USA Rugby formerly acquired by The Rugby Shop
Wed, Apr 1, 2009, Posted by Vic Drover 
Worldwide exclusive report
In what appears to be a major financial coup for American Rugby Outfitters, the internationally recognized supplier of custom rugby apparel has formally acquired a 100% interest in the ailing United States American Rugby Football Union (commonly referred to as ‘USA Rugby’).
Based in Elk Grove, IL, American Rugby Outfitters (NYSE: ARO) is particularly well known for their ‘unconditional’ customer service and vast international selection of obsolete, replica rugby jerseys marketed online by ‘The Rugby Shop’.
When asked, American Rugby Outfitters CEO Curt Hacker, was clearly thrilled by the unexpected turn of events.
“I am absolutely floored. I knew USA Rugby was in some dire financial straights, but I never expected our offer to be accepted.”
The details of the deal have not been released, but USA Rugby will continue it’s rugby-related and marketing activities as a wholly-owned subsidiary of ARO. Insiders have indicated that the deal could have been worth thousands of dollars in cash for the USA Rugby national teams well as a 30% stock-interest in ARO for ongoing support of under-19 rugby initiatives.
“USA Rugby is a strong brand with great potential. We have no plans to change the day-to-day operations,” said Hacker.
However, as of this writing, it seems clear that ARO plans to leverage the online assets of USA Rugby. The official website of USA Rubgy (usarugby.com) has already been taken offline and the domain now re-directs to one of AROs online stores.
The web portal for the US National Sevens side (usasevens.org) is now completely offline. Unconfirmed sources have suggested that this domain might fetch up to $300,000 in a sale to the Walt Disney corporation (NYSE: DIS) who have plans to build an “Americanized” Snow White theme park in Denver, CO by 2010.
USA Rugby did not respond to our repeated requests for comments on this article.
Tags: USA
April Fool’s! I’ve fallen for too many of these to not know what
they smell like.!
I was hoping the medication would dull your senses.
Believe it or not, I started typing something in repsonse to the
article and quickly caught myself after thinking it through. I
think that would’ve made the third time you “got me”.
Well, I got Tombstone pretty good, though he didn't write his comment here, I'll reproduce it below for your viewing pleasure:
"how could usa rugby be in dire financial straits, if they advertise that they keep posting profits?"
More from tombstone:
"your fabricated article makes no sense at the end. why would disney purchase a web site to build a theme park? couldn't they just build their own website? and why would they build it in colorado? usarugby.com is up and running. dick."
tsk tsk
Vic, you have way too much time on your hands. Don’t you have kids
to look after or a grant to write or something?
Hey Ben, love the e-mail address! How's life?
Kids? Grant? Job? Who me?
Hi Vic! Nice to see you haven’t lost your touch.