R360 organisers want to launch the first edition of their new global rugby franchise competition next year at the redeveloped Camp Nou in Barcelona.
R360 organisers want to launch the first edition of their new global rugby franchise competition next year at the redeveloped Camp Nou in Barcelona.
R360 organisers want to launch the first edition of their new global rugby franchise competition next year at the redeveloped Camp Nou in Barcelona.
2 October 2026 has been penciled in as R360’s launch date – despite setbacks in recent weeks which have seen the eight biggest unions announce that any players who join the new competition will be barred from international selection and the International Rugby Players’ Union refuse to endorse it – with the reopened Camp Nou seen as the ideal venue.
While R360 has yet to reach an agreement over using the stadium, the venue would make sense for both parties.
Barcelona are desperate for alternative sources of revenue, with over £600m of their £1.1bn debts repayable in the next year amidst financial problems that have been exacerbated by delays to the Camp Nou redevelopment, while opening at the iconic stadium would make R360’s launch attractive to the casual sports fans who appear to be the rebel league’s target audience.
Securing a rugby stadium may also prove more problematic given R360’s difficult relations with the major unions, many of whom have been annoyed by a lack of consultation.
R360 needed?
R360 has been billed as a Formula 1-style global tournament, with New York, Los Angeles, Cape Town, Sao Paulo and Tokyo also mooted as potential venues.
This week former England coach, and current Japan boss, Eddie Jones said the sport needs R360.
“You think about what World Series Cricket did for cricket,” he told The Times. “It changed the whole game from being a drab game to being an exciting game that people wanted to get involved in. And I think that’s part of the problem of rugby at the moment.
“Test match rugby is that. But we need another level that’s an entertainment level that brings more fans and more sponsors and more commercialism into the game to allow our more traditional levels of rugby to continue.”