Rugby, Culture & Growth: Building a Sports Brand in Miami | Under the Brand

0:00

Welcome back to Under the Brand. I’m your host, Valerie Jennings, and today we’re diving into the world of sports, culture, and brand building in one of the most eclectic cities in the US: Miami.

0:15

Joining me is someone at the heart of one of the fastest growing sports franchises in town, Tomas Ordanz, head of growth at Miami Sharks Rugby. Tomas, thank you for joining us. It’s a pleasure to have you here today, and we are excited to learn everything about this sports team. So tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do at the Miami Sharks.

0:39

Yeah, thank you, Valerie, first for having me. It’s a pleasure to be on Under the Brand talking about the Sharks. So, a bit about myself. I’ve been living here in Miami for the past four years. I’m originally from Argentina, so forgive me if my English is not the best. I’ll do my best.

0:48

I’ve worked on the brand building, marketing, and communications side of things for a long time. In Argentina it was oriented more toward corporate communications and PR, so I have good knowledge about how to market this beautiful product, this beautiful sport that we have in our hands, which is rugby.

1:05

I played rugby my whole life, so it’s been a part of me since I was born. I didn’t get to play professionally, but I was pretty close. And now I get the opportunity to build a professional rugby franchise here in Miami from scratch. So I’m basically living a dream. Super happy.

1:29

I was just going to say, it sounds like a dream come true. And rugby — that’s also very exciting for the United States, and Miami. There are so many awesome things mixed into that, and you’re on the forefront of growing this brand. For our viewers and listeners, what is the most exciting part of your job?

1:52

I think the most exciting part of my job is that we are so much in a startup stage. I get to be involved in pretty much everything, in every stage, in every area of the organization. So from marketing, to sales, to sponsorship — I actually focus more on sponsorships and partnerships, but I get involved in everything, because as everyone knows, in a startup it’s all hands on deck.

2:17

And being so passionate about what we’re doing and what we’re building, the best part is being able to be involved in every area and every aspect of the organization. From the actual team, being part of the team — obviously I don’t get to decide who plays or not, but I’m super involved in the sporting side of things — to the grassroots level, to marketing, to sponsoring, to the operations on game days.

2:41

So yeah, it’s basically like a baby that we all take care of, and that’s super exciting for me.

2:47

Yeah, very exciting. So how do you build community in Miami? There are lots of competing teams there — all kinds of sports in Miami. How do you establish this team as a standout brand and build loyalty and a fan base there?

3:07

That’s a great question. So rugby itself is a unique product. I’d say it’s so different from any other sport that’s already established in the US, with such a rich and long history. Actually, American football was born from rugby — a pretty fun story. And of course it has a massive global audience.

3:30

Here in the US there is already a community of rugby lovers, especially all of the expats living here from those countries where rugby is big, like the United Kingdom, Europe, France, and Italy. Then you go to Africa and Oceania with South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia. Argentina is also a very big rugby country.

3:53

So there’s a very loyal community around rugby, and from day one, when they heard about the Miami Sharks being a new thing, they were super excited. They actually started reaching out to us saying, “Hey, this is me. How can we help? We are super excited about this.”

4:08

And that’s a great way to start. It’s not huge, but it’s considerable for you to start growing from there, reaching out to new communities and bringing in people who may never have known about rugby. Here in Florida there are youth teams, there are adults, there are men’s and women’s teams — people who are already active with rugby.

4:34

So that was our first step: getting those relationships with them and trying to get them involved. And not only as season ticket holders, as fans, or as people who may help us sponsor or get their companies or businesses involved with the Miami Sharks, but as our ambassadors and our promoters.

4:58

One of the things that I always say is that it’s way easier to convince someone to try rugby for the very first time if you invite them to have a great time, to do a tailgate, to invite them for a beer, and to just have a great experience throughout the whole day.

5:16

Rugby is an excuse for those who don’t know anything about rugby. And then when they get to watch rugby for the very first time, they get completely hooked, because I’m telling you, rugby is amazing. It’s super intense. It’s like football, but instead of being play-by-play, it’s non-stop.

5:31

Super intense. I love it. What you’re describing is what all brands aspire to. They want a motivated niche audience, and from what you’re describing, you already had one built in. You just had to tap into it.

5:48

I think that is such a great lesson for all startups. I work with a lot of startups that are still trying to figure out who their audience is. It’s so much easier if you have one. But in this case it’s even more exciting because it’s sports, right? And who doesn’t love to go tailgate and watch a great game?

