Rugby: Top College Teams In Philly Showdown June 1, 2

Twenty of the nation’s foremost collegiate rugby teams will meet at PPL Park in Chester, PA, for the USA Sevens Collegiate Rugby Championship showdown on Saturday, June 1 and Sunday, June 2.

The Collegiate Rugby Championship is the premier college rugby tournament in the country, and serves as a national platform for America's future Olympians. Rugby Sevens will be an Olympic sport starting in 2016, and the current USA Rugby Sevens National team includes three full-time players who have competed in the CRC tournament within the past two years.

Tickets for the two-day event of action packed rugby, live entertainment, gourmet food, interactive games and activities are on sale exclusively through ComcastTIX. One-day and two-day passes, starting at $20, can be purchased online atComcastTIX.com, by phone at 1-800-298-4200 or in person at the PPL Park box office.

New for 2013 there will be six local colleges competing: Penn, Temple, Delaware, Penn State, St. Joe’s, and Kutztown. There will be plenty of rivalries as 14 out of state teams will also be in attendance: University of Arizona, University of California, UCLA, Dartmouth, University of Florida, Life University, North Carolina State, Notre Dame, University of Texas, Army, Navy, Virginia Tech, University of Wisconsin, and Northeastern University.

The tournament consists of 47 matches throughout the two day affair as the teams vie for the coveted Pete Dawkins trophy. Rugby Sevens features seven players per team playing on the same size pitch as a 15s match and offers non-stop action where speed, high scoring and athleticism dominate the competition. The format allows for constant entertainment with each match split into two seven-minute halves and a new high energy match starting about every 20 minutes.

USA Sevens LLC owns and operates America’s premier rugby event, the USA Sevens Rugby Tournament. Held annually, the event is one of the nine international stops in the HSBC Sevens World Series. With an attendance of over 50,000 during the two day event, it is the largest annual rugby event in North America and one of the fastest growing rugby events in the world. The CRC in Philadelphia is the largest domestic rugby event in the USA

Global Spectrum (global-spectrum.com) manages PPL Park, as well as more than 115 other public assembly facilities around the world. Based in Philadelphia, PA, Global Spectrum is part of Comcast-Spectacor, one of the world’s largest sports and entertainment companies. Comcast-Spectacor also owns the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League, Ovations Food Services, a food and beverage services provider, New Era Tickets, a full-service ticketing and marketing product for public assembly facilities, Paciolan, the leading provider of venue establishment ticketing, fundraising and marketing technology solutions, Front Row Marketing Services, a commercial rights sales company, and Flyers Skate Zone, a series of community ice skating rinks.