PRU Wiki

## PopularFreedom Rugby Union (PRU)

The PopularFreedom Rugby Union is the premier rugby league in the nation of PopularFreedom. It began as the PopularFreedom Rugby League (PRL), being formed in 1983, and began play in 1984 expanding to the current enterprise it now is.

## History

The PRL, forerunner of the PRU, began play in the year 1984. It was formed after a number of rugby club teams held a tournament in the capital of PopularFreedom, Locke Harbour. Teams from as far away as Athens, Stanislav, and Magna Carta arrived to face off against one another during the first weekend of May in 1983. As a result of that tournament, rugby clubs from across the country began to correspond with one another about the possible interest in forming a national rugby league, these talks led to the formation of the PRL which began play the following year.

**THE FOUNDING TEAMS: 1984-1987**

The league began play with eight teams across the PopularFreedom nation. The metropolises of Athens, Locke Harbour (based in the neighbourhood of Locke Harbour North), and Viscount Bennett were joined by smaller cities including Lenita, Peace, Stanislav, Victory Union, and Workers Point to form the original eight team PRL. By 1987 the league had also expanded to include Pearson Cliffs in their ranks leading to a strong nine team league.

**VICTORY UNION FINANCIAL SCANDAL: 1988**

The Victory Union Broncos were run by VU Construction that was involved in a major police investigation in 1988. This eventually led to the franchise becoming involved in a massive financial scandal which involved kickbacks, political campaign funding, and other financial improprieties. The team announced that they would not be participating in the 1989 season until the situation had resolved itself, however later on that year the team filed for bankruptcy, leaving the league with only eight teams moving forward.

**FIRST EXPANSION PHASE: 2006-2010**

Since 2001 a financial group from Camelot had been trying to get a team to represent their city in the PRL. The league had been uninterested in the proposal primarily due to the Victory Union Financial Scandal from 1988, and had therefore been content to move forward with the teams they already had. As a direct result of this rebuttal, the cities of Camelot, along with the city of Sacredicity, and the Pearson Cliffs neighbourhood of Brunstone formed their own franchises and joined the new Rugby Premier League (RPL) in 2005, which began play in 2006. Two other franchises, one based in Magna Carta, and the other based in the Locke Harbour neighbourhood of Locke Harbour South notified the PRL of their intentions to join the RPL, however were swayed to join the PRL instead. The league therefore began the 2006 season with ten teams while competing directly, especially in the city of Pearson Cliffs, with the RPL.

The RPL was a continental rugby league that lasted one year before financial hardships forced a number of teams in the league, followed by the league itself to cease to exist. The PopularFreedom teams however had a strong financial outlook for the future and therefore as a result were welcomed into the PRL in 2007 along with two new expansion franchises, one in Loyalty Bay, and the other in Victory Union. This therefore pushed the total number of teams in the PRL to 15 by the start of the 2007 season, along with expanding the competition to two tiers.

By the start of the 2008 season, the league had further expanded to a total of 18 teams, including new expansion franchises based in Laurier, Port Northview, and Sifton.

In 2010 the league expanded again, this time forming new franchises in the cities of Miprate, and Teres to bolster the league to a record 20 teams.

**OVER EXPANSION LEADS TO FINANCIAL PROBLEMS: 2011**

By 2011 a number of teams were complaining about the cannibalization of their rugby territory by other teams due to the massive expansion happening across the country. As a direct result of this, the teams in Brunstone, Laurier, and Sifton ceased operations. Meanwhile the team in Loyalty Bay closed operations as well though this latter failure was more blamed on cross-competition from the the expansionary Heartland Soccer Union (HSU), rather than as a direct result of PRL expansion. Starting in 2012 the league was down to 16 teams though this allowed all teams to move up to tier 1 and play in the Eastern or Western division as opposed to different tiers.

**PRU/NRU SCHISM & SECOND EXPANSION PHASE: 2036-Current**

After 2011 the PRL experienced a massive influx of revenue from matches and sponsors making it the dominant rugby league on the continent, and second to only the HSU in terms of overall profits made by a sporting league.

By the early 2030s however there was a rift growing in the league. The finances behind the Viscount Bennett franchise, among others, started insisting that key traditional rules be changed. Until now players played for the city of their birth, or the city with a franchise closest to their birth without question. Though unusual when compared to every other sport on the continent, this tradition had been in place since the very first rugby game had ever been played in the land now occupied by PopularFreedom back in the 1850s. As a result there was extreme animosity against Viscount Bennett's insistence of this change by a number of franchises including those in charge of Locke Harbour North, and Lenita.

This dispute led directly to the dissolution of the PRL and the formation of the PopularFreedom Rugby Union (PRU), along with the National Rugby Union (NRU) after the 2036 PRL season. The PRU was supported by six PRL teams including those in Athens, Camelot, Lenita, Locke Harbour North, Sacredicity, and Victory Union. The remaining PRL teams, ten in total, formed the NRU.

The PRU granted expansion franchises to Esato, and the Loyalty Bay neighbourhood of Rockyedge, bringing the PRU franchise numbers to eight for the 2037 season.

