Lauren Dmytrenko

As one of the world’s largest non-professional international rugby tournaments, the Bingham Cup Sydney 2014 is expected to attract over 25 competitive teams and thousands of players, supporters and visitors to Sydney. The tournament seeks to dispel stereotypes of gay men, counter homophobia in sport, and encourage the participation of gay men and women in competitive rugby.

Australia’s first and most successful gay rugby team, the Sydney Convicts, will host the tournament, which is also sanctioned and supported by the International Gay Rugby Board, the Australian Rugby Union and NSW Rugby Union. The festival will commence on Sunday 24 August, and the tournament will officially run from Thursday 28 August to Sunday 31 August.



The Bingham Cup is named in honour of Mark Bingham, a great rugby player and a great guy. He was fundamental in the establishment of two premier gay rugby clubs – the San Francisco Fog and the Gotham Knights and was a former University of California, Berkeley rugby star. A few months later after the Fog was admitted to the Northern Californian Football Union, Bingham died in the September 11 attacks on board United Airlines Flight 93. He was one of a group of passengers who took amazing measures to attack the hijackers, which eventually led to them crashing the plane into a vacant field in Pennsylvania instead of its expected targets of Washington, D.C.

At the time of Mark Bingham’s tragic death, only six gay and inclusive rugby clubs existed worldwide. Two of those were co-founded by Mark. Today there are almost 60 clubs. The Bingham Cup is the global event that promotes rugby union as an inclusive non-discriminatory sport and your support will help us in not only running an outstanding rugby tournament, but also in working to combat homophobia in support. This includes working with all the professional codes in Australia on Inclusion Policies to be launched by August 2014 and conducting international research on the issue of homophobia in sport.

The Bingham Cup is being organized by a group of volunteers, many of whom are members of the Sydney Convicts. The tournament itself is completely dependant on government grants, corporate sponsorship and personal donations in order to fund the coordination of the tournament and key events in the lead-up.

Funds raised for the Bingham Cup will go towards:
• Operations and facilities for the Bingham Cup tournament based in Sydney
• Funding of events in the lead-up to the Bingham Cup which facilitate promoting our key diversity and inclusion messages
• Promote Sydney as a destination in order to attract a significant number of overseas teams

Your funds will help create an environment in which the visitors and participants in the Bingham Cup will enjoy a safe and inspiring experience.

Our donation tiers are as follows:
• Bingham 15 - Limited to 15 donors only - Donations of $5,000 AUD or more
• Bingham Backers - Unlimited - Donations of $1,000 AUD or more
• Bingham Cheerleaders - Unlimited - Donations over $50 AUD

For more information on the Bingham 15 and Bingham Backers tiers, please email [email protected]

This is the first time that the Bingham Cup is being played outside of North America or Europe. As a result, this tournament is requiring a significant amount of travel and funding for our international teams. As they will bring a significant amount of income into the Sydney market, funding is necessary to provide for a safe and enjoyable tournament.

Additional funds will allow us to promote more of the key messages to the Australian public around diversity and inclusion. We are undertaking some international research into the issues of homophobia in sport, and further funding will allow us to extend the international reach of the research results to raise awareness around this important issue.