LAS VEGAS — The past week has been a remarkable rugby league takeover of Sin City.
Fans from across the globe passing Steeden balls along the Strip, supporters dressed in Wigan, Warrington, Hull FC, even London Broncos shirts, drinking in bars and gambling in the casinos having the time of their lives, like some rugby-themed Hangover film.
It was a party in the world’s entertainment capital that the sport has never seen before; bigger and better than in 2024 when just four clubs from Australia’s NRL hit Vegas.
This year Warrington and Wigan crashed the party, and a women’s Test match between England and Australia was added to the bill, along with four different NRL teams, pushing the attendance from 40,746 12 months ago to 45,209 this year.
This is just year two of the NRL’s five-year masterplan taking its opening round to Vegas.
The halo effect in 2024 was impressive, with the two games drawing the biggest-ever TV audience in Australia and garnering massive publicity and attention.
But 2025 has been arguably more impressive, with free-to-air television coverage in the United States secured this time round and increases in attendance, headlines and media interest.
Sources have told The i Paper how impressed NRL powerbrokers have been with Super League and RFL involvement, and how adding a British flavour to the event has helped it flourish even more.
The colour, the singing English fans, the beating drums and flag waving of UK sporting culture is resoundingly different to what exists down under.
And this year NRL officials have realised that opening it up to the motherland, instead of restricting it only to Antipodean involvement, can only be beneficial.
Wigan and Warrington have done everything in their power to make Vegas a success, promoting it like no other Super League game in the competition’s 30-year history and giving rare access to journalists, such as rides on the team bus to Fremont Street and entry into dressing rooms on matchday.
Sky Sports have backed it fully, pumping in resources like never before and even bringing legendary announcer Michael Buffer to promote the season opener. Super League grand final week or Challenge Cup final day has nothing on Vegas.
The event in Nevada has captured the hearts of minds of rugby league lovers across the UK, but also caught the attention of the wider British public.
The sport has been on television news, radio bulletins and in print at a scale not seen in decades. Even the New York Times have been engaged, although invitee Donald Trump didn’t attend.
The RFL is also now acutely aware of what pairing up with the NRL, and also heading to America, can bring. Already expressions of interest have been sent out to the other 10 Super League clubs, with five believed to be keen on playing at Allegiant Stadium in 2026.
“We are definitely interested and have informed Super League,” Paul Lakin, chief executive of Hull KR, told The i Paper. “That said, we’ve got to understand all the figures when Wigan and Warrington return to be able to make an informed decision.”
It is believed the Robins, along with Leeds, Hull FC, St Helens and Leigh are the English clubs most open to a trip Stateside. But it certainly won’t come cheap, with one club having to give up a home game and the guaranteed income that comes with it. No one will state how much this fixture has cost the Warriors and Wolves, but it is expected to be approaching £100,000.
The benefits, the exposure, the supporter goodwill and the sponsor interest that this Las Vegas event has created, however, cannot be underestimated. The feel-good factor is palpable with “FOMO” felt across the sport.
Arguably for the first time since 1996, when Super League was born, rugby league has never been more relevant in Blighty.
Let’s be clear – the 13-man code isn’t going to crack America – that is a pipedream. Rugby union has failed to do that after hundreds of millions of pounds and several decades.
It took football more than 40 years, countless cash and a celebrity like David Beckham to become somewhat popular in the United States. Rugby league doesn’t have the funds or the stars to emulate football, even with fans like Russell Crowe and Stuart Pearce in tow.
But what going to Las Vegas can do is rejuvenate Super League and make it more appealing. It can excite a stagnant fanbase and disinterested national media. It can make the sport look and feel bigger than most think possible.
It can get the NRL properly involved in the northern hemisphere and help its English cousin battle against rugby union, cricket, darts, boxing and rival codes. It can give Super League a leg up at time when the competition in the UK is in dire need. It can bring priceless hope and joy at a time when it is in short supply.
Behind the scenes rugby league in England is on the brink of civil war. The clubs are unhappy with the RFL and want more power. They are trying to force out RFL chairman Simon Johnson and director Sandy Lindsay, and install controversial former RFL chief executive Nigel Wood as they look to restructure the sport.
At the same time, questions are seriously being asked about IMG, the RFL’s strategic partner. The governing body has been in bed with the marketing company for nearly three years now, but change has been minimal and disquiet is growing. Vegas has demonstrated that Super League should be hooking up with the NRL, and perhaps not IMG.
At full-time at Allegiant Stadium on Saturday it was Wigan supporters taunting a dejected Warrington fanbase, and England’s women broken after annihilation by the Jillaroos. But in professional sport it is often what goes on off the field, not what happens on it, that really dictates the landscape.
The “American Dream” is the idea that every person has the freedom and opportunity to succeed and attain a better life in the United States. Rugby league’s own slice of that ethos would be becoming more relevant and important in its birthplace by continuing to step across the pond.
The blueprint is there in Sin City. A marker has been put down. Now UK rugby league has to run with it.
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