On Saturday, two NRL fixtures – Canberra versus New Zealand Warriors and Penrith versus Canterbury – plus the first Super League game played in North America between Wigan and Warrington, as well as a women’s Test, will be played in front of over 50,000 supporters – many of them existing rugby league fans, but some of them new.
This is only year two of a five-year arrangement to take games to Las Vegas and with almost 10,000 Super League fans crossing the Atlantic this weekend, it seems certain that they will be invited back to the party next year, with clubs already queuing up to follow in Wigan and Warrington’s footsteps.
It is rare for Super League and the NRL to work hand-in-hand like this, but there is a shared goal of collectively cracking the US sports market and exposing rugby league to the masses worldwide.
It started with a speculative email sent late at night almost a year ago but on Saturday evening, Kris Radlinski’s vision for Super League will become a reality live and in living colour in the bright lights of Las Vegas.
Super League has tried to widen its net before, taking league fixtures to Camp Nou, Wollongong and even pushing the North American narrative with Canadian franchise Toronto Wolfpack.
