The 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens was awarded to the Bay Area on Wednesday, the first time the United States will play host to a major event in a game popular around the world.

The three-day tournament will consist of more than 100 games for 24 men’s teams and 16 women’s squads held at Avaya Stadium and AT&T Park. The Bay Area won the bid over Wales, where rugby is popular.

Rugby officials want to build their sport the way soccer has done by awarding the 1994 World Cup to the United States and 2010 tournament to South Africa.

“Hosting a Rugby World Cup is an important step forward and will bring high levels of visibility and interest for the game in the country,” USA Rugby chief Nigel Melville said in a statement.

Rugby will make its debut in Avaya Stadium on July 18 for the Pacific Nations Cup, which is a tournament featuring some teams headed to the World Cup in England this summer.

With Cal’s storied program, the Bay Area has become one of the country’s hotbeds for a sport that is a combination of soccer and American football. Todd Clever of San Jose is captain of the full U.S. team that qualified for the Rugby World Cup.

Sevens is a faster, abbreviated version of the game that has become so popular it will make its debut next year at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Olympic officials dropped regular rugby from its program after the 1924 Games, where the United States won the gold medal.

Instead of 15 players a side, the newer sport uses seven. And while rugby union matches lasts at least 80 minutes, the sevens version includes two seven-minute halves with a one-minute intermission.

“You play almost all day in a round robin,” Earthquakes president David Kaval said Wednesday. “It’s almost a festival environment for fans. It’s very well-suited for Avaya Stadium.”

World Rugby chairman Bernard Lapasset said in a statement sevens “continues to go from strength to strength, proving a hit with fans, broadcasters and sponsors around the globe.”

Rugby power New Zealand is the defending men’s and women’s sevens champions.

The World Cup will serve as a preview for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Contact Elliott Almond at 408-920-5865. Follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/elliottalmond.