The Perth Rams Rugby Union Football Club has today confirmed that its bid to host the 2028 Bingham Cup and Amanda Mark Cup has officially advanced to the public voting stage with International Gay Rugby (IGR).
The Bingham Cup is the world’s largest and most significant inclusive rugby tournament, bringing together more than 50 teams and over 3,000 participants, based on the 2024 competition in Rome. The Amanda Mark Cup is the women’s and gender-diverse equivalent, held alongside the main tournament. If successful, Perth would host both events in April 2028, coinciding with the Perth Rams’ 10th anniversary year.
The bid is the product of a broad community effort. More than 40 inclusive sporting clubs operate across Perth, and organisations including Rugby Australia, Rugby WA, the City of Perth, Pride WA, Team Perth and the Western Australian Rugby Union Referees Association (WARURA) have formally endorsed the bid. All three levels of government have indicated their support for the proposal.
Perth Rams President and Tournament Director Andrew Ribeiro said the bid belonged to the entire Perth LGBTQIA+ community, not just the club.
“This bid is bigger than the Rams. It belongs to every inclusive sporting club in Perth, every volunteer, every ally, and every person who has helped build the community we have today,” Ribeiro said.
“When we hosted the Purchas Cup in 2023, it was not just the Rams who showed up. The whole community did. Clubs from across Perth came together to deliver something special. That is exactly the spirit we are bringing to this Bingham Cup bid.”
“Perth has spent years proving it can deliver on the world stage. The 2025 World Transplant Games, the 2027 Rugby World Cup and the Police and Fire Games, the 2028 World Masters Games, and now the 2030 Gay Games. But what makes this city genuinely different is not the infrastructure or the venues. It is the people. It is a community that shows up for each other, that welcomes everyone, and that has built something in Boorloo that the rest of the world deserves to experience.”
The proposed tournament would be centred on Langley Park on the Swan River foreshore, with venues, accommodation, ceremonies and social events all located within a compact two-kilometre radius of the Perth CBD. The opening ceremony would be held at Crown Perth, with the closing ceremony and afterparty at Metropolis Perth. The tournament is proposed for April 10 to 16, 2028, during Perth’s autumn shoulder season.
The bid places strong emphasis on cultural connection, acknowledging the Wadjuk Noongar people as the Traditional Custodians of the land on which the tournament would take place and recognising Boorloo’s significance as home to one of the oldest continuous living cultures on the planet.
IGR publicly announced all bids to its global membership this week, with a campaign and voting period running until July 7, 2026. IGR member clubs from around the world will vote to determine the host city.
The Perth Rams RUFC was founded in 2018 and is Perth’s inclusive rugby union club, providing a safe, welcoming and competitive environment for players of all backgrounds, identities and abilities. The club is a member of Team Perth, Western Australia’s peak body for LGBTQIA+ sport and recreation.
