder clubs Many compete in local ‘mainstream’ across the world today, 85 of which are fully leagues, breaking down barriers, changing ‘Associated’ member clubs of International perceptions and encouraging greater social Gay Rugby cohesion between the LGBTQ+ and straight communities - in addition to the biennial Thousands of people, of all genders, IGR tournaments and annual competitions. ehtnicities, backgrounds, sexualities and rugby abilities enjoy the sport as players or supporters of IGR teams. .....AND GROWING 7 AND OH, MY! ..... HOW WE’VE GROWN! Since 1995, when the Kings Cross Steelers became the world’s first To keep things brief, we’ve only given you a flavour of the milestone and oldest Gay and Inclusive Rugby Club, and the founding by just a moments in our history but there’s been an incredible upward small handful of clubs back in 2000 of International Gay Rugby and trajectory of growth in the last two decades with agreements and Board (IGRAB) which later became International Gay Rugby (IGR) new, exciting developments making headlines and changing lives as we are known today - our world has experienced phenomenal for the better at an ever accelerating speed. growth that continues to increase almost exponentially. 1995 2000 2001 KINGS CROSS STEELERS IGRAB - INTERNATIONAL GAY RUGBY & BOARD WASHINGTON INVITATIONAL London, England, UK London, England, UK Washington, USA The world’s first officially IGRAB (latterly known as International Gay Rugby) North America hosts registered gay rugby club founded in October 2000 following the world’s inuagural IGRAB is founded in November 1995. the world’s first gay rugby tournament tournament with teams from between King’s Cross Steelers, San Francisco, Manchester and Manchester Village Spartans and Buenos Aires plus individuals Washington Renegades in July 2000. from Chicago, London . and Melbourne. 8 AND OH, MY! ..... HOW WE’VE GROWN! Perhaps some of the most significant areas of growth to mention would be that we have developed Memorandums of Understanding with several of the world’s largest National Rugby Governing Bodies including USA Rugby, Rugby Australia, Rugby Nederlands, La Fédération Belge de Rugby, Japanese Rugby Football Union, World Rugby and are finalising our MOU with the RFU. 2002 2004 2005 2019 BINGHAM CUP PURCHAS CUP UNION CUP NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP San Francisco, CA, USA Sydney & Brisbane, Australia Montpellier, France Charlotte North Carolina, USA The Mark Kendall Bingham Memorial The first games of the The first edition of the The first edition of the expanded Tournament is hosted by Purchas Cup are held, one in Union Cup is held, creating a North American Chmapionship is San Francisco Fog with 8 teams Sydney, one in Brisbane. biennial tournament for the agreed and awarded to from the US, UK and Argentina. Named after the founder of the IGR clubs of Europe. the Charlotte Royals RFC The event would go on to be known Sydney Convicts, as the first biennial “Bingham Cup”. Andrew “Fuzz” Purchas. 9 WE MANAGE FOUR MAJOR INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENTS BINGHAM CUP IGR’s flagship biennial global tournament that began in 2002, as a memorial to 9/11 hero Mark Bingham - a founding player at The San Francisco Fog. SUMMER 2020 74 teams competed in the most recent edition in Amsterdam and nearly 100 are expected in Ottawa, in August 2020. UNION CUP The LGBTQ+ / inclusive tournament for IGR clubs in Europe. In 2021 SUMMER 2019, 44 teams celebrated its 8th edition in Dublin, Irleand by launching the tournament’s first women’s division and painting the famous Guinness brewery gates in rainbow colours. The UK’s Birmingham Bulls will be the next hosts in 2021 SUMMER 2021 10 PURCHAS CUP 2021 WINTER The Purchas Cup is the premier tournament for gay and inclusive rugby for the Australia-Pacific region comprising of representative of all IGR affiliated clubs. 2019 will feature Brisbane Hustlers, Sydney Convicts, Melbourne Chargers and New Zealand Falcons. NORTH AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIP 2021 SUMMER Previously two separate tournaments on the east and west coasts of the USA, 2021 will see the first unified tournament open to all 35 IGR clubs across the USA and Canada. The Charlotte Royals in North Carolina, USA, will be hosting this next broader, North American Championship. 11 WHILST PROMOTING OUR VALUES COMMUNITY Following a global poll of IGR members in early 2019, IGR players and supporters told us that ‘Community’ is the most important value that we must always stive to maintain. Quite unsuprising - considering we were created for that specific reason and given that ‘Community’ is the core value right at the heart of everything we do. But ‘Community’ isn’t just IGRs number one value to uphold - it’s also our biggest asset! We enjoy participating within a huge global community that exists thanks to our active social media networks and regular tournaments and events. A team of Regional Representatives work to support the members in their region and nurture the relationships between clubs. The IGR Board is made up of one member from each member club who regularly interact to discuss, debate and vote on issues most affecting the IGR community. We provide and maintain a multi-lingual labyrinth of networks to give over 50,000 people a space to stay in touch or get to know each other between events and share stories and achievements. INCLUSION | RESPECT | PASSION | FAIRNESS 12 AND SUPPORTING OUR MEMBER CLUBS IGR provides development support and resources IGR actively works to reduce barriers for LGBTQ+ to both our members and new LGBTQ+/inclusive people to participate in rugby and to combat homo clubs in the areas of club organisation, recruitment, and transphobia in the rugby and wider sporting retention, fundraising, event management and community. regional and national union relations. We count on a high level of support and engagement We have recently begun a small grants scheme from sporting authorities at all levels and encourage that is open to members wanting to increase our member clubs to engage with their national and participation in rugby or promote our core values local unions. and to non-members for the development of new LGBTQ+/inclusive clubs. WORKING WITH WORLD RUGBY AND OTHER NATIONAL GOVERNING BODIES IGR clubs are encouraged to continually improve their level of play and engagement with the wider We have worked with World Rugby to revise their rugby community through playing in their local policy on transgender athletes, making it easier for league/matrix structures. the transgender community to play rugby. In the UK we run two IGR development leagues to Work is currently in progress to include elements help developing teams to get experience before on diversity and inclusion in World Rugby’s official joining a local league structure. training for officials and coaches. 13 AND WE’RE TRULY INCLUSIVE More IGR clubs than ever before have mixed-gender or women’s teams and transgendered players have been active members in our clubs for many years. We now have a Womens’ Global Rep and a Womens’ Tournament as part of both our Bingham and Union Cup Tournaments. We have also trail-blazed the important issue of Transgender inclusion within World Rugby and have been instrumental in writing the current guidelines.