Hi Timmah, I agree with alot of your comments. Yes PVL and the rest of the NRL admin should be praised for how they have placed the game in a much stronger financial position and are looking to grow it but at the same time should also be questioned when necessary. I think taking the game to Vegas is good, but it feels like the rhetoric has gone from we only want to capture 1% of the US gambling $ and TV ratings and the money will roll in to what a great way to launch the NRL season, the publicity it has achieved compared to having a local launch and it's a great trip away for supporters (which are all true, but they would have been well down the list of why the NRL has gone to Vegas).
I posted earlier that based on about 50k tickets sold, less that 15k appear to have been bought by American's once you take away tickets bought by Aussie's, Kiwi's and Pom's travelling. And I would say a large % of the 15k would be expats in the US craving to watch a game live. While not fair to compare the NFL, NBA and Baseball with the NRL as they have global recognition, they would draw much larger crowds in Australia from locals despite our much smaller population compared to the US take up of NRL tickets.
As others have noted what do we expect to have happened after 1 year. It would be interesting if there are figures available as to number of tickets sold to American's last year compared to this year and also tv ratings and gambling dollars.
