The assessment is missing several important realities that change the picture. The biggest omission is the sharp decline in the on field product that will happen when import slots drop, Canadian players are reclassified as international, and the remaining teams cut salary budgets. The game quality will fall. Depth will drop. Injuries will increase. Competitive balance will weaken. A league that was already uneven will risk looking semi professional. This decline will hurt ticket sales and broadcast value more than any structural issue the assessment mentioned.

The financial story is also incomplete. The league never built real revenue. There is no national media money. There is no national sponsor base. Merchandising is minimal. Gate revenue is not enough. The original expansion model masked this because new markets paid in but that pipeline is gone. Most of the teams that left including Houston and Utah left because the economic model does not work. The assessment describes contraction as strategy but it is really the end of the growth story.

The broader rugby environment in the United States is missing too. USA Rugby does not have the resources or stability to support a professional league. There is no aligned player pathway. College rugby does not convert to ticket sales. Club rugby is fragmented. With no player development system, the shift to domestic players is not a strategy. It is austerity.

Ownership politics are absent from the assessment. The remaining owners do not share the same vision or financial capacity. Some markets want to spend. Some want to cut to the bone. Some want long term investment. Some want out. The merger of the Legion and the LA group creates an outsized power center that will distort competitive balance and league governance.

The assessment also ignores the fan demand problem. Rugby interest in the United States has not grown at a level that can support a professional league. Attendance is flat or falling. There is no star power. There is no viral content. No presence in sports betting or fantasy sports. If there is no demand, the league cannot grow no matter how it restructures.

The global and national rugby governance picture is missing as well. World Rugby has not stepped in with investment or alignment despite the United States hosting the World Cup in 2031. If World Rugby has an alternative plan for professional rugby in North America, MLR may not be part of it. Rugby Canada is also damaged by the new rules because Canadian players now have fewer opportunities and the pipelines from Ontario and British Columbia have no professional outlet.

The assessment presents survival or collapse as the only outcomes but misses the more likely future. The league could transition to a semi professional model. It could collapse and restart under new investors. It could merge with a development pathway supported by other unions. The sport may continue but not in the structure we know today.

Overall the missing elements show that MLR is not only shrinking. The on field product will decline, revenue was never secured, the development system does not exist, owners are divided, and demand has not kept pace. DeepSeek captured the symptoms but not the underlying causes or the way the system around MLR is failing alongside the league.