On Sunday the National Rugby League goes to Vegas. It might just hit the jackpot
- Written by Jason Doyle, Senior Lecturer in Sport Management, Griffith University
Australia’s National Rugby League will launch its 2024 season in Las Vegas[1] this weekend, in the boldest attempt yet to capture the hearts and wallets of Americans.
It’s been tried before.
In the 1930s, legendary League administrator Harry Sunderland took the game to France and offered to take it to the United States[2] as manager of the 1929–30 Kangaroos.
He told the San Francisco Examiner the team was “willing to line up, with eleven men, against a regular American football team, and to see what would happen”.
Later, in 1954, Australia and New Zealand played exhibition matches in Long Beach and Los Angeles on the US west coast. Only 1,000 people turned up at Long Beach and 4,554 at Los Angeles.
Russell Crowe explains the rules and laws of rugby league, 2024.Australia did better at Long Beach in 1987, putting on a State of Origin[3] match between New South Wales and Queensland in front of 12,349 fans.
Film star Russell Crowe tried again in 2008, staging an exhibition match[4] between the South Sydney Rabbitohs and UK Super League champions Leeds in Florida, attended by 12,500.
Will Rugby League Commissioner Peter V’landys be able to succeed this time, in a nation where his predecessors have failed to make much headway?
I think the odds are good. This is why.
No helmets, no pads, no timeouts
The potential reach of the NRL, promoted as football with “no helmets, no pads, no timeouts[5]”, is vast, extending to the 309 million Americans who own a smartphone rather than the few thousand who might turn up.
And after the H-shaped posts leave Allegiant Stadium and the NRL’s branding is taken down from New York’s Times Square, the league’s presence will continue.
It has reportedly committed to five years[6] of season openers in Las Vegas.
During those five years the NRL will attempt to build and sustain familiarity with the US public, as well as scout out US athletes about making the switch[7] to rugby league.
There are 520,000[8] student-athletes in the US, many of whom are trying to get into the US National Football League. But the NFL can only accommodate 1,696 active players.
V’landys has turned the game around
During COVID lockdowns three years ago, the NRL was “three to four months[9]” from being insolvent, according to V’landys.
He and chief executive Andrew Abdo say the league is now in the best financial position it has ever been in.
Its 2023 annual report outlines key reasons why[10]:
9% growth in grassroots participation in schools and clubs
40% growth in video views on YouTube
ten clubs vying for the women’s championship in a final watched by more than a million viewers
expanding representation in the men’s game with the admission of the Dolphins
Clearly, the NRL do not think their work is done.
This time it might work
Sports research has mapped the processes[11] that create fans for a sport.
The first pivotal step is awareness. Potential fans need to know about the sport in order to sign up. That’s the objective of the Las Vegas round and the advertising in Times Square.
The second is something that allows them to like and then identify with it. The advertisements point out rugby league’s similarities to the NFL, saying it’s “football, but not as you know it”, while at the same time emphasising the crucial and hopefully enticing differences.
