The Las Vegas Thread

[Wb1234]

As the NRL tries to crack the United States, is the AFL a realistic chance to get their share of international broadcast dollars?

There are many lucrative sporting leagues in the world, too many to mention here, eager to attract extra revenue from foreign viewership. The world’s…

www.theroar.com.au

Australia’s indigenous game whose first game was played on a rugby field and whose rules were made up by an Englishman from Wigan

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

Australia’s indigenous game whose first game was played on a rugby field and whose rules were made up by an Englishman from Wigan

I thought they ripped it off the Irish?

 

[Wb1234]

I thought they ripped it off the Irish?

AFL’S FIRST GAME WAS RUGBY

Australian rules football lore tells us the code began with the celebrated school match of 7th August 1858 between Scotch College and Melbourne Grammar. What the ‘Australian rulers’ don…

saintsandheathens.wordpress.com

 

[mozza91]

Pretty sure the first indigenous Australians invented fumbleball over 50000 years ago and the current fans throw bananas at any non white players as a deep sign of respect.

 

[Harry O]

Someone told me the person who invented the afl that his initials were RL

 

[RedVee_8]

Australia’s indigenous game whose first game was played on a rugby field and whose rules were made up by an Englishman from Wigan

Who came to Victoria from NSW….

 

[Yosemite Sam]

AFL is just not a marketable sport. Unless you are born into it, there is very little appeal in the game to any foreign audience.

 

[Wb1234]

AFL is just not a marketable sport. Unless you are born into it, there is very little appeal in the game to any foreign audience.

That’s the thing people think bc afl failed to expand overseas then the nrl will be the same

nrl players are the elite of Australian footballers and the game itself is an amazing product when it’s played to a good level

 

[Valheru]

AFL is just not a marketable sport. Unless you are born into it, there is very little appeal in the game to any foreign audience.

I would argue that's true of any and all sports

Like tell me a sport that is number one in a country that wasn't 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50+ years ago? Sporting culture in all countries seems to be deeply ingrained and other sports, regardless of how popular they are elsewhere make very little headway in the market. Even Soccer, as ubiquitous as it is in society, fails to overtake the traditionally popular sports in markets like the USA, China and the old commonwealth countries.

In Australia, I would describe rugby league, AFL and Cricket as the tier 1 sports in terms of overall popularity and that has been the case, as far as I can tell for over 100 years. I don't ever see that changing.

That's not to say sports shouldn't try to get a slice of the pie, especially in the American market and if the NRL makes some money on it and develops a sustainable niche market then it will be a success.

 

[Canard]

I would argue that's true of any and all sports

Like tell me a sport that is number one in a country that wasn't 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50+ years ago? Sporting culture in all countries seems to be deeply ingrained and other sports, regardless of how popular they are elsewhere make very little headway in the market. Even Soccer, as ubiquitous as it is in society, fails to overtake the traditionally popular sports in markets like the USA, China and the old commonwealth countries.

In Australia, I would describe rugby league, AFL and Cricket as the tier 1 sports in terms of overall popularity and that has been the case, as far as I can tell for over 100 years. I don't ever see that changing.

That's not to say sports shouldn't try to get a slice of the pie, especially in the American market and if the NRL makes some money on it and develops a sustainable niche market then it will be a success.

Pretty much this.

I think its very "AFL" of our fanbase, to assume people will watch a handful of games of NRL and suddenly be hooked.

 

[Wb1234]

I would argue that's true of any and all sports

Like tell me a sport that is number one in a country that wasn't 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50+ years ago? Sporting culture in all countries seems to be deeply ingrained and other sports, regardless of how popular they are elsewhere make very little headway in the market. Even Soccer, as ubiquitous as it is in society, fails to overtake the traditionally popular sports in markets like the USA, China and the old commonwealth countries.

In Australia, I would describe rugby league, AFL and Cricket as the tier 1 sports in terms of overall popularity and that has been the case, as far as I can tell for over 100 years. I don't ever see that changing.

That's not to say sports shouldn't try to get a slice of the pie, especially in the American market and if the NRL makes some money on it and develops a sustainable niche market then it will be a success.

Rugby league was introduced into nsw and qld after union soccer and vfl were all established there and took over leaving them all for dead

rugby league was introduced in France and within six years had overtaken union

rugby league was introduced into Toronto and was wildly succceful

soccer has taken a decent chunk of the American market and the standard of mls is dire

it’s a shame the Poms killed the Toronto Wolfpack because ottowa and New York were set to join league one

 

[Wb1234]

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Interesting that Valheru mentioned cricket. Cricket is looking to get into the US market and its entry point is via expat South Asia fans. (Indian and Pakistani Americans are 1 and 2 as highest earning ethnic group in the US).

Converting is a much harder task.

 

[Canard]

Rugby league was introduced into nsw and qld after union soccer and vfl were all established there and took over leaving them all for dead

That was over 100 years ago.

The other sports were amateur "park footy" games at best.

Tiddlywinks would have been just as big a sport as any of the above.

