Las Vegas makes no secret of its ambitions to become a home for sports’ biggest events.
The past decade has brought the NFL, NHL and Formula One to a city once best known for boxing’s biggest nights. Soon enough, there will be an introduction to Major League Baseball, too. Wait a while longer and NBA and MLS franchises are expected to get the green light.
This weekend, though, a very different attraction comes to town. Four rugby league games will be played back-to-back at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium across Saturday, with the eight teams involved travelling from Australia, New Zealand and England to showcase their sport to an American audience.
Rugby league is attempting to think big, but can it ever hope to carve out its own little space in such a crowded market? The Athletic looks at the key questions before a landmark event.
With the NFL season over, can this be the next best thing?
On the same artificial turf that staged the 2024 Super Bowl and an uninspiring season for the Las Vegas Raiders, it will be rugby league attempting to demonstrate it can be an alternative to the traditional physical team sports of the U.S.
It’s a 13-man game, as opposed to the 15 of rugby union, played over two 40-minute halves and includes Hollywood A-lister Russell Crowe among its most famous fans. He even did a video explainer before last season’s Las Vegas event, outlining the rules to a new audience.
Four points for a try, two for a conversion or penalty and one for a drop goal. No pads and plenty of collisions as each team is given a set of six tackles to attack their opponent.
“When it’s played to its best, it’s a fierce, brutal, skilful contest that should be celebrated,” says Kris Radlinski, chief executive of Wigan Warriors, who will face Warrington Wolves at the Allegiant Stadium on Saturday.
Vegas and the U.S. will again get the chance to judge for themselves.
Why is rugby league being played in Las Vegas?
This is an expansion project belonging to Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) competition. Despite boasting a captive audience on home soil, with the 17-team league commanding huge domestic audiences akin to soccer in the UK, there have long been ambitions for international growth in a sport so often overshadowed by its close relation, rugby union.
Staging regular-season NRL games overseas became central to those plans, with America’s thirst for live sport making it a long-standing strategic target. Consideration was initially given to Los Angeles during the exploratory phases before NRL bosses eventually opted for the glitz of Las Vegas.
That saw two fixtures from the opening round of last season — the Manly Warringah Sea Eagles against the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Sydney Roosters versus the Brisbane Broncos — being played at the 65,000-capacity Allegiant Stadium, with an agreement struck for the NRL to return every year until at least 2028.
This, unashamedly, is the NRL’s latest attempt to crack America after a string of failed attempts within the wider game. A State of Origin game between sides representing New South Wales and Queensland was staged in Long Beach, California, as far back as 1987, before Australia’s national team narrowly beat the United States in a one-off Test match held in Philadelphia in 2004.
England won an international fixture against New Zealand played in Denver seven years ago, shortly before grand plans for the U.S. to host rugby league’s 2025 World Cup unravelled.
The NRL, though, expect its Vegas venture to bring long-term rewards by the end of a five-year commitment to playing games on American soil.
The participating clubs, who have spent up to 10 days in the Nevada sun, are effectively incorporating pre-season training camps into their U.S. trip.
Not that time away always goes smoothly. Just ask Canberra Raiders, who put two of their players, Hudson Young and Morgan Smithies, in front of the media this week to apologise for a “scuffle” involving an inflatable baseball bat that briefly led to their eviction from the team hotel. “I’m embarrassed for myself, our team-mates and the NRL,” a contrite Young told the media on Monday.
Raiders players Hudson Young and Morgan Smithies have spoken with media today in Las Vegas.#WeAreRaiders #NRLVegas pic.twitter.com/DJSHZTggMQ
— Canberra Raiders (@RaidersCanberra) February 24, 2025
How much of a success was last season?
The emphasis was placed upon 2024 being just the first step in an ambitious project, but there was enough encouragement to make the 2025 event bigger and bolder.
