Still recovering weeks later, The Leaguie gives an exclusive on Las Vegas’ reaction to the NRL and how to improve the concept in coming years.
Despite the weeks of anticipation and constant media buildup to the NRL’s season opener in Vegas, I’m not sure I’ll ever find words to describe the feeling of walking into Excalibur Hotel & Casino and seeing a Newtown Jets jersey.
The iconic sponsor ‘Paramount’ was written on the front of the shirt – and I thought was it a fitting way of describing the event as a whole. For one evening in the party capital of the world, our little game of rugby league was exactly that – Paramount.
This sport that only holds popularity on the east coast of Australia, New Zealand, and a tiny corridor of the UK had written its name up in the lights of Allegiant Stadium – the second most expensive venue mankind has ever built.
A 40,000-strong crowd beared the intense winds on the night of the game to go watch our boys play. Most were tourists like myself who’d come for the occasion. But make no mistake – a substantial proportion weren’t. On that Saturday evening, the NRL was ‘the thing to do’ if you were in Vegas, and I can’t imagine a single American having left the stadium dissatisfied with the show they saw.
Proudly parading my Roosters jacket around the Las Vegas strip after the game, loud Aussie footy banter was in no short supply. But what caught me off-guard when walking past the Bellagio was a man who looked at my jacket and in a thick American accent said:
“YEAH MAN! GO THE ROOSTERS!”
Embed from Getty ImagesThere were so many Australians crowding the strip that even the most indifferent American would’ve at least had to stop and ask ‘Why?’
They would’ve at least had to Google what was going on, which leads to this person who’s never heard of league before suddenly looking at James Tedesco, Latrell Mitchell, Tom Trbojevic, and Reece Walsh.
Embed from Getty ImagesVegas fell in love with us for a night, and I’ve got no doubt they’ll fall for us again in 12 months’ time. But if this truly is an attempt to expand the sport into the USA, an annual event on its own simply isn’t enough to capture the minds of the American sports market.
The key is securing a slot on American TV every week. Considering the time difference, we don’t clash with any live domestic American sports. Get some consistent eyes on the game to give us a foundation that the Vegas games can build upon.
Peter V’landys spoke before the game and said that the main metric he was focusing on was the television numbers – how many Americans tuned in beyond Vegas. Those numbers weren’t amazing but it’s important to put them into context. This is our very first time trying this – trying to break into a market captured by the NFL, NBA, MLB and more.
This won’t come easy, and it’ll only work at all if we take it seriously. But if one night is enough to make a random Vegas man scream “YEAH MAN! GO THE ROOSTERS!”, imagine the potential of five years?
Embed from Getty Images-The Leaguie
