National Rugby League players Spencer Leniu (3rd L), Billy Walters (5th L), Aaron Woods (C) and Campbell Graham (3rd R) pose with Las Vegas showgirls, an Elvis impersonator and Fijian warriors. Photo: David Becker
The kick-off for the 2024 NRL Telstra Premiership season this weekend will mark a unique milestone in rugby league history. It'll see the opening two regular season games being played back-to-back on American soil for the first time ever, with the Roosters set to battle against the Broncos followed by the Sea Eagles going head-to-head against the Rabbitohs.
The opening doubleheader of the 2024 season takes place at the famous Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas, the recent host of the Super Bowl only a few weeks ago. In what's seen as a bold move by the administration of the game to expand outside of the Australasian market into the United States holding two games in a stadium with a seating capacity of 65,000 - could this pose as a giant risk getting bums into seats in games that would struggle to pull that sort of crowd on its own home turf?
Well, that's only one priority. The NRL's other main ambition is to get themselves into the illustrious Vegas sports betting landscape.
There has been a complicated relationship between sports betting and US law. In 2018, the Supreme Court overturned the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), allowing each state to enact and implement its own regulations pertaining to sports betting. That led to a flood of new options entering the country with their eyes on the world's capital of gambling: Las Vegas.
So, while the average punter might view the NRL taking these two games over to a foreign city in a country that clearly doesn't know the difference between union and league as a giant risk - there is that ulterior motive to grow the game and its profit margins overseas.
This is a potential massive market share to tap into, but it hasn't come without a few teething problems for the NRL. The US government is famously stringent around who they issue visas to, particularly when it comes to those who have drug or violence related offences in their past, which is a problem for some current players.
A meeting with the US Consulate in Sydney was required to request permission to enter the country for the likes of Broncos star fullback Reece Walsh, Kiwi and Roosters hooker Brandon Smith and Rabbitohs assistant coach John Sutton. In a fitting mix of NRL and Hollywood fashion, everything was right as rain at the end of the day.
Remarkably, this isn't the first time we've seen professional rugby league taken to the US. In 2018 England defeated the Kiwis 36-18 at Mile High Stadium in Denver, watched by a crowd of 19,320, It was a match that was supposed to serve as a showcase for the US hosting the 2025 League World Cup, but unpaid promoters' fees resulted in subsequent matches being scrapped and the idea of hosting a tournament there being put on ice indefinitely.
Willie Mason #8 of the Philips Kangaroos scores a try as Matt Petersen #6 of the USA Tomahawks tackles during the Liberty Bell Cup at Franklin Field on November 30, 2004. Photo: Jamie Squire
Before this we saw another international match in 2004 at Franklin Field in Philadelphia, only 4500 spectators witnessed what would have been a supremely embarrassing moment for the Kangaroos. They found themselves down 24-6 against the USA Tomahawks before winning 36-24 thanks to a Matt Bowen hat-trick.
A bizarre State of Origin exhibition match was played on American soil when a fourth game of the 1987 series was agreed to be played in Long Beach, California. Although the match did not count towards the series, it was nevertheless included in the player appearance and record calculations and maintained its status as a State of Origin match. It was hailed as a historic moment for the sport and a chance for rugby league to establish itself in the US.
Although it was a daring attempt, the game eventually had little effect on American sports culture. There wasn't much coverage of the game in the media, and there were disagreements on the attendance figures - some estimates placed it at 7000 or less with a large number of tickets distributed to the public for free.