The Las Vegas Thread

[i0Nic]

PVL was interviewed in the Sunday Tele and he is hopeful of a tv audience of around 500k

Thats a big jump from last seasons peak of 80k

NBA games rate about 1.5m with marquee matchups rating around 3m

If the NRL can get 500k that’s a good result.

500k would be massive, even half that would be a good result - a big jump on last year.

 

[taste2taste]

500k would be massive, even half that would be a good result - a big jump on last year.

yes, I think 250k is more realistic and a great result.

250k is what MLS rates.

500k is roughly what NHL rates, the NRL won’t be getting those figures imo

Theres a misconception that Americans sit around all day eating nachos and watching sport, but it’s an eye opener to see how low a lot of sports rate.

Marquee matchups ups in the NBA ( Celtics v Lakers ) have a smaller national audience than SOO gets in tiny ol straya

 

[Perth Red]

yes, I think 250k is more realistic and a great result.

250k is what MLS rates.

500k is roughly what NHL rates, the NRL won’t be getting those figures imo

Theres a misconception that Americans sit around all day eating nachos and watching sport, but it’s an eye opener to see how low a lot of sports rate.

Marquee matchups ups in the NBA ( Celtics v Lakers ) have a smaller national audience than SOO gets in tiny ol straya

Not sure where you're getting your NBA stats from. This article has the avg viewership for an NBA game at 20.4million a game in 2017, 11.3mill game avg for the finals series in 2023.
NHL game avg 2.6mill,
MLB world series 9,1mill a game.
NFL is a behemoth at 17.9mill avg a game in 2023.

It is interesting to see what Apple has done with MLS in USA. They seemingly paid well over at $250mill a year (US) for ten years for the amount of viewers it has.

How NFL TV Ratings Compare to Other Major Sports Leagues

Here's how the NFL compares to other major American sports leagues in terms of television ratings.

www.givemesport.com

 

[taste2taste]

Not sure where you're getting your NBA stats from. This article has the avg viewership for an NBA game at 20.4million a game in 2017, 11.3mill game avg for the finals series in 2023.
NHL game avg 2.6mill,
MLB world series 9,1mill a game.
NFL is a behemoth at 17.9mill avg a game in 2023.

It is interesting to see what Apple has done with MLS in USA. They seemingly paid well over at $250mill a year (US) for ten years for the amount of viewers it has.

How NFL TV Ratings Compare to Other Major Sports Leagues

Here's how the NFL compares to other major American sports leagues in terms of television ratings.

www.givemesport.com

Those figures you’re using are from NBA finals 8 years ago, Stanley Cup Final and World Series.

The figures I was using are for NBA, MLS and NHL regular season games.

Trying to gauge what the NRL might rate using figures from Finals, some nearly a decade old, probably isn’t a fair comparison.

 

[Perth Red]

Those figures you’re using are from NBA finals 8 years ago, Stanley Cup Final and World Series.

The figures I was using are for NBA, MLS and NHL regular season games.

Trying to gauge what the NRL might rate using figures from Finals, some nearly a decade old, probably isn’t a fair comparison.

Following a five-game Christmas day slate that delivered an average of 5.34 million viewers,
Other positive notes from the holiday include the most-watched game of the season between the Warriors and Lakers, which averaged 7.9 million viewers
The Christmas opener between the Knicks and Spurs drew nearly five million viewers

NBA TV Ratings Shift Again, As ESPN Now Up 5% for the Season

Total NBA viewership is still down this year, but by only 3% compared to 18% before Christmas, when ABC and ESPN drew big numbers.

frontofficesports.com

Through 34 games, NBA games on ESPN platforms are averaging 1,959,000 viewers.

