The Las Vegas Thread

[nko11]

Really, you must hang out with very different Americans. The ones I spoken to say football, basketball, baseball and hockey if they refer to the sport. More often they'd say the team like going to the Lakers, cubs, pats, Rangers etc . It's only really the talking heads that say acronym for dramatic effect.

Occasionally you do get NFL if you are getting to a college v pro level of granularity.

Admittedly I haven't had an American say "American" football. But it's pretty strongly implied.

But on do they search "rugby"? Yes.

When I was in Miami for the game last year US clients and colleagues were calling it rugby and I had to explain the difference, including to one guy who did an exchange year in sydney.

Actually yeah you are correct with 'Football' alone being used quite often. Probably a bad example. MLS is a better example and more relevant to where we'd be positioned. And 100% for teams and even players being used as references for what they're watching. Nonetheless the branding of using 3 letters is strong and will help to make it feel less foreign than just 'Rugby'.

In terms of, searching 'Rugby' - I'd say from what I've seen it's about 50-50, maybe even a bit more towards 'NRL', which is actually pretty good after the first year and works well with drawing existing rugby fans to check it out. But it should be turned to full NRL branding in the next few years.

For context, I went to college in the US for a year, so not totally speaking out of my a**.

On that topic, one of the blokes I knew over there who played College Football and now plays for the US in the 7's - came over to trial for 1 or 2 NRL teams. I'm presuming he didn't get picked up, as it was a bit back. But would be good for the NRL to bring in cap dispensations for US based players if they want to make a real go of carving out a niche in the US market. He would be one of the fastest in the NRL and easily has enough skills to play Wing at the very least.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Americans, even the President are confused by "Rugby":


The look on the Irish Taoiseach (PM)'s (Nod to Ned of the Hill) face seems to say "Get this Bozo off the stage"

For the bewildered elderly:
These are the All Blacks


and these are the Black and Tans

A lot of things confuse Sleepy Joe

 

[titoelcolombiano]

What if they seek out information or look for broadcasts of the game? Using the term "Rugby" is going to cause brand confusion.

I don't really think it's that hard for anyone remotely interested to figure out and grasp the concept that there are two types of Rugby with different rule sets.

 

[titoelcolombiano]

Is it? Someone tunes in to watch a Vegas game, thinks that was pretty good. Following week looks for 'rugby' in the tv guide and tunes in to watch some numpty union game and thinks geez that is pretty sht after all. Viewer lost.
Only a fool would think two different sports being called the same thing is a good idea!

Volleyball/Beach Volleyball
Ice Hockey/Hockey
Indy Car/Indy Kart (back in the day)
Union 15s and Union 7s
Alpine Skiing / Nordic Skiing
Greco Roman Wrestling / Freestyle Wrestling
Bowling (ten pin) / Lawn Bowls
Ice Skating/Skating
Snooker / Pool

People aren't stupid. If they want to know more a 5 min google search and maybe a couple of YouTube videos will explain everything they need to know to understand they are different sports with a shared name.

 

[Vlad59]

Volleyball/Beach Volleyball
Ice Hockey/Hockey
Indy Car/Indy Kart (back in the day)
Union 15s and Union 7s
Alpine Skiing / Nordic Skiing
Greco Roman Wrestling / Freestyle Wrestling
Bowling (ten pin) / Lawn Bowls
Ice Skating/Skating
Snooker / Pool

People aren't stupid. If they want to know more a 5 min google search and maybe a couple of YouTube videos will explain everything they need to know to understand they are different sports with a shared name.

These are really poor comparisons to be honest mate. You shouldn’t have wasted your time.

 

[Miller was a legend]

Volleyball/Beach Volleyball
Ice Hockey/Hockey
Indy Car/Indy Kart (back in the day)
Union 15s and Union 7s
Alpine Skiing / Nordic Skiing
Greco Roman Wrestling / Freestyle Wrestling
Bowling (ten pin) / Lawn Bowls
Ice Skating/Skating
Snooker / Pool

People aren't stupid. If they want to know more a 5 min google search and maybe a couple of YouTube videos will explain everything they need to know to understand they are different sports with a shared name.

You missed one

Perth Red / Interesting point of view

 

[Vlad59]

You missed one

Perth Red / Interesting point of view

Gin/vodka

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

Google ‘rugby’ and you get rugby. You have to scroll down to the bottom of the page before NRL appears. That’s enough for me to say we should be marketing ourselves as NRL.

 

[AlwaysGreen]

A visionary on here said call it Top Ball.

And you all laughed.

 

[Vlad59]

Google ‘rugby’ and you get rugby. You have to scroll down to the bottom of the page before NRL appears. That’s enough for me to say we should be marketing ourselves as NRL.

This is it in a nutshell. For branding reasons we should be NRL

 

[Wb1234]

People are nuts

The nrl hasn’t marketed the game as rugby random Americans refer to it as rugby and have been corrected by the Aussies telling them it’s rugby league

Because a new market is unaware there are two rugby codes is for the sport of rugby league to brand itself

I was doing a Google search last night talking about top sports in Australia and when it came to nrl they referred to it as rugby

And again the all blacks got a crowd of 33,000 in California in July this year

Any error by Americans will only favour rugby league with the warriors playing

 

[AlwaysGreen]

Wbtiktok, marketing guru.

 

[bad boy bubby]

Players have been calling it "NRL" for years now.
When the players get interviewed in the US over the next couple of months pay attention to them all saying "NRL".
Undoubtedly they will be asked the difference of the rugbys, like they did with Woods this year.
The US has been branding their sports with three letters for a long time now, it is how they predominantly identify their different sports.
When the US media start saying "NRL", without having to explain it's meaning, "National Rugby League", a small hill will then have been accomplished.

 

[King hit]

A lot of things confuse Sleepy Joe

What everyone says when they hear Joe talk

 

[shadowformz]

I think we lost the battle for its use when we allowed Union to just use 'Rugby' a couple of decades ago.
Even in England once you get south of Sheffield and say rugby the country thinks you're talking about union. in fact the M62 Corridor and Cumbria is the only place in the world where if you said you follow 'Rugby' they would assume you are talking about League. The odds of a yank having any notion that when they tune in to watch 'rugby' it could be league or union is fanciful at best. we are being tainted by an inferior product.

as for your historical nonsense, its consigned to the history books and has nothing to do with today.

The name battle is lost, time to evolve again including in name.

Okay, but the puzzle is what name should be used? Perhaps just NRL

 

[Babyface O'reilly]

Players have been calling it "NRL" for years now.
When the players get interviewed in the US over the next couple of months pay attention to them all saying "NRL".
Undoubtedly they will be asked the difference of the rugbys, like they did with Woods this year.
The US has been branding their sports with three letters for a long time now, it is how they predominantly identify their different sports.
When the US media start saying "NRL", without having to explain its meaning, "National Rugby League", a small hill will then have been accomplished.

Remember when it was called gridiron? I reckon that name stuck around longer in Australia than it did in the states. It didn’t bother the yanks to use three letters as you say.

 

[Iamback]

Okay, but the puzzle is what name should be used? Perhaps just NRL

Well WatchNRL is where they have to go to watch the game. So it makes sense to go that way

 

[Vlad59]

Wbtiktok, marketing guru.

He is definitely the number 1 peanut on this forum

 

[Sharpie]

The name battle is lost, time to evolve again including in name.

What is your suggestion then?

 

[Perth Red]

What is your suggestion then?

There are more creative, well paid, minds than mine that can answer that one.
Like has been said either work a deal globally for the sport to become known as NRL and just use that or come up with something totally different that includes the word 'League'.