6:12

But outside of that audience, that loyal fan base, what have you done to engage them digitally — to get them to promote the Sharks, to get others to come to the game and keep expanding that audience?

6:30

So we always try to combine digital strategy with physical, real-life strategy, because I think that’s the best way to move forward. With this niche, as I was saying, we personally reached out to each and every club and each and every person involved in rugby.

6:47

First we wanted to get to know what their struggles or problems were, and in which ways the Miami Sharks could elevate their own youth clubs and their own rugby communities. Maybe they were seeking more promotion, or help with sponsors, or whatever. We tried to make the Miami Sharks an asset for them.

7:11

And then, of course, to reach people from outside that niche, we do a lot of community outreach. Maybe the biggest way of getting new fans into the Miami Sharks is a program we have called Imagine Rugby. It’s together with a national nonprofit that works with USA Rugby, which is the association that conglomerates all of the rugby in the USA.

7:34

Through it, we get to introduce rugby to students in public schools. We’re starting in Broward, which is already a pretty big place with over 320 public schools, where we do a non-contact version of rugby. So it’s like flag football, but flag rugby.

7:50

And as I was saying, we are all hands on deck — the players themselves get involved in this program. So we got our pro players, on their off days and rest days, to go and reach the kids, to connect with the kids, to personally tell them their own experience with rugby.

8:05

We have four or five players who were homegrown here in Florida, so they tell them their story. The storytelling is amazing. It’s basically their own experience of being Miami born and raised, where they started playing basketball or football, and eventually at 14 or 15 years old they heard about rugby and they tried it and they loved it, and after a couple of years they became professional rugby players, now with Miami.

8:36

So their story is basically living proof of what we would like to achieve with those kids — for them to get super involved in rugby, to love rugby, to start playing rugby, and after school to go to a college where rugby has a program, and then after that be eligible through the draft to be playing with the Miami Sharks or with the league.

9:01

That’s amazing. That is amazing. Congrats, that’s an awesome program. And have any of these kids expressed an interest yet in being professional rugby players?

9:15

Yeah. I mean, the thing is that rugby is so technical in the different aspects of how it’s played. It needs to be fully incorporated. It takes a couple of years, I’d say. But yes, we have plenty of students who are already part of our free clinic.

9:30

Right now we’re doing a free clinic in the summer, every Wednesday, at our training facilities, where we start teaching the very basics about the sport. Because the passing, for example, is way different from football, so the technique of how to pass takes time to develop.

9:52

So that’s a lot of work. But again, we are an organization filled with people who are passionate about the sport, so we give our everything to get more people involved in this beautiful sport.

10:04

I just want to pause for a second, because a lot of brands struggle to find a charity or a foundation that really aligns with their values. Your involvement in this is so organic, and it’s a perfect blend of everything that the team is and the energy that you guys are putting into it.

10:28

For our listeners and viewers: think about strategy, and when you partner with a charity, just throwing money at something doesn’t always equal success. You actually have to get the people involved and be passionate about it. That’s what I’m hearing from you, and that everybody really believes in this. It’s not just something you guys are doing to check a box or build your fan base or give back to the community.

11:01

How did you design this? Was it very easy to make this decision and come up with it, or did you guys actually spend time strategically trying to figure out if this was a worthwhile investment?

11:18

So the Imagine Rugby program has actually been around for years prior to the Miami Sharks. As I was saying, it’s a national nonprofit that works together with Major League Rugby — with our league — and USA Rugby.

11:26

So as soon as we started, they approached us and said, “Hey, this is a great way to get that grassroots level involved with the organization.” And they assist us on the more strategic and operational side of things. We needed to be approved by the Broward County Public Schools physical education supervisor.

11:55

It’s not just going to the school and doing some rugby things and leaving. Everything has to be done by the book. So it’s super professional, and we are super committed to achieving those results.

12:04

And not only that — we also give them free equipment, we give them free balls, we give them the free tags, and we give them free tickets to our games. We planned for every home game to have at least one, two, or even three schools come to our games, for the kids to actually watch and experience what rugby is for real.

12:20

Because they might see our players chilling with them or trying to teach them the basics of the sport. But when you see them in action, 100-kilo guy against 100-kilo guy, without any helmets, without any pads, straight at it, it’s a whole different experience, and it leaves a mark.

12:37

It happened in our first season that the schools that came in the first season wanted to come again this second season. So it’s something that starts to pick up, and it’s not only with the students, but with their parents. That’s how you start to build that community outside of the niche that we already have, with people who know nothing about rugby.

13:02

You have your kid telling you, “You won’t believe who came today — the Miami Sharks players.” And maybe the parents know nothing about them, but the words “pro players” are inspiring for them.