Data Behind NBA Ratings Shows Early-Season Panic Was Overexaggerated

NBA ratings have been a hot discussion over the first few months of the season,

clutchpoints.com

 

[taste2taste]

Following a five-game Christmas day slate that delivered an average of 5.34 million viewers,
Other positive notes from the holiday include the most-watched game of the season between the Warriors and Lakers, which averaged 7.9 million viewers
The Christmas opener between the Knicks and Spurs drew nearly five million viewers

NBA TV Ratings Shift Again, As ESPN Now Up 5% for the Season

Total NBA viewership is still down this year, but by only 3% compared to 18% before Christmas, when ABC and ESPN drew big numbers.

frontofficesports.com

Through 34 games, NBA games on ESPN platforms are averaging 1,959,000 viewers.

Data Behind NBA Ratings Shows Early-Season Panic Was Overexaggerated

NBA ratings have been a hot discussion over the first few months of the season,

clutchpoints.com

Again youre cherry picking.

Youre using a 5 day holiday window and the opening weeks of the NBA season to prove the total season average is higher than 1.5m per game ?

That would be like using SOO and the opening weeks of the NRL season gauge what the NRL rates. You’d have to be pretty silly to do that.

As I said before, there are just as many delusional posters here on the negative end of the scale as there are on the positive.

 

[Perth Red]

Again youre cherry picking.

Youre using a 5 day holiday window and the opening weeks of the NBA season to prove the total season average is higher than 1.5m per game ?

That would be like using SOO and the opening weeks of the NRL season gauge what the NRL rates. You’d have to be pretty silly to do that.

As I said before, there are just as many delusional posters here on the negative end of the scale as there are on the positive.

I'm using them as examples that high drawing games get more than the 3mill you stated.

 

[Canard]

There is also the simple fact that there is 82 regular season games of NBA.

It's not realistic to think RL is going to rate 500k after one year of promotion

 

[JamesRustle]

Dated or not if they can get Tom Brady (with his hundreds of thousands of followers on social media) to blow the horn for the Viking clap 5 minutes before kick-off would be absolute publicity gold for the ratings of that game.

Gisele Bündchen blowing the horn would be much better imo.

 

[Valheru]

Again youre cherry picking.

Youre using a 5 day holiday window and the opening weeks of the NBA season to prove the total season average is higher than 1.5m per game ?

That would be like using SOO and the opening weeks of the NRL season gauge what the NRL rates. You’d have to be pretty silly to do that.

As I said before, there are just as many delusional posters here on the negative end of the scale as there are on the positive.

There are a few issues with that NBA figure.

First, they have over 1200 regular season games in a season, the NRL has less than 20% of that. Second, that average is only relevant to games nationally broadcast on ABC, ESPN and TNT which represents something like 250-300 of the regular season games. Two of those stations are subscription services and the other, ABC, generally only broadcasts games at the back end of the regular season on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

The vast majority of the regular games are broadcast exclusively in to the local markets of the two teams playing using local providers.

So it's not really an apples for apples comparison given NRL broadcasts all games nationally with around 40% of them being FTA. The NFL would be the best comparison

 

[taste2taste]

There are a few issues with that NBA figure.

First, they have over 1200 regular season games in a season, the NRL has less than 20% of that. Second, that average is only relevant to games nationally broadcast on ABC, ESPN and TNT which represents something like 250-300 of the regular season games. Two of those stations are subscription services and the other, ABC, generally only broadcasts games at the back end of the regular season on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

The vast majority of the regular games are broadcast exclusively in to the local markets of the two teams playing using local providers.

So it's not really an apples for apples comparison given NRL broadcasts all games nationally with around 40% of them being FTA. The NFL would be the best comparison

The best comparison would be Rugby Union.

Major League Rugby rates 30k on Fox Sports 2 and marquee matches rate between 80k to 150k on Fox Sports 1. 80k is what the NRL rated on Fox Sports 1 last year.

The Warriors V Raiders game on FTA Fox Sports will reach a larger audience but using Unions figures as a gauge the NRL should rate roughly the same, especially when you consider Americans don’t know the difference between the 2 codes and there are no American teams playing.

