Former Toronto Wolfpack coach Brian McDermott says the time is right for another attempt at trans-Atlantic teams, claiming it is rugby league's best chance of cracking North America.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
or signup to continue reading
South Sydney and the Sydney Roosters will join Manly in Las Vegas on Wednesday (Thursday AEDT), ahead of Saturday's historic NRL season opener at Allegiant Stadium.
Brisbane are also due to fly in from Los Angeles on Thursday, with nearly 35,000 tickets now sold for the double-header.
The NRL hopes to create a gambling windfall in the US, as well as increase broadcast deals and money made in WatchNRL subscriptions via new fans.
But those on the ground firmly believe fans must be able to latch on to rugby league at a local level for it to really catch on.
McDermott, who coached the Wolfpack in 2019 and had them promoted to the Super League, believes similar ventures may be the best way forward.
"Vegas can be 10-out-of-10. It can be everything we want," McDermott, who also coached the US national team at the 2017 World Cup, told AAP.
"The lead can swap hands four times, and the game is not decided until the last second.
"We can have that many miraculous efforts in the game.
"But then if you don't follow it up with anything, and there's no legacy, people just lose interest. You've just got to keep dripping into them.
"What better way to do that than set up a competition over there?
"It's not realistic on the west coast, but on the eastern seaboard, the concept of a trans-Atlantic team was working in the Super League."
Any fresh trans-Atlantic teams would be a matter for English officials, but the NRL would potentially benefit from new fans of the sport and have reason to assist.
Founded in 2017, the Wolfpack rose from the third tier to be promoted to the Super League in 2020, before the club was brought to its knees during COVID.
The fallout is still messy, and questions remain over the financial model of paying for opponents' travel without receiving English broadcast revenue.
But within three seasons the club led home attendances for teams outside the Super League and bettered some within it, while drawing almost 10,000 fans to its 2019 promotion play-off match.
"Some of the social media eyeballs that the club had in comparison to Super League was just jaw-dropping," said McDermott, who is now an assistant at Newcastle.
"Maybe the brand of Toronto Wolfpack didn't leave a good taste in people's mouths for all the wrong reasons.
"But you can't argue that it didn't attract attention."
McDermott's push is one of several in the US ahead of the Vegas matches.
Others have called for the introduction of an American league similar to Major League Cricket in the country, using NRL players and rising coaches.
Players' union boss and former US representative Clint Newton has previously been a proponent of the idea, but said it would now struggle to fit into the schedule.
Regardless, McDermott said the Wolfpack proved rugby league could work in America, given the similarities in sporting culture and appetite in Toronto.
"What Toronto proved, without debate, was that you can bring the product of rugby league to market and push it enough and get people to watch," he said.
Australian Associated Press
