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BURNABY, B.C. - The rise in popularity of rugby sevens has created a problem that organizers of a Canadian tournament are only too happy to deal with.

The Vancouver International Rugby Sevens Serevi invitational tournament will be moved to Burnaby, B.C., next summer after three straight years in Abbotsford, B.C. Organizers said the move will allow them to accommodate more fans and help them raise the event's profile.

The sport has seen a significant uptick in interest since it was added to the program for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
In 2009, the tournament attracted two international men's teams and about 600 fans to Abbotsford, about an hour's drive from Vancouver. Six international men's teams competed last year and over 3,000 fans turned out.

"We wanted to grow the event,'' tournament president Douglas Okero said Tuesday at a news conference. "It has its challenges. We've had to overcome some of the challenges. When you grow too fast, too quickly, you sometimes get a little ahead of the program you had originally set."

Besides the international teams, the 2012 event will also feature elite men's and women's teams made up from local clubs, plus a youth division. The 32-team tournament, which includes 16 international men's sides, will be held July 21-22.
The plan is to play the tournament at the 5,200-seat Swangard Stadium just outside of Vancouver. Okero is still in the process of finalizing which countries will participate.

"We are looking at growing the tournament to include some other teams we haven't been able to get in previous years," he said.

Countries that have shown an interest in sending teams include Samoa, Fiji, Uruguay, Kenya, Cayman Island, Netherlands, USA and Tonga.

The International Rugby Board currently sanctions nine major sevens tournaments, with events being held in Hong Kong, Australia, Dubai and the United States. There is talk of expanding the series to 12 tournaments.

"The bigger goal is to have this as one of the key sanctioned events with the IRB and then possibly the Olympics,'' Okero said.

On a national basis, there are plans to develop a series of sevens tournaments across Canada. The B.C. tournament received a boost this year through the involvement of Waisale Serevi, acknowledged as one of the best sevens players of all time.

Serevi is now a coach. His company Serevi Rugby, located in Seattle, is focused on growing and promoting rugby. During the B.C. tournament there will be youth clinics and training sessions.

Serevi, who was born in Fiji, was scheduled to attend the news conference but could not attend due to a family medical emergency, organizers said.

"With him on board hopefully we can get certain countries that in the past either overlooked us or, because we were still a small event, went to a bigger event," Okero said.

"We are hoping he will be able to get us the visibility internationally to help to get those teams to come to Burnaby."
Okero believes the tournament has the potential to grow into a major international event.

"We all have dreams," he said with a smile. "We hope one day we will be able to attract 80,000 people. That's the number Hong Kong attracts every year.

"It's going to take us a few years to get there."