ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys concedes that four games of football at Allegiant Stadium was one too many, with the women’s game likely to be the casualty for Vegas 3.0.
A crowd of 45,209 attended the quadruple-header, almost 5000 more fans than the previous year. However, supporters suffering from footy fatigue started leaving during the Jilaroos-England blowout, resulting in tens of thousands of empty seats for Penrith’s win over Cronulla.
“Four games was probably too much,” V’landys said. “We’ll probably go back to three games [in 2026].
“I think four was too long – you could tell because the fans left their seats – so when their game was over there were empty seats.
“You want them to stay there, and I think if you had three games they probably would have. With four games, it’s a long day. I got there at 1 o’clock and left at 11 o’clock. Well, that’s a long day for anyone. As passionate as I am about rugby league, it’s still a very long day.
“You want to shorten that a little bit and have the three games.
“We really do want to keep the Super League partnership because that worked exceptionally well. It generated a complete new atmosphere and a vibe that I’ve never seen, so that probably continues.
“We’ll go home, do a post-mortem and we’ll just see how we do it next year.”
The NRL was keen to showcase the women’s game, but the lopsided nature of the contest – the Jilaroos won 90-4 – was not a great advertisement for the concept. With one game poised to be cut, it is likely to be the women’s match.
“I’m the biggest supporter of the women’s game, so I don’t want to count them out,” he said.
The Jillaroos are unlikely to feature in Vegas next year.Credit: AP
“Australia were just too strong. It just shows that when you have a professionally run, semi-professional rugby league competition, you’re gonna be that far ahead of anyone else in the world, and we are.
“We have the best NRLW competition: it’s professionally run, the women have reached a level at this stage of their evolution that I’ve never seen. They are so far advanced, they’re so good, so skilful, they’re so brilliant that the poor old English never had a chance.
“In saying that, I was proud to show them off, to show how good our women are, the entertainers they are. They didn’t let me down.
“Unfortunately, the English competition isn’t an NRLW, and it will take some time to catch up to us.”
V’landys predicted this year’s event would either break even or turn a “small profit” and was keen to lock in the participants for next year’s matches within a month of returning to Australia. He added that he was confident rugby league would have a presence in the United States long after the initial five-year contract to stage games in Vegas expires.
“Every attribute that the American sporting public love, we have in our game,” he said.
“I’m more confident than ever that we’ll be in America for the long term, absolutely.
“It will just grow and grow. Already the Las Vegas tourist bureau has asked us to extend our contract.
“The beauty of it is that they have made us a major event in their calendar.
“A rugby league weekend is a major event in their calendar, we’ve brought $100 million in economic stimulus, so to be put it on as a major event with the likes of the NFL in the space of two years is extraordinary.”
The Herald’s travel expenses to Las Vegas have been partly funded by the NRL.
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