Becoming Elite: Launching the First Professional Women's Rugby League in the U.S. 🏉
By putting athletes at the centre of its mission, providing support on and off-the-field, and intentionally managing growth, WER is following a sensible model for how new sports leagues should be run
21 January 2025
Set to kick off in March 2025, Women’s Elite Rugby (WER) could redefine the landscape of women’s rugby in the United States.
As the nation’s first professional league for the sport, WER is poised to turn a historically underfunded and overlooked discipline into a thriving professional ecosystem.
Announced in early 2024, WER emerged from the Women’s Premier League (WPL), a pay-to-play competition that has been the cornerstone of elite women’s rugby in the U.S. for over 15 years. With six teams competing in its inaugural season, the league’s mission is as ambitious as it is vital: to elevate the game, create a professional platform for athletes, and grow the sport’s fan base.
The timing is no accident. The U.S. women’s sevens team captured bronze at the Paris 2024 Olympics, shining a spotlight on rugby in a crowded sports market. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028 and the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2033, set to be hosted Stateside, present long-term opportunities to solidify the sport’s presence on home soil.
“Knowing there’s a nine-year runway to the Women’s Rugby World Cup in 2033 has been exciting for investors and sponsors,” WER President Jessica Hammond-Graf explained on the Sports Pundit Podcast. “If you’re getting in at the ground level, there’s so much potential to build something meaningful.”
This long-term vision positions WER as both a springboard for grassroots growth and a critical entry point for new fans of rugby in a country that will also host the men’s Rugby World Cup in 2031. But WER isn’t relying solely on external momentum—it is being incredibly deliberate in both its structure and athlete-first focus.
At its core, WER operates as a single-entity league, a deliberate decision that allows the organisation to centralise resources and maintain parity across its teams. All revenue and expenses flow through the league office, ensuring markets with varying levels of infrastructure and resources are equally supported.
“What the New York market needs looks really different than what Minnesota needs versus Denver,” said Hammond-Graf. “When teams are franchised out or reliant on owner money, disparities emerge. We wanted to ensure everyone was rising equally as we get the league off the ground.”
This centralisation also influences WER’s scale. By starting with just six teams, the league can concentrate talent and maintain a high level of competition, avoiding the pitfalls of overexpansion.
“We want to ensure we have the player base to provide high-level rugby,” Hammond-Graf noted. “We’re being intentional with our selection process to create quality across all six markets. We don’t want that to get watered down too soon.”
Player welfare is another cornerstone of WER’s philosophy. Athletes are allowed to declare themselves as ‘in-state’ players, respecting personal ties to family and community - especially crucial at this early stage of professionalisation when salaries won’t yet be massive.
“If they said, you know what, I own a home in Chicago, or my family is here, I really just want to stay in Chicago, then they can declare themselves as an in-state athlete,” Hammond-Graf explained.
But WER’s support extends far beyond logistics.
Recognising the importance of financial stability and personal growth, the league has partnered with Parity to equip athletes with tools to build their brands and diversify their income streams - a similar vein to that of FC Como Women.
“Until women are making six-figure salaries to play professional sports, having your brand out there, being able to monetise your brand, creates another income stream for the athletes,” Hammond-Graf said.
This dual focus on player wellbeing and brand development not only empowers athletes but also raises the league’s profile, creating a virtuous cycle of visibility and growth.
Few athletes exemplify this better than Ilona Maher.
A household name thanks to her social media presence and standout performance on and off-the-field at the Paris 2024 Olympics, Maher is now the most followed rugby player—male or female—on social media.
“It wasn’t just, you know, one day before the Olympics, she’s like, ‘Yeah, I think I’ll start this TikTok [account],’” said Hammond-Graf. “She’s been honing her message and her brand for a while leading up to the Olympics. And the Olympics really were that lightning strike for her.”
Maher’s recent signing with Bristol Bears has already made waves. The club moved her first match to a larger venue to meet heightened demand, even though she wasn’t guaranteed to play. The resulting surge in media attention has only amplified the profile of England’s Premiership Women's Rugby (PWR) in the lead up to a the Women’s Rugby World Cup here in August.
Hammond-Graf acknowledges the power of such individuals to transform leagues and inspire young players:
“Having that role model, having that superstar that people can relate to… being able to help young girls attach it to a name, to a face, really can help any league grow.”
While Maher’s potential involvement with WER remains uncertain, the league’s structure is designed to help new stars emerge. By putting athletes at the centre of its mission, providing support on and off-the-field, and intentionally managing growth, WER is following a sensible model for how new sports leagues should be run—not just in women’s rugby but across the wider sporting landscape.