Colorado Raptors Rugby (previously Glendale Raptors R.F.C. until November 2019[2]) was a professional rugby union team based in Glendale, Colorado, an enclave of Denver.[1][3] The team was a founding member of Major League Rugby,[4] but after competing in the first three seasons announced its withdrawal from the league following the shortened 2020 competition.[5]
On April 9, 2020, the Raptors announced that they would withdraw from Major League Rugby, effective May 2, 2020,[8] the first team to do so. Their announcement explained their withdrawal by saying that "our greater responsibility lies in the development of American players who can win the World Cup for the United States."[8] Asked to explain how withdrawing from the league would help to develop American rugby players, the Raptors referred the question to Glendale City Manager Linda Cassaday, who said on April 10, 2020, that MLR had been founded with a core mission of developing American rugby players and originally had limited teams to three foreign players, although this expanded to five players before the first season began in 2018.[8] MLR had expanded from seven teams in 2018 to 12 in 2020 without having enough American players to fill out rosters and had raised the ceiling on foreign players to 10 per team.[8] The Raptors believed that both this overall number of foreign players and the higher proportion of foreign to American players no longer best served the goal of developing American players who could compete successfully in the Rugby World Cup, and therefore chose to withdraw from the league to better focus their efforts on the development of American players who could compete on an international stage.[8]
On March 12, 2020, MLR announced the season would go on hiatus immediately for 30 days due to fears surrounding the 2019–2020 coronavirus pandemic.[14] It was cancelled the following week[15]