 

[Gobsmacked]

I would argue that's true of any and all sports

Like tell me a sport that is number one in a country that wasn't 10, 20, 30, 40 or 50+ years ago? Sporting culture in all countries seems to be deeply ingrained and other sports, regardless of how popular they are elsewhere make very little headway in the market. Even Soccer, as ubiquitous as it is in society, fails to overtake the traditionally popular sports in markets like the USA, China and the old commonwealth countries.

In Australia, I would describe rugby league, AFL and Cricket as the tier 1 sports in terms of overall popularity and that has been the case, as far as I can tell for over 100 years. I don't ever see that changing.

That's not to say sports shouldn't try to get a slice of the pie, especially in the American market and if the NRL makes some money on it and develops a sustainable niche market then it will be a success.

It's a good post and I agree with much of what you said but the next 20 years looks nothing like the last. Social media can turn people or events into virtual overnight success stories with increasing speed...
I hadn't heard of UFC 10 years ago and now look..
Things are changing fast! Social media and streaming services are making everything accessible across the world live.
We have AI now and Things are ramping up even more..
If the NRL captures the attention of some influential figures that get on board.. sky's the limit.

 

[Gobsmacked]

Interesting that Valheru mentioned cricket. Cricket is looking to get into the US market and its entry point is via expat South Asia fans. (Indian and Pakistani Americans are 1 and 2 as highest earning ethnic group in the US).

Converting is a much harder task.

Cricket has no hope against Baseball.
Like " how would you like an even more drawn out version of your already long game?"
Cricket is more heading towards baseball with less overs and big hits.

Rugby league presents a harder faster version of NFL to a degree.

 

[Valheru]

Rugby league was introduced into nsw and qld after union soccer and vfl were all established there and took over leaving them all for dead

rugby league was introduced in France and within six years had overtaken union

rugby league was introduced into Toronto and was wildly succceful

soccer has taken a decent chunk of the American market and the standard of mls is dire

it’s a shame the Poms killed the Toronto Wolfpack because ottowa and New York were set to join league one

Rugby league was also invented after all those sports and derived from union, in fact it was the same as rugby union at first because the 'schism' between the two sports was about class, not the rules or anything like that which you well know. So let's not pretend rugby league was randomly introduced to NSW and QLD without having an already established base and platform from union

Do you have a link for the bolded?

RE: Toronto, define wildly successful? I would actually agree with you but I have a feeling my baseline is lower than yours as rugby league is a drop in the ocean in the Canadian market.

Soccer in the USA is probably the best case study for what we are talking about. The biggest sport in the world in the biggest market in the world and it pails in to insignificance compared to NFL, MLB, NBA and to a lesser extent NHL. It's not as if soccer has no history there either yet it is a 2nd tier sport and always will be much like Soccer in Australia.

I wish the NRL the best of luck in this venture and hope they make some money and they have smashed the promotional stuff out of the park IMO. If they can entice some American players over, get a small TV deal or even establish an amateur competition over there then all power to them. To suggest though that rugby league will crack that market in any meaningful way because it's "the best sport int he world" is the same level of ignorance of the AFL dopes who said the same about AFL in China, NZ or anywhere else they conceived in their delusions.

And that's ok... it's not a crack at rugby league... it's just an observation about the nature of sports popularity globally.

 

[Valheru]

It's a good post and I agree with much of what you said but the next 20 years looks nothing like the last. Social media can turn people or events into virtual overnight success stories with increasing speed...
I hadn't heard of UFC 10 years ago and now look..
Things are changing fast! Social media and streaming services are making everything accessible across the world live.
We have AI now and Things are ramping up even more..
If the NRL captures the attention of some influential figures that get on board.. sky's the limit.

That's fair enough and they should absolutely try to utilize all those things to develop new markets.

RE: UFC - it is somewhat unique in that, initially it was founded in 1993 as a non scripted version of pro wrestling and attempted to answer questions like who would win in a fight between a boxer and a wrestler or jiu jitsu v Karate. The early years of UFC was exactly that. it then evolved in to MMA being it's own discipline of martial arts which is what you see now. It has also benfitted from the corruption and gradual downfall of boxing over the last 2 decades.

UFC is a great success story but it had a logical hole in the combat sports market it was trying to fill as opposed to rugby league or any other sport trying to expand to new markets and essentially taking market share away from traditional established sports.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Cricket has no hope against Baseball.
Like " how would you like an even more drawn out version of your already long game?"
Cricket is more heading towards baseball with less overs and big hits.

Rugby league presents a harder faster version of NFL to a degree.

T20 is the game they're using. 4 million Americans of Indian descent plus Nepalese, Pakistani, Afghans, Sri Lankans is the target, anyone else is a bonus

 

[Gobsmacked]

T20 is the game they're using. 4 million Americans of Indian descent plus Nepalese, Pakistani, Afghans, Sri Lankans is the target, anyone else is a bonus

Fair enough. Soccer benefits hugely in this way too in the form of expats.