When the soccer World Cup came to the United States in 1994, there was plenty of skepticism. Could a sport featuring low-scoring games played out by unfamiliar foreign stars capture the imagination of parochial American fans? As it turned out, the answer was yes: The World Cup helped kick-start a soccer boom in the United States, and opened a valuable new market for a global sport.
It’s a long way off, but rugby officials are hoping for something similar after awarding the 2031 men’s and 2033 women’s Rugby World Cups to the United States on Thursday. The 2031 tournament will be the first men’s Rugby World Cup held anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. (The women’s event was held in Canada in 2006.)
Because rugby’s reach is more geographically limited — only a handful of nations play it at an elite level, and only four have won its biggest championship — the Rugby World Cup does not reach the viewership heights enjoyed by soccer’s World Cup and the Olympics. But the men’s event is one of a handful of international competitions that can plausibly make the claim to being the third largest sporting event in the world. Rugby officials acknowledged Thursday, in announcing the hosts of five future tournaments, that they were looking to expand the sport’s profile and reach.
“Today, we have approved three exceptional Rugby World Cup host nations — England, Australia and U.S.A. — providing unprecedented certainty and an unparalleled opportunity to accelerate the growth and impact of rugby globally,” the World Rugby chairman, Bill Beaumont, said after the schedule of events was approved by the World Rugby Council at its annual meeting in Dublin. “It is great for rugby, for fans and for the host nations.”
The World Cups awarded to the United States were among five finalized on Thursday. All of the championships that will take place before the event comes to America have been handed to traditional powerhouses: France in 2023 and Australia in 2027 for the men, and New Zealand in 2022, England in 2025 and Australia in 2029 for the women. The World Cups in England and Australia were approved at the same time as the United States bids on Thursday.
Rugby officials also said they had committed to forging relationships with the national governing body in each host country. The goal, Beaumont said, was “long-term, sustainable development, including in the U.S.A. and across the women’s game.”
While the United States men have played in previous editions of the Rugby World Cup, they are typically up against it when facing the sport’s major powers. The Americans have qualified for the last six World Cups but posted only a 2-21 record in them. In the team’s most recent international match, in October, it lost to New Zealand, a three-time World Cup champion, 104-14.
The U.S. women’s team has fared better on the field, winning the inaugural World Cup in 1991, and finishing fourth in the most recent tournament in 2017.
Yet rugby has always struggled to find a footing in the crowded American sports landscape, already loaded with professional and college games in sports far more familiar to American fans. Increasingly, international events have intrigued those fans, but soccer games and Formula One races remains a few steps ahead of rugby.
With their own eyes on the large and lucrative American market, cricket officials have made a similar move, naming the U.S. a co-host of the 2024 Twenty20 men’s World Cup along with the West Indies.
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By: Victor Mather Title: U.S. Picked as Host of Rugby World Cup Sourced From: www.nytimes.com/2022/05/12/sports/rugby/rugby-world-cup-us.html Published Date: Thu, 12 May 2022 11:11:53 +0000
A spokesperson for Taylor Swift has responded to a report that named the singer as the celebrity with the worst private jet CO2 emissions.
Yesterday, a report released by Yard claimed the American singer was the biggest CO2 polluter of the year so far, having flown in her private jet 170 times since January and totalling 8,294.54 tonnes of CO2.
However, Swift’s spokesperson told Buzzfeed News the statistics are inaccurate.
For context, the report claims the average person produces just seven tonnes of carbon emissions per year.
Swift’s representative said only some of the 170 flights can be attributed to the singer: “Taylor’s jet is loaned out regularly to other individuals. To attribute most or all of these trips to her is blatantly incorrect.”
Regardless, it is clear Swift’s jet is racking up significant amounts of carbon emissions due to its inefficient use.
According to the Yard report, her average flight time is just 80 minutes, and her jet’s shortest recorded flight flew between Missouri and Nashville for just 36 minutes.
