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Martyn Sadler

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  1. In this week's episode of the League Express Podcast, Jake Kearnan and I discuss all the weekend's results including the history making Salford Red Devils come from behind win at St Helens, the round 6 Challenge Cup fixtures and all the round 1 NRL action from the weekend. We also discuss Spencer Leniu's suspension for a racial slur against Brisbane Broncos stand-off Ezra Mam and discuss which English players impressed in the NRL debuts.
  2. Not specifically, but it has a lot to do with the positive image for the game that is currently being created, with the games in Vegas being the culmination of that change. And I've no doubt there will be other examples over time.
  3. As I said earlier, when you take calculated risks, you sometimes gain unexpected benefits. Who knows where the NRL will be after five years of Vegas.
  4. It does to me too. Buy maybe that's why PVL runs the NRL and we don't. He isn't going to die wondering.
  5. They would be grim if they were prime time figures. But, to put them into context, 61,000 for a game kicking off at 9.30pm EST (and which only transferred to Fox Sports 1 after 17 minutes) and 44,000 for a game starting at 11.30 EST may or may not be below the average figures for sport that commences at those times. That is the key test, although obviously the NRL would like the figures to be as high as possible. If the NRL is going to do a deal for regular coverage by Fox Sports, it needs to select a game each week that would kick off at a suitable time for a strong broadcast slot on the eastern seaboard of America. Ideally it would be a game that would be likely to have a full stadium.
  6. Back in 1998, when we first had games on the road, it was me who originally proposed the idea to Gary Hetherington, who was then a key member of Super League (Europe). The cancellation of the World Club Challenge after its farcical operation in 1997 had left a gap in the fixture programme and Gary telephoned me and asked what I thought could fill it. So I proposed games 'on the road' to try to expand our audience. I remember going to a game between Halifax and Sheffield in Northampton, for example. But like many things in Rugby League it didn't last. I would be very happy to see the concept return.
  7. Check out the latest edition of the League Express Podcast. In this week's episode, Jake Kearnan and I discuss the success of the NRL's season launch in Vegas, we reflect on Round 3 of this season's Super League competition and Jake suggests how the World Club Challenge game could fit into the NRL schedule to be played in Las Vegas next year.
  8. Absolutely right. The combination of the NRL as a sport needing to be sold with the Americans' expertise in marketing was always likely to give a great outcome. One thing that the NRL is doing, it seems to me, which the FA Premier League managed to do some years ago, is extend the demographic that is interested in the game. Football managed to seduce the middle classes while not alienating its existing working class support. I think we can see the same process at work in Oz. The visuals of the Vegas trip will hopefully help break down more resistance in Australia against the NRL. The other point worth making about the whole event is that it's a nonsense to suggest that America will be instantly won over. Those people who are complaining that the New York Times didn't run the game as its front page lead story on Monday and that the game wasn't the lead topic on all the radio shows on Monday morning don't seem to understand that even engaging 0.1% of Americans would give the NRL a solid base from which to develop future income streams. I was also interested to read that the President of the 49ers has said he might be interested in investing in an NRL team after seeing Sunday's event. Part of the reward for taking risks comprises the unanticipated benefits from the venture. And just to give an example of this, in 1999, when Wakefield Trinity took a Super League game against St Helens to Barnsley's Oakwell ground, there was a young teenager in the stadium watching his first Rugby League match (so I understand). His name was Matthew Ellis. 25 years later he runs a £100 million company and he owns the club. Who knows whether he would have done if that game hadn't gone to Barnsley all those years ago.
  9. Anyone who writes a comment like that in a supposedly serious article lacks sufficient self awareness to recognise that he is actually writing about himself.
