'One of America's great sports cities': Buffalo bids for MLR franchise

Expansion is once again on the horizon for Major League Rugby. After a tumultuous 2025 offseason reduced the United States’ men’s professional league by half, MLR and a potential Buffalo ownership group have taken the first steps to establish a professional rugby club in Western New York by the 2028 season.

The prospective club is the Buffalo Thunderbolts Rugby Club, which was registered as a legal business entity in New York State on October 30, 2026. The project is being led by film producer Joe DiPasquale and former Miami Sharks CEO Mark Winokur.

The Thunderbolts — a name inspired by the World War II plane manufactured at the Curtiss aviation factories in Buffalo — also have the support of Buffalo Mayor Sean Ryan and New York State Assemblyman Bill Conrad. Conversations are underway to secure a stadium, and the ownership group is working to acquire further investment and sponsorship agreements.

“Buffalo is one of America’s great sports cities, and we would be excited to welcome Major League Rugby to our community,” Mayor Sean Ryan said. “I’m proud to support Joe DiPasquale and Mark Winokur’s efforts to bring an expansion team to Buffalo. This is an opportunity to build on our city’s proud sports tradition, introduce more people to rugby, and give our fans another team to rally behind.”

The letter of intent (LOI) signed by both parties is the first of three major steps in MLR’s expansion process. In the coming months, the Buffalo group must finalize its ownership group, provide proof of capitalization, demonstrate its expected fan engagement process, and show its preliminary business opportunity plans.

The league will determine whether those plans are acceptable by the end of April. If all goes well, the Thunderbolts and MLR will sign an exclusive negotiation agreement, giving the Buffalo group the rights to that territory (Western New York) for a specific period of time. After that, the Thunderbolts will submit a final bid to secure a franchise agreement.

Major League Rugby Co-President Alexander Magleby told RugbyPass that MLR hopes to announce two new franchises after the 2027 championship game. The league’s stated goal is to have eight teams going into the 2028 season and twelve by the time the 2031 Rugby World Cup in the US rolls around.

The LOI does not guarantee Buffalo will end up with an MLR franchise, but it is a major step in the right direction. It signals that both parties are willing to make their discussions public, which, of course, enables the Thunderbolts to appeal for public and private support.

Magleby said the league is “in discussion right now with 17 different [ownership] groups,” with some still going through the initial due diligence phase and others, like Buffalo, prepared to sign an LOI.

Given the various interested ownership groups, there will be plenty of competition for the two franchise expansion slots. The most competitive bids will ultimately be the winners, and that will depend on the economic and sporting value each bidder can bring to American rugby.

Still, both parties are excited about the prospect of a professional franchise coming to Western New York; after all, Buffalo is a mid-market city with a 60-year rugby union tradition and close ties to several universities and Toronto, Canada’s biggest metropolitan area.

DiPasquale, who describes himself as “a huge rugby fan,” acknowledges that there has been a gap in the regional market since Rugby United New York, Toronto Wolfpack, and the Arrows all folded. Appealing to a market that provides fervent support to its sports teams and recently introduced rugby into its middle school sports offerings makes perfect sense to DiPasquale.

“Number one is the rugby culture here,” said DiPasquale when asked about bringing a rugby team to Buffalo. “It’s amazing the support we’ve gotten across the board from the mayor, Assemblyman Conrad, and sponsors. That component alone makes this market wonderfully perfect for this.”

The Major League Rugby season takes place between the last weekend of March and late June, avoiding the NFL season completely and overlapping slightly with the NHL postseason. As DiPasquale puts it, “The rugby season falls perfectly. Unless the [Buffalo] Sabres make the playoffs, there’s nothing going on.”

“Rugby has been an instrumental part of my life since I was a very young man, when I played for SUNY Fredonia, and I later founded the Kenmore Rugby Club and coached kids in the sport for many years,” said New York State Assemblyman Bill Conrad, 140th District. “I love the game and what it did for my personal growth, my physical fitness and self-discipline, and my understanding of teamwork and leadership. I embrace any opportunity to introduce more of the world to the sport, and Buffalo offers an already strong base of rugby players, boosters, and fans. I couldn’t agree more that it’s a logical locale for an MLR expansion!”

While the goal is to solidify the franchise and draw in supporters from Western New York and Ontario, the prospective ownership group is realistic about their short-term ambitions. They are in “very serious meetings” for a venue that could hold up to 10,000 fans, although DiPasquale said they will be shooting for 3,000 to 5,000 fans to start.

“I believe that we (Buffalo) are also a leader in sports in the US,” said DiPasquale. “Buffalo could have an exponential impact on the league,” he added before likening the location and the new franchise to the historically great NFL city and franchise of Green Bay.