Las Vegas trip more than a safe bet for Super League rugby
This weekend the Super League makes its debut stateside, with a regular season fixture between Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves taking place at the Allegiant Stadium on Saturday. Like many sports before it, the move is designed to showcase the game on the global stage as part of its long-term growth into new markets.
And while an estimated 10,000 Super League fans have crossed the Atlantic to see the spectacle live, it’s really at home where people are taking notice. The fixture is getting significantly more press coverage than ever before and the sentiment is largely very good.
This is interesting in itself. Typically, sports leaving their home towns during the season causes consternation amongst fans, and with good reason. In its simplest terms, it’s robbing fans of a major moment in their season calendar, unless you’re one of the few people with the means to book a last-minute flight to Las Vegas.
Moreover, it creates uncertainty about where their beloved sport might end up in the future. How many more in-season fixtures will be taken away from the fans at home? Is this the end of Rugby League – a sport steeped in tradition – as we know it?
Super League narrative
But this narrative doesn’t seem to be playing out at all. In fact, it’s quite the opposite. It has elevated the Super League into the spotlight and everyone seems genuinely excited. Radio stations this week have featured it, and the coverage is glowing. The story feels progressive. If the NFL can play in-season fixtures in England, why can’t the Super League do it Vegas?
In the same stadium, no less, where Usher performed a half-time show at the Superbowl in 2024, and where WrestleMania will take place in April this year. If nothing else, going stateside puts the Super League in the same conversation as the big boys, who are all full steam ahead with their own plans for global domination. This fixture – and the sport – feels bigger than ever before.
And as we edge closer to kick-off, the anticipation feels more like a boxing match than a rugby league fixture – an ironic coincidence perhaps, in the wake of Chris Eubank Jr’s egging of Conor Benn on Tuesday. Sam Burgess has made a late arrival following last-minute visa issues. A couple of Wigan fans who have been engaged for six years are using the occasion to finally tie the knot -when in Vegas…
Warrington chief Karl Fitzpatrick has said himself that this isn’t about cracking the American market. Recruiting more American fans is just a bi-product. This is about driving engagement back home. Today he said: “When the NRL came out last year, they spoke about the ‘halo effect’ afterwards in Australia. Crowds were up, digital engagement is up and it’s been the same in Super League in our opening two rounds.”
Regardless of the result on Saturday, the American dream feels like more than a safe bet for the Super League.