13:17

Yeah, that’s amazing. Let’s switch gears and talk about sponsorships and corporate partnerships. How have you approached that as you’ve been building up the marketing and growth for the team?

13:31

Yeah, so of course our ownership brought their own sphere of influence regarding sponsorships and partnerships from the corporate side. And then us going out to get those new sponsors or potential sponsors, that’s a whole different thing.

13:46

It’s funny, because the conversation goes two ways. If it starts with me explaining what rugby is, and the person I’m talking to knows nothing about rugby, it usually takes a little bit longer for them to pick it up and get convinced about jumping on board with the Miami Sharks.

14:02

If they already know, they are usually super intrigued and super excited about being involved in some way with the Sharks, because they know the potential of rugby as a sport here in the US. As you were saying in the introduction, it’s one of the fastest growing sports. It’s head-to-head with pickleball.

14:17

Every year there are more players, more amateur players, more franchises in our league, more viewers, and more attention and popularity. We’re getting to that place that we always dreamed of.

14:28

And then from a more strategic, commercial sales standpoint on sponsorship, we have options for everyone. Personally, I don’t usually build a standardized package that I just send through without caring what the other organization is really looking for.

14:44

I try to connect and see what they are expecting from sponsoring with us, and what they would really view as a return on their investment in us. Because we have companies and organizations that care about the community aspects and getting involved in our community outreach.

15:07

Some care more about the advertising opportunities, because our games are broadcast nationally on ESPN+, so they really want the biggest part of their sponsorship to be there. And then some others want the whole experience of being able to bring potential clients or their employees to our games, and having the VIP naming rights and so on. So it’s very customized to each organization.

15:37

Of course, we have options starting as low as [X]K, up to main sponsors at 250K. So that’s what we’re doing.

15:44

At the same time that I’m doing community outreach, I’m doing the whole sponsorship and sales strategy, which is also super exciting, because I get to attract people to my world, to the rugby world.

16:00

All of the sponsors from last season renewed their sponsorship this season, and everyone is super excited and everyone sees the value of the Miami Sharks, because it’s super different from any other sports event. I’d say the community and the fan base are just super.

16:24

What is that energy when somebody walks in, either for the tailgate or the game? Is it shocking? Are they shocked? Do you prepare them and say it’s a little wild, or is it just fun? How would you describe it?

16:39

I’d say it’s super fun. You only have to prepare them, if they’ve never watched rugby, that it’s going to be super wild. It’s going to be intense.

16:51

But people get super hooked. You’re off your seat the whole 80 minutes, because it doesn’t give you any time to rest. It doesn’t stop. There are so many things happening all the time that it’s like, “My God, what am I watching?” It leaves you speechless.

17:06

But then the whole experience is super close, super intimate. We have an average attendance of 2,500 people at every home game, so it’s not like the crowds that you see in soccer or American football or even basketball.

17:22

So it’s super intimate, super familiar. You see people of all ages, from 2 years old to 80 years old, where you get to meet people and everyone’s super open to engaging with everyone, talking about rugby and enjoying a beer.

17:36

Even the organization itself, even our players, are super approachable. At every game, when the game ends, the guys go to the fans and take pictures with the fans and talk and have real conversations, and real relationships are established. You get to be friends with the guy who battles for 80 minutes.

17:51

So that’s something way different. There are no superstars. There are no egos around the team. And that’s an experience by itself. People go crazy about the possibility of approaching them at every game and having a real conversation. That’s also something that’s super valued within our fan base.

18:13

Unique. Yeah, that’s very unique. So, Tomas, what’s next for the Sharks? You’ve been building, you’re having success, people are renewing. What is next for you, and what are you working on right now for the Sharks?

18:28

So our mindset is set on 2031, because that’s when the Rugby World Cup is coming. The Rugby World Cup is basically the third biggest sports event in the world in terms of revenue and viewership.

18:44

So we are aiming to keep on building, baby steps every year, to keep growing our fan base, to keep growing our grassroots, to have more people involved and aware of rugby in some way every year.

18:57

So that by 2031, when the Rugby World Cup arrives in the US — and obviously Miami is going to be one of the host cities — that moment gives us a super boost and puts the Miami Sharks on a whole different stage, one that I can’t even imagine right now.

19:13

That is really exciting. It’s a long buildup, but definitely worth it. Well, Tomas, it’s been a pleasure having you on and learning more about the Sharks.

19:25

Everybody, you’ve been watching Under the Brand. I’m your host, Valerie Jennings.