Vegas Confidential: NRL targeted Hollywood before settling on Las Vegas spectacular
The NRL has taken over Las Vegas — but it could have been Hollywood. Peter V’landys reveals how the league had originally set its sights on a Los Angeles spectacular.
Australian rugby league returns to the United States with the NRL's season-opening double header in Las Vegas. But can the sport finally crack the lucrative American market?
ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys has revealed how close the NRL came to launching their American extravaganza in the movie capital of the world — Hollywood.
As the code prepares to celebrate a landmark moment in Las Vegas, V’landys says he had plans to unveil ‘NRL Hollywood’ by staging a double header in the heart of Los Angeles.
But after high-level talks with American broadcasters and political heavy-hitters, the ARLC chair was warned attempting to kick-off the 2024 NRL season in the shadows of Hollywood would be a big-money flop.
The market feedback from US authorities convinced V’landys to explore a shift in location, with NRL CEO Andrew Abdo playing a key role in rugby league’s switch from the movie capital to America’s gaming Mecca.
The Roosters-Broncos and Souths-Manly double header at Allegiant Stadium will represent a seminal moment for the sport, but V’landys admits the NRL almost bypassed Vegas for a slice of Hollywood.
“The truth is our heart was set on Los Angeles,” V’landys said ahead of the blockbuster double header on Sunday.
“The NRL has been looking to go to the US for quite some time.
“We were going to go to Los Angeles, that was the real plan.
“We also looked at San Diego or San Jose as alternative venues.
“It wasn’t just the last few years we thought about this concept, but we had to make sure that when we went to America, we had to get it right.
“If we had gone to LA or Hollywood, if I’m honest, I think we would have had no chance (of success).”
Peter V’landys has revealed how the NRL set its sights on Hollywood.
Peter V’landys has revealed how the NRL set its sights on Hollywood.
The Broncos spent a week in Los Angeles training at the LA Rams’ facility prior to their arrival in Vegas on Friday and a major attraction of LA for the NRL was the world-class facilities at SoFi Stadium.
The $5 billion monolith is one of the greatest sporting stadiums in the world and would have been the perfect playground for the NRL’s glitz-and-glamour American experiment.
But V’landys said high-powered negotiations with American media executives steered the NRL towards Sin City.
“The executive said if you don’t pick the right city, you will fail,” V’landys recalled.
“We consulted a number of people and the basic message was, ‘You are wasting your time in a place like Los Angeles because you can get lost in those big cities’.
“One Fox Sports executive said, ‘It won’t work in LA, you need to find somewhere else. Do not do this in Los Angeles’.
“We went through a list of possible locations and as soon as Andrew Abdo said to me one area suggested was Las Vegas, it went off in my mind.
“It was like bang, bang, bang, it had to be Vegas.
“I don’t know why it didn’t come to my head earlier, but when Vegas was mentioned, it was the perfect match.”
V’landys roll of the dice appears to be paying dividends. Almost 40,000 tickets have been sold to the 65,000-capacity Allegiant Stadium and more than 14,000 Australian residents are flying to Vegas for the first instalment of a five-year strategic plan to establish a foothold in America.
In another coup, the NRL double header will be shown live via Fox Sports 1 — the first time ever a rugby league premiership match has been screened prime time to American audiences.
“The Fox executives are right behind the live TV coverage,” V’landys said.
“They have been a fantastic partner and without them we are wasting our time here. Fox is critical to the success of this.
“We would be wasting our time if we weren’t on Fox 1. You can’t just play to people in Las Vegas, you want to play to all of America.
“Vegas is the Mecca. We’re also lucky the Super Bowl was played at this venue just a few weeks earlier.
“We have to stay in prime time on American television, we can’t just be there for one week, we want to be there for the whole season if we can.
“We will speak to Fox after this event and see what was successful and what wasn’t, but I am confident we will have live coverage for many years to come.
“I believe we have the greatest game of all and once Americans understand the rules, they will start to embrace it and enjoy it.”
POLICE ‘MANHUNT’ FOR JOHNATHON THURSTON
Johnathan Thurston has allayed fears over his welfare after Channel 9 reported the Queensland Origin champion had gone missing in Las Vegas.
Thurston told this masthead he is alive and well in the aftermath of a shock Channel 9 news bulletin claiming the Cowboys legend was missing in Sin City and had sparked a manhunt by Las Vegas police for his whereabouts.
Thurston is an expert NRL commentator for Channel 9 and the network’s Today Show program put up a banner on their Friday morning bulletin which read: “JOHNATHAN THURSTON MISSING”.
Johnathan Thurston was reported missing in Channel 9 prank.
Johnathan Thurston was reported missing in Channel 9 prank.
The news item added: “Las Vegas Police on the case of missing NRL star.”
But Thurston laughed off the report when contacted by News Corp, saying: “It’s a prank … I was late for my live cross.”
Thurston is one of more than 14,000 Australians who have travelled to Vegas for the NRL’s historic premiership season launch at Allegiant Stadium on Sunday.
Almost 40,000 tickets have been sold to the double header featuring the Broncos, Roosters, Souths and Manly.
The Cowboys premiership winner, who engineered North Queensland’s first ever title in 2015, will be part of Channel 9’s coverage on Sunday.
HOTEL BOOKING FLOORS ROOSTERS AND BRONCOS
Talk about awkward moments in the build-up to Sunday’s blockbuster double header … The NRL has placed the Brisbane Broncos and Sydney Roosters at the same hotel and on the same floor in Las Vegas.
The players’ hotel rooms are separated by only 20m of carpet along the corridor.
One Broncos official said “We were a little bit surprised to be up this close and personal. It has become a battle of the mind games.”
It is particularly uneasy for Broncos front-rower Fletcher Baker who, only six months ago, left the Roosters to join Kevin Walters’ team.
No doubt he will be spending plenty of time in the lift with his old teammates.
The two teams will go head to head in the second game of Sunday’s double header at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
