Provided by The City of Glendale
Audio By Carbonatix
A new biennial international rugby competition will be tackling Denver on Saturday, July 4, but not at the stadium built specifically for rugby.
The World Rugby Nations Cup 2026 will be holding two matches — the United States against Portugal and Tonga against Zimbabwe — at DICK’S Sporting Goods Park in Commerce City on July 4, marking the first year of the new tournament. But the matches will not be held at Infinity Park in Glendale, the country’s first municipal rugby-specific stadium, built in 2007.
Why does Glendale have a rugby stadium?
Most professional rugby teams play at stadiums used for other sports (mostly soccer), such as DICK’S Sporting Goods Park. Infinity Park was built by the City of Glendale in 2007 for $22.5 million, making it the first rugby-specific stadium in the entire country. Only one other has been built since: SaberCats Stadium in Houston.
Infinity Park is home to three American amateur rugby union teams: the Glendale Merlins, the Glendale Lady Merlins and the Denver Barbarians. It also hosts various youth and high school teams and even holds the annual Colorado high school Rugby State Championships. It also holds the RugbyTown 7s tournament each year.
Colorado does not have a team on the small list of professional Major League Rugby teams, however.
Ultimately, Infinity Park was an idea that percolated out of the need for a civic center, with the city opting to transform the existing-but-tiny sports center in the area, according to Glendale City Manager Chuck Line.
Mayor Mike Dunafon, who was pro-tem at the time, had played rugby in the British Virgin Islands in the 1970s after a short stint with the Denver Broncos as a wide receiver. Dunafon played rugby until 1992 and then moved on to coaching, even taking the U.S. U-19 National Team on international tours to Australia, Trinidad and Chile.
“If you look around the metro area, there are already soccer, football, hockey and lacrosse stadiums. It was just one of the sports that didn’t exist. We wanted to have a focal point for the community,” Line says, adding that Glendale’s rugby stadium can host any other sport because it has the biggest pitch — but not the biggest seating capacity.
No World Rugby for Glendale
Infinity Park’s creation and early development led to USA Rugby, the national governing body for the sport in the U.S., establishing its headquarters in Glendale, with Infinity Park now its national training center. The stadium is also home to city events, including its annual Fourth of July fireworks show, scheduled for Thursday, July 2.
“Rugby has a lot to offer because there’s constant motion. There’s no stopping and starting. Coaches can yell from the sidelines, but you have to figure it out on your own. It’s great mental exercise and fitness for kids,” Line says.
But when World Rugby released its bid list for its 2026 tournament at the end of last year, Glendale officials knew Infinity Park couldn’t fit the event’s seating needs. Infinity Park holds around 3,800 people for sporting events, with the ability to add another thousand with temporary seating. World Rugby was looking for an arena that could seat around 20,000 people for the men’s events; DICK’S has around 18,000.
Glendale did bid on the international women’s games, which require less seating, according to Line, but it was beaten out by another city. Those games took place back in the spring in Chicago, Kansas City and Sacramento.
“When we see these, we don’t mind giving them a price where we’re not making much money, but not losing money,” Line says. “Unfortunately, the USA women’s bid got beaten.”
The stadium held an event for the U.S. team on June 28 and will hold the training session the day before the big game on July 3, though.
“We’ve done a lot for rugby,” Line says. “There is a certain point where getting in is just not worth it.”
Rugby descends on Denver
Although it’s not huge in the U.S., rugby is a massive sport worldwide… No, really. The World Rugby organization estimates that there are around 500 million fans and 8 million players across 134 national member federations, which are broken into six regional associations. (The sport is so big that World Rugby website has its own domain extension. It isn’t .com or .org, it’s World.Rugby.)
The Men’s Rugby World Cup runs every four years, similar to the FIFA World Cup, so World Rugby decided to run two biennial international tournaments between the Rugby World Cup and the British & Irish Lions tour, starting in 2026.
During the World Rugby Nations Cup, two different tournaments will play out side-by-side. The Nations Cup involves 12 lower-ranked countries, while the Nations Championship involves 12 higher-tier countries. Promotions and relegations will eventually be included after two iterations.
The U.S. team, currently ranked 16th in the world, is in the lower-tier Nations Cup, which will feature matches throughout the country, including one in Denver and two in North Carolina. Both of the North Carolina matches will be played in soccer stadiums, not rugby-specific stadiums. The Nations Championship, on the other hand, will take place among different countries in the world, ending in London in November.
