METAIRIE, La. — Fans of the NOLA Gold have been waiting seven seasons for postseason play, and on Sunday, July 21, the wait is finally over.
Tickets for the team's first-ever playoff game are on sale as the Gold host the Chicago Hounds in the Major League Rugby Eastern Conference semifinal matchup.
"[The fans] deserve it, I think the city deserves it," first-year Gold head coach Cory Brown told WWL Louisiana. "They've put in a massive effort over the last seven years. The fan base is growing. The club is growing. The whole organization, Major League Rugby is growing. This is one step in that and so hopefully we get a huge crowd in for our playoff game at home on the 21st...it's going to be an exciting time for the city and everyone involved in rugby."
The Gold won seven of their last nine matches to finish 10-6 just one game behind the defending league champions, the New England Free Jacks (11-5), in the conference standings.
Despite narrowly dropping the season finale 27-24 to Old Glory in Washington, D.C., over the weekend, the Gold have their sights firmly set on hosting the franchise's first playoff game.
In fact, the playoff berth has been nearly a decade in the making for the Gold, an MLR original that began play on the West Bank at Archbishop Shaw before relocating to the Gold Mine on Airline, formerly Zephyr Stadium, in Metairie in 2020.
"There's been a lot of blood, sweat and tears over the last seven years – Shaw High School to here, the growth of it, the development along the way," Gold general manager Ryan Fitzgerald told WWL Louisiana after clinching last month. "Some tough losses, some unbelievable wins to come up just short a couple years by one point in the standings – not one time, but two.
"COVID-year we had a great team, but COVID knocked that out," he continued. "All of that to get right here."
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In two previous meetings with the Hounds (8-7-1) this season, the Gold split the series – losing 38-21 in New Orleans in April and winning 25-13 in Chicago in May.
Tickets for the game can be purchased online here.
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