The Utah Warriors have suspended club operations.
Warriors co-founder and CEO Kimball Kjar announced the news in a letter to fans Tuesday.
Kjar first thanked fans for their support of Utah’s professional rugby team over the last eight seasons.
“Your smiles, your cheers, your laughter and above all, your love for this team and this sport have left an indelible impression on everyone who has worn the four stripes,” he said.
The 2025 campaign marked the Utah Warriors’ best season. The team secured the No. 1 seed in its conference, won its first playoff game and made its first semifinal appearance.
The Warriors are working with SeatGeek to refund season ticket holders and hope to have the refunds issued to fans’ cards within a week.
Why the Utah Warriors are suspending operations
With the loss of the Utah Warriors, Major League Rugby is now down to six clubs.
This offseason, Major League Rugby also lost the New Orleans Gold, Miami Sharks and Houston SaberCats, and the San Diego Legion and Rugby Football Club Los Angeles merged into one club.
In his letter to fans, Kjar said the Warriors had been “committed and on track to participate in the 2026 Major League Rugby season,” but “things changed quickly in the past week.”
Kjar told the Deseret News on Tuesday that a European-based ownership group was in talks to purchase the Warriors. The group had previously purchased another rugby club.
The other club experienced “some headwinds from within their ecosystem, from the rugby community where this other club was,” according to Kjar.
“When it became apparent that it was going to be hard to continue with that other club, they began to go through a process of reconsidering as to whether or not they saw the Utah Warriors as a standalone opportunity for their company and their group,” he said.
The group ultimately pulled out at the “11th hour.”
“We were up against some really tight deadlines, and needed to make a decision yesterday as to whether or not we would continue on or not,” Kjar said.
They tried “doing everything that we possibly could to try to keep the Warriors alive,” according to Kjar, including looking for new ownership groups. But “without seeing any sort of light at the end of the tunnel,” the Warriors had to shut down.
On Monday, the league, Warriors staff and players were informed that the team would cease operations.
Kjar described the moment he told the players as “very, very difficult.”
“Those are people that you consider your brothers, your family, your closest associates, but they commit to the team and to Major League rugby. It’s not something that any of them are getting rich doing. This is still very much a passion project for everyone. They’re sacrificing in a lot of ways to be a part of Major League Rugby,” he said.
Warriors players will now enter Major League Rugby’s pool of available players.
Wayne Tarawhiti, the team’s director of rugby, will also help players transition to other rugby opportunities or jobs outside of the sport, according to Kjar.
The state of professional rugby in Utah
In his letter, Kjar told fans the team will announce in the near future, “how you can support the incredible rugby community.”
Some of those opportunities will be through supporting youth and high school rugby initiatives that the Warriors will hand off to partners in the community, Kjar told the Deseret News.
Kjar called rugby “Utah’s most successful sport that no one’s heard about.”
“Rugby is a part of our DNA. It’s a part of our community. Professional rugby will be in Utah in some way, shape or form in the years to come, and when it does come back, I’m excited to be there to cheer on that new group,” he said.
Kjar said he will work to continue to bring more World Rugby events to Utah in the future.
“Utah deserves to have the highest level of professional and international rugby coming to the state,” he said.