The two NRL games played back to back drew a crowd of 40,746 to the Allegiant Stadium, with figures published by the organisers saying that 25,000 of the tickets were purchased in the U.S. An average viewership of 61,000 watched the first of the two games on Fox Sports 1. That audience, the NRL said, was comparable to figures watching an MLS game on TV.
Las Vegas
March 2nd
The place to be !
NRL in the USA!! pic.twitter.com/V3Xr0srRFF
— Russell Crowe (@russellcrowe) February 20, 2024
The modest figures underline the capacity for growth in the U.S. but the Vegas games have become a hit in Australia. The Sydney Roosters against Brisbane Broncos fixture attracted the highest domestic viewing figures for a regular season NRL game in Australia, with the two matches bringing in a combined television reach of 4.11 million.
Four different teams will get the opportunity to follow last season’s lead this time around. It will be Canberra against New Zealand Warriors and reigning champions Penrith Panthers facing Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks, either side of Australia playing England in a women’s international test match.
And getting everything underway? That honour will go to Wigan and Warrington, two of the biggest rugby league clubs in England.
Why have English teams joined the programme?
Wigan and Warrington, two rivals split by about 13 miles in the north west, were among the envious onlookers when the NRL staged its first games in Vegas last March and soon after there was a request to join the fun. “I watched last year with amazement,” says Radlinski, who starred for Wigan between 1993 and 2006. “It looked like rugby league from a different planet.”
Radlinski wrote to the NRL to inquire about Super League, English rugby league’s top tier, adding one of its games to the roster and there was soon a willingness to let Wigan effectively stage one of its home games as part of the Vegas roadshow.
Wigan captain Liam Farrell, coach Matty Peet and star full-back Bevan French after their 2024 Grand Final win (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Warrington, coached by NRL and England legend Sam Burgess, became the obvious choice as dance partners and by last summer, it was confirmed that there was approval from all sides for a Super League game to be taken 5,000 miles away.
“The U.S. is huge and we’ve almost got no presence there,” says Radlinski, whose Wigan team, under coach Matty Peet, won an unprecedented quadruple to dominate English rugby league last season. “So it’s almost an untapped market.
“If you had to write down on a bit of a paper where you’d like to showcase it, Las Vegas would be up there. It’s a city built on entertainment and excitement and that’s what our sport is. You can see what they’re trying to achieve.
“I’m sick of seeing other sports growing at rapid rates and us remaining static. Not even static, revenues have been going down. I want us to get what we deserve.”
The presence of two well-supported English clubs has added another layer of interest, with the four games being played back-to-back expected to be watched by a crowd of close to 60,000.
3 Days to go 👀#SuperLeague pic.twitter.com/Sc9E3fvmo0
— Betfred Super League (@SuperLeague) February 26, 2025
Wigan’s Kruise Leeming and Warrington’s Matty Ashton attended the Las Vegas Grand Prix in November to drum up interest, while there will be supporter and corporate events in the run-up to Saturday’s games.
Radlinski is hopeful that a successful Vegas trip can lead to Super League following the NRL’s lead and increasing the number of games played in the U.S. from next year.
Where can the games be watched?
The full broadcast, likely spanning nine hours, will be shown by the traditional broadcast partners in the UK (Sky Sports) and Australia (Fox Sports), as well as the free-to-air Fox broadcast network in the U.S. Here’s the full schedule for Saturday:
Wigan Warriors vs Warrington Wolves, Super League (9.30pm GMT/1.30pm PT)
Canberra Raiders vs New Zealand Warriors, NRL (12am Sunday/4pm)
Australia vs England, women’s international (2am Sunday/6pm)
Penrith Panthers vs Cronulla Sharks, NRL (4.30am Sunday/8.30pm)
(Top photo: David Becker/Getty Images for NRL)
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The post Rugby league in Las Vegas: Brutal hits, no pads and inflatable baseball bat trouble first appeared on Rugby 247.
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Author : rugby-247
Publish date : 2025-02-27 06:29:11
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