Denver NZ v England test is "certain" to go ahead

[Random tiger]

Can someone suggest the reason Denver was chosen? Why not Toronto? Imagine a test with the Wolfpack as a curtain raiser. Denver seems to have been plucked out of the air.

[Copa]

5 minutes ago, Random tiger said:

Can someone suggest the reason Denver was chosen? Why not Toronto? Imagine a test with the Wolfpack as a curtain raiser. Denver seems to have been plucked out of the air.

They possibly offered a great stadium deal in a location where the promoters thought they could get a great return.

[ghost crayfish]

5 minutes ago, Random tiger said:

Can someone suggest the reason Denver was chosen? Why not Toronto? Imagine a test with the Wolfpack as a curtain raiser. Denver seems to have been plucked out of the air.

Scroll back a page and someone at least claiming to be from the organisers offered an explanation.

[Gerrumonside ref]

9 hours ago, RLWC2025 said:

Why Denver? It's one of our greatest sporting cities, the #1 attraction is the Denver Broncos, and we have a friendly deal with the incredible Mile High stadium - not to mention its nearly half-way between England and NZ, and a 2pm local start will allow the game to be viewed live in both home markets.

As several folks have rightly said, we're not targeting rugby fans or even expats; we're after the American football fan - avid and casual - who is looking for something fun and interesting during the NFL offseason. If we can excite and motivate that fan to take a look under the hood, we think they'll love Rugby League FOOTBALL.

 

Let's hope. The best thing that can happen is that more Americans pay attention and educate themselves on the differences. 

And the answer is: "that's right. Its Rugby League - faster, harder-hitting, and easier to understand."

I wish you lots of luck with this venture and I have been lucky enough to visit Colorado and see the Mile High stadium many years ago as a tourist.

I am interested to know though why Denver was chosen beyond the time difference between the two countries.

I would imagine the expat community for both nations is very small in Colorado and I wonder how much market research was done into the chances of drawing a large crowd?

Perhaps you can go into more detail?

Edit: Sorry just reread that you’re not targeting expats or rugby fans (a good move) - welcome to the forum of course! ?

[Gerrumonside ref]

3 hours ago, Copa said:

Retweeted to 2.6 million followers by the Denver Broncos 

 

If the Denver Broncos are helping to promote this then that is fantastic news as their endorsement of the game will count for a lot in that town.

Really positive news.

[Mattrhino]

The location is the location it is a big sports city with excellent tourist attractions. Maybe other places were looked at but the logistics didn't quite work.

Only minor gripe for me personally is Denver isn't the cheapest US city to fly to from the UK. You can get to NYC, Boston, LA for a few hundred quid nowadays with Norwegian and Thomas Cook. But Denver is still over 500 quid. But that is not the fault of the organisers.

[Mattrhino]

11 minutes ago, Gerrumonside ref said:

If the Denver Broncos are helping to promote this then that is fantastic news as their endorsement of the game will count for a lot in that town.

Really positive news.

I got ripped by some on here saying that getting the local news outlets and the Broncos to advertise the game would be a good idea. Apparently they would never do it and it would be useless.

[JonM]

I wonder whether the altitude in Denver will affect the game in any way. It's 1600m above sea level - not really enough to be a big thing, but in a sport like ours where endurance is important, maybe it comes into play. Maybe the ball travels slightly further on kicks due to the thinner air?

[JoneslessBishop]

3 hours ago, Random tiger said:

Can someone suggest the reason Denver was chosen? Why not Toronto? Imagine a test with the Wolfpack as a curtain raiser. Denver seems to have been plucked out of the air.

Three pretty obvious reasons for me:

1) Time zone location. Means game is on at a decent time in S hemