It's become an annual ritual with the Club 7s National Championships but a few teams have already indicated they won't travel to Seattle. Two of the top teams in the Northeast--the Boston Belles and Beantown--have suggested that they won't be going due to cost. It should be stressed that nothing is final until teams inform U.S.A. Rugby of their decisions but if I team indicates early that costs might be a problem it usual means they either don't end up going or go with a weakened side.
On the men's side a few of the Northeast teams are wavering. However, Old Blue, which will almost certainly have men's and women's teams will probably be going. Some of the men's teams on the fence are in contention for a spot in nationals.
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Some clubs are estimating the cost of traveling to Seattle at a minimum of $17,000. Add in that a lot of the teams on the fence might not know if they qualify until just a few weeks before the tournament and that price will go up.
As mentioned, having teams drop out due to travel concerns is nothing new. Finding a middle ground is hard. Teams on the West Coast would likely have been faced with the same financial strain if the competition had been held on the East Coast. Hawaii sends a team every year and for them traveling to Seattle is a direct flight where as going to the East Coast may mean a much more expensive ticket.
Still, it's difficult to see teams drop out. All indications are that the tournament in Seattle is going to be fantastic. The venue is good and Serevi Rugby have proven that they can put on great events. As we've written before this is Seattle's opportunity to show that they can host a major event. Even some of the teams that have expensive travel don't doubt it's going to be a solid event, it's just the reality of rugby in America right now that some clubs are too strained financially. The only options to fixing the problem are to have Club 7s Nationals in one centralized location every year or to have them later in the season a month or so after teams qualify. Neither of those are palatable solutions at this point.