  10. Bevan Shields, the editor of the Sydney Morning Herald, has sent out an email that illustrates these points. When I first heard that the NRL was planning to open its 2024 season in Las Vegas, I thought Australian Rugby League Commission chairman Peter V'landys was nuts. How on Earth could this possibly work? How would Australian fans feel about the NRL turning its gaze to the US market, particularly when other codes have tried and failed? And what happens when a player trips up in Sin City? This week's slightly delayed note comes to you from Las Vegas, where over the past week any scepticism about the NRL's experiment has been shattered. First, a disclaimer: I travelled to Vegas as a guest of the NRL, along with executives from other media companies. The NRL has also assisted with the costs of sending several Herald journalists to be here, but the support has no influence over how we cover the season opener, or my views about whether the venture has been worthwhile. I am writing this note having just returned from Allegiant Stadium, a stunning $US1.9 billion ($2.9 billion) 65,000-seat covered arena where the NFL's Super Bowl was held just a few weeks ago. As NRL fans would know, the Manly Sea Eagles defeated the South Sydney Rabbitohs in the first game and the Sydney Roosters overran the Brisbane Broncos in the second – a game that was somewhat marred by accusations Roosters recruit Spencer Leniu had called Brisbane five-eighth Ezra Mam a "monkey". Nearly 41,000 people were in the stadium, a number I believe – racial slur aside – makes the Las Vegas gamble a winner. (The total figure would have been even higher had Vegas not been battered on game day by the strongest winds since 1985, which caused havoc at the airport and in the streets surrounding the stadium.) But the US push is about much more than just filling a stadium. As Adrian Proszenko recently wrote in the Herald, the NRL has thrown all of its chips in with its Vegas gamble, committing to playing games in Sin City until at least the end of 2028. The goal is to get a heap of Americans slowly engaged with the game via the Watch NRL app, which provides fans outside Australia and New Zealand access to all men's and women's competition games, as well as State of Origin. The cost to Americans is $US169 ($229) a year and only 3000 have subscribed. As V'landys explained it to Proszenko: "If we can get 1 per cent of the US population over five years, that's 3.4 million people. You times that by $US169, that's around $577 million. Even if we were to get half of that, that's more than $250 million. There are 300,000 Australians living in the US. Even if we got half of those, that's an extra $25 million. It's huge." The booming US sport wagering market is another chance to cash in. NRL chief executive officer Andrew Abdo says sports wagering is being rapidly deregulated in America and fans are embracing the opportunity to bet on matches. A deal is yet to be struck with a betting firm but once it is, the NRL will take a cut of all bets made on the competition. However, the US market is a notoriously tough nut to crack and we won't know for years whether the league's big goals have been achieved. Or, as the Herald's chief sports writer Andrew Webster put it, if the "Vegas experiment will turn out to be a ridiculously expensive boys' trip to Sin City or a venture that will reap financial rewards for decades". This week has demonstrated that the NRL is not going to die wondering. The Strip is covered in NRL advertisements with the tagline "No pads. No helmets. No fear." Actor Russell Crowe even filmed a video explaining the rules and history of the NRL. Deals have been struck with hotel companies and tourism authorities for cheaper rates. Clubs that stayed home this year are already lobbying to go to Nevada in 2025. At the start of last week here in Vegas, there was still a great deal of anxiety about whether this would all turn out to be a fizzer. A key moment occurred on Wednesday evening, when NRL executives breathed a collective sigh of relief at the sight of thousands of fans who packed Fremont Street in Vegas to meet the players. The buzz that night was off the Richter scale. None of this happens by accident and I reckon V'landys, Abdo and the NRL team deserve huge credit for having the guts to do something big and risky.
  11. We're very fortunate that he grew up in Wollongong and not Melbourne. His greatest achievement is to have instilled a genuine sense of confidence and aspiration into the NRL's administration. As for Vegas, I suspect that many Rugby League supporters who didn't go this year will already be making plans to go in 2025.
  12. In part 2 of this week's episode, Editor Martyn Sadler and Host Jake Kearnan discuss the World Club Challenge, the backlash surrounding the officiating and the controversy of the use of the red card. They review last weekend's other match ups and preview the round 3 action.
  13. In part one of this week's episode, RL Commercial Managing Director Rhodri Jones joins the show to discuss the launch of the 2024 season, the World Club Challenge and whether the NRL will buy Super League. He also details his trip to Vegas this week to discuss future opportunities with the NRL and gives and update on their partnership with IMG.
  14. In this week's episode of the League Express Podcast, Editor Martyn Sadler and Host Jake Kearnan discuss all round 1 match-ups, the controversial use of the red card and take a look at this weekend's World Club Challenge. They discuss the record breaking round 1 crowd attendance and reflect on the new coverage of all matches.
  15. And you haven't yet got the hang of stating opinions with evidence to back them up.
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