Other significant celebrity polluters include boxer and domestic violence perpetrator Floyd Mayweather, whose shortest flight was just 10 minutes long but emitted one ton of carbon; Kim Kardashian, who has emitted 609 times more carbon than the average person; and director Steven Spielberg, who took an 18-minute flight between Rotterdam and Amsterdam – a route which, when taken by train, takes only an hour.
The subject of celebrity carbon emissions has blown up ever since Kylie Jenner shared an out-of-touch photo of her and partner Travis Scott posing in front of their private jets with the caption, “you wanna take mine or yours?”
In the midst of the backlash, many began diving deeper into Jenner’s private jet use by examining the Celebrity Jets Twitter account, which records celebrity private jet trips.
Many were horrified she was regularly taking flights as short as 12 minutes and reprimanded her for “her absolute disregard for the planet”.
Many found it hypocritical that ordinary people were being asked by big companies to reduce their car trips and use paper straws when celebrities are constantly leaving huge carbon footprints with frivolous trips in their private jets.
Despite the wave of criticism, celebrities have continued to take private flights between short distances.
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Title: Taylor Swift’s rep responds to reports the singer has the worst private jet carbon emissions Sourced From: celebrity.nine.com.au/latest/taylor-swift-private-jet-co2-emissions-highest-celebrity-rep-statement/589119a2-fb57-48bc-9547-73c28db53d21 Published Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 03:07:00 GMT
The 40-year-old actress, best known for playing Stephanie Tanner on Full House and Fuller House, married social worker Mescal Wasilewski on Saturday (July 30) at a private home in Malibu, Calif. after five years together.
Click inside to read more…
Jodie and Mescal wed in an intimate backyard ceremony that included her two daughters – Zoie, 14, and Beatrix, 11 – and her Fuller House co-stars including John Stamos, Candace Cameron Bure, and Andrea Barber.
“I know I have the right partner for the rest of whatever life brings me,” Jodie shared with People. “And I couldn’t be more grateful.”
Jodie and Mescal were first introduced through friends in 2017 and dated long-distanced before Mescal moved from New York City to Los Angeles in 2020. They got engaged in January 2022.
This is the fourth marriage for Jodie – she was first married to Shaun Holguin from 2002 to 2006, to Cody Herpin from 2007 until 2010, and to Morty Coyle from 2012 to 2016. She shares Zoie with Cody and Beatrix with Morty.
Congrats to the newlyweds!
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By: Just Jared Title: Jodie Sweetin Marries Mescal Wasilewski with ‘Fuller House’ Co-Stars in Attendance! Sourced From: www.justjared.com/2022/07/31/jodie-sweetin-marries-mescal-wasilewski-with-fuller-house-co-stars-in-attendance/ Published Date: Sun, 31 Jul 2022 04:26:28 +0000
All of a sudden, the fall movie season looks very busy. This week brought two big festival announcements loaded with major films to come: First came Venice, with a lineup that includes everything from Darren Aronofsky’s “The Whale” to “Bardo”; it was followed by TIFF, where Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” will premiere alongside Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light” and Sarah Polley’s “Women Talking,” among many others. Meanwhile, Telluride continues to shroud its selections in secret, but the latest lineups help us get a sense of what to expect there as well.
In this week’s episode of Screen Talk, Eric Kohn and Anne Thompson dig through both lineups to get a sense for which films could impact the coming awards season and why it’s almost certain to be an unpredictable ride. They also address the return of competitiveness between festivals that seemed to subside earlier in the pandemic, and touch on the recent changes to the Oscar submission rules in France.
Watch the full episode above or listen it below.
Screen Talk is produced by Azwan Badruzaman and available on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Spotify, and hosted by Megaphone. Browse previous installments here, subscribe here, and be sure to let us know if you’d like to hear the hosts address specific issues in upcoming editions of Screen Talk.
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By: Anne Thompson Title: How to Make Sense of a Very Unpredictable Fall Movie Season Sourced From: www.indiewire.com/video/tiff-venice-2022-analysis-spielberg-screen-talk-391-1234746652/ Published Date: Fri, 29 Jul 2022 20:52:17 +0000