The bright lights of Las Vegas have a way of skewing perspective and that’s kind of the point of the entertainment capital of the world.
It’s hard to find the truth there because it’s a place where anything feels possible.
That’s why the NRL’s first trip to America has sent imaginations and cynicism running wild in equal measure. Cutting through the PR spin on one side and the negativity on the other isn’t easy.
But it’s difficult to see the first two matches of what is supposed to be a five-year plan as anything other than a success, at least in the short term.
Interest in the season opener in Australia was as high as it’s ever been and a trip to Vegas to watch the footy is, at the very least, a hell of a good time.
Thousands of fans made the trip over and you can bet your last dollar that many more will make rugby league’s newest pilgrimage next season.
The sense of occasion was palpable, even just watching at home, and the vision filtering back through the week from Nevada of jersey-clad hordes tramping up and down the Strip was compelling.
The fact that any of this has happened at all is quite remarkable and its mere existence is a big win for the dreamers.
But the cynics still have reality on their side. Selling a new game to the United States is still a herculean challenge, which is why the long-term future of the venture, and the game in America, is harder to see.
The home of the brave can’t be cracked overnight and one week of fun and footy in Las Vegas isn’t enough to change the outcome.
It has to be followed up again and again and again, and even that might not be enough.
To that end, showcasing the sport’s product in as optimal conditions as possible is crucial. The official crowd of 40,746 is an unqualified success, regardless of how many of the punters were existing fans of the game or how many free or discounted tickets found their way into American hands.
Selling a sport in the modern world is selling a television product and a crowd’s true value comes in what they offer to that product.
As long as they were loud, rowdy and there, it doesn’t matter who they are or how they got into Allegiant Stadium because they make the game better to watch on television.
As for the matches themselves, the standard of play was about as good as you could expect for a pair of Round 1 matches.
Manly’s 36-24 win over South Sydney had a fine mix of blood and thunder early with more open football later on. A high-scoring encounter will always please the neutral fan and the action was regular enough to hold anyone’s interest.
The Roosters-Broncos clash wasn’t as loose but it did have a sustained hardness throughout the 80 minutes. The Tricolours victory in the absorbing encounter was built on a tough and rugged attitude they have lacked in recent years and lent a gladiatorial aspect to the encounter. The racism allegations levelled at Spencer Leniu was the sole blemish on the afternoon.
Over the next few days, rugby league will return to reality and the grind of the regular season will begin. The American discourse will retreat into the background for the next 12 months as more immediate concerns – like Luke Brooks’ move to Manly, which bore early fruit, and the Roosters title credentials, which feel a lot more firm after their tough win over Brisbane — come back into the limelight.
If any American imaginations were captured by the Vegas experiment, they’ll find the week-to-week experience of the NRL difficult.
Time zone differences mean most games are played late at night or early in the morning. The Vegas matches are likely the only games any Americans will see all year.
It’s not much and the mountain the NRL is trying to climb is as immense a challenge as exists in world sport. But is a start and nothing – not Peter V’landy’s dreams of untold gambling riches or the pie-in-the-sky talk of a professional competition in multiple cities – can happen without it.
The NRL has a spark in America and even if it doesn’t look like much more than a blip on the radar right now, there is something there.
Feeding the flame will take time and money and commitment but at least there’s a little bit of fire.