The Chairman of Australian Rugby League has suggested that the next market to exploit is the English one and he has even suggested that a Super League match be taken to America.
The NRL launches their season with a doubleheader in Las Vegas as Manly Sea Eagles take on South Sydney Rabbitohs and Brisbane Broncos face Sydney Roosters.
It’s set to be a huge event at Las Vegas’ Allegient Stadium which is affectionately known as ‘The Death Star’ for its huge size and resemblance to the Star Wars space station.
Promotion for the game has been vast with Hollywood star and huge NRL fan Russell Crowe having voiced a number of adverts and educational videos surrounding the game as it is introduced to an American audience.
With the NRL taking the first steps into breaking America in 2024 it could well be Super League that follows on that path according to ARLC chairman Peter V’landys.
“The biggest travellers are English” – V’landys hints at Super League game abroad
With both the NRL launch and the World Club Challenge taking place within a fortnight of each other it’s meant that the NRL has fully immersed itself as a global entity.
That’s something that NRL CEO Andrew Abdo believes as he’s explained to NRL.com that expansion has to be “West, East and in the centre.”
Peter V’landys, chairman of Australian Rugby League has also highlighted that Super League could be key to cracking America given the huge travelling support among English fans.
Discussing taking a Women’s game to the USA, V’landys suggested Super League could head West as well, noting: “The other one that we’re going to look at is Super League itself, because our research has shown that the biggest travellers are English.
“To take a Super League game there, as well, would generate a lot more people coming from England to the US.”
He also emphasised how much emphasis the NRL are set to put on advertising themselves to UK fans, explaining that the NRL’s streaming service WatchNRL needs to be aggressively marketed in England.
“We already have Super League so you’ve got a ready-made market and again there’s hardly a subscription sold in England,” he said.
“We are going to attack that market as well and every dollar, because from an accounting point of view, it’s all addition. There’s no expense.
“It also gives us, in my view, a real niche when we go to do the next broadcasting rights because not only do you have the domestic, which is really not that big a market, but you’re gonna have international, which will be a much bigger market.”