 

[Maximus]

The NBA also doesn't only have 1 game on at a time. During last year's games there were 3-4 college basketball games and 2 NBA games on at the same time as the NRL. Ratings for individual games is a bad metric considering it's regularly competing with other games in the same sport.

 

[Perth Red]

I think the key thing is there is sufficient interest for Fox to deem it a worthwhile exercise and that it shows growth each year. If its doing that then its achieving its KPI for TV. Forget the fanciful stuff about tv contracts etc, at this point its about exposure and building a interested fanbase for the game.
How much one event a year with overseas teams can achieve though is very questionable. Really needs NRL to invest in a USA pro league and help build that, the NRL spin off will come once there are people playing and watching the game locally.
One way of doing that would be to give each NRL club a $1-2mill development grant and partner them long term with a USA club to share expertise and resources.

 

[RL The greatest game]

Found out today he’s a part owner of the Vegas nfl team now

He's also part owner of a English soccer club called Birmingham City.

 

[Wb1234]

 

[John bird]

It’s called “rugby league”

 

[taste2taste]

I think the key thing is there is sufficient interest for Fox to deem it a worthwhile exercise and that it shows growth each year. If its doing that then its achieving its KPI for TV. Forget the fanciful stuff about tv contracts etc, at this point its about exposure and building a interested fanbase for the game.
How much one event a year with overseas teams can achieve though is very questionable. Really needs NRL to invest in a USA pro league and help build that, the NRL spin off will come once there are people playing and watching the game locally.
One way of doing that would be to give each NRL club a $1-2mill development grant and partner them long term with a USA club to share expertise and resources.

There were reports last year that a pro league would kick off in April 2025 but that now looks dead.

If the NRL was to invest in a pro league in the USA, using union as a gauge there are massive red flags.

MLR can’t find a TV deal and since the inaugural season crowds have dropped by 50%


League might have a better chance of success due to the fact the game is easier to understand and is closer to NFL with its rules but the NRL would be very veeeeerrrrry brave to invest in anything in the USA.

 

[Murishido]

Haha this is true with most things we love!

- support a political party = getting a well paid job for some politician
- Base your identity off a favourite film/singer/etc = paying millions to a millionaire
- Protest against any of it through some commentator on youtube = making the commentator the millionaire

it is all shit in the end. So in the words of the immortal Rick Sanchez
View attachment 98496

I disagree.

For a movie star we don't openly laud the money they make as positive. I've seen very few people say I love director X because he made a 250% irr on their movies (in fact we go the other way like a shawshank)

For a politician you (hopefully) believe you also get some benefit and it's it neutral anyway as the other person you didn't vote for would have gotten the money anyway.

 

[Perth Red]

There were reports last year that a pro league would kick off in April 2025 but that now looks dead.

If the NRL was to invest in a pro league in the USA, using union as a gauge there are massive red flags.

MLR can’t find a TV deal and since the inaugural season crowds have dropped by 50%


League might have a better chance of success due to the fact the game is easier to understand and is closer to NFL with its rules but the NRL would be very veeeeerrrrry brave to invest in anything in the USA.

For sure, it'd take a sht load of money and a very long term commitment. At best you might get it to 1/4 the size of MLS. Best stick with the annual junket and puff balling how amazing we are for going to Vegas. It seems to be working for the deluded masses.

 

[Mother Nature's Son]

There were reports last year that a pro league would kick off in April 2025 but that now looks dead.

If the NRL was to invest in a pro league in the USA, using union as a gauge there are massive red flags.

MLR can’t find a TV deal and since the inaugural season crowds have dropped by 50%


League might have a better chance of success due to the fact the game is easier to understand and is closer to NFL with its rules but the NRL would be very veeeeerrrrry brave to invest in anything in the USA.

Much rather see the NRL put money into teams in Wales, London, Newcastle, Sheffield, York and Toulouse.
Teams already in all of those places, a couple of mill each would see them all in Super League pretty quickly and give that comp the geographical spread it so desperately needs.