The result of the country having two rugby leagues led to a massive increase in competition between teams close to one another in opposing leagues. This led to huge losses in revenue, and eventual financial concerns for teams in both leagues. As a result of this open warfare between the two leagues, many franchises found themselves on the verge of failure prior to the 2038 season.

In December 2037, less than one month prior to the start of the 2038 season, the franchises in Miprate, and then Teres both declared bankruptcy. Declining attendance especially in the way of season tickets sales, falling merchandise sales, coupled with skyrocketing marketing costs were primarily blamed for the failure of both franchises. In the last week of that month, a mere five days prior to the start of the 2038 season, the National Sports Network signed a lucrative deal with the PRU, in essence crowning them as the premier league for rugby in the nation. This television deal led to a few popular NRU players leaving to join PRU teams prior to the start of the 2038 season, with more announcing their intention to join the PRU for 2039. As a result during the first three weeks of the 2038 season there was an average 60% drop in NRU attendance from the year before for all teams in the league. Midway through January 2038, and barely three weeks into the season, the NRU ceased all operations. This decision forced a number of NRU teams to file for bankruptcy protection with the league itself filing for bankruptcy days after.

A few days after this bankruptcy announcement, the PRU owners, in what was termed a, 'Peace offering to the remaining NRU teams', immediately changed their rules effective at the end of the 2038 season to allow trades between teams, and thereby allow players to play for other teams besides their city of birth. Though the motion was not unanimously passed, the only dissenting vote, Locke Harbour North, waived their right to block the change.

Over the next few weeks a number of NRU teams reported talks were underway to join the PRU, though the Port Sharks, and the Stanislav Lions were the only teams to actually join the PRU for the 2039 season. The remaining NRU teams announced their intentions to cease operations effective immediately, including the teams in Locke Harbour, Magna Carta, Peace, Pearson Cliffs, Viscount Bennett, and Workers Point. This raised the current team level in the PRU to 10 teams for the 2039 season.

In 2039 new franchise groups resurrected both the Magna Carta, and Locke
Harbour South brands allowing the PRU to begin 2040 with 12 teams now separated
into east and west conferences.

In 2041 the league began the season with 18 teams in 3 divisions with
expansions into a number of different markets:

-In Pearson Cliffs the Cliffstone Eagles were born, based in the Pearson Cliffs
neighbourhood of Cliffstone.

-Pearson Cliffs acquired a second team, this in the neighbourhood of Ridgeway
with the expansion Pearson Griffins.  These two moves, though returning
rugby to the city of Pearson Cliffs, seemed to have dashed a quick return for the Pirates, who were based in the
Pearson Cliffs neighbourhood of Westview.

-Laurier
announced a new expansion team for 2041, the Laurier Orcas.

-A new investor group announced that the Wolves would
be back in Miprate for the 2041 season.  Due to copyright issues with the original team
name however, they were to be called the Hill Wolves, named after the Miprate
neighbourhood their stadium was located in.

-A new expansion franchise, the Rams, were announced for Stornoway.

-Finally the Workers
Point Bobcats announced that they would return for the 2041 season, though be
named the Point Bobcats.

 There were also rumblings near the start of 2041 that
the cities of Peace, Sifton, and Viscount Bennett were trying to
re-establish their teams though the league has noted that for the time being
they are staying at 18 teams in the league for the foreseeable future.

## Current Teams

Athens Invaders: 1984-Current

Camelot Wasps: 2007-Current (played in the RPL in 2006)

Cliffstone Eagles: 2041-Current

Esato Crocodiles: 2036-Current

Hill (Miprate) Wolves: 2010-Current (played in the NRU in 2037, did not playing from
2038-2041)

Laurier Orcas 2041-Current

Lenita Legions: 1984-Current

Locke Harbour North Dragons: 1984-Current

Locke Harbour South Blues: 2006-Current (played in the NRU in 2037-2038, did
not play during 2039)

Magna Carta Crusaders: 2006-Current (played in the NRU in 2037-2038, did not
play during 2039)

Pearson Griffins: 2041-Current

(Workers) Point Bobcats: 1984-2036 (played in the NRU in 2037-2038),
2041-Current

Port Sharks: 2008-Current (played in the NRU in 2037-2038)

Rockyedge Tigers: 2036-Current

Sacredicity Saints: 2007-Current (played in the RPL in 2006)

Stanislav Lions: 1984-Current (played in the NRU in 2037-2038)

Stornoway Rams: 2041 - Current

Victory Union Saracens: 2007-Current

## Former Teams

Brunstone Avalanche: 2007-2011 (played in the RPL in 2006)

Peace Warriors: 1984-2036 (played in the NRU in 2037-2038)

Pearson (Cliffs) Pirates: 1987-2036 (played in the NRU in 2037-2038)

Sifton Knights: 2008-2011

Teres Royals: 2010-2036 (played in the NRU in 2037)

Viscount Bennett Imperialists: 1984-2036 (played in the NRU in 2037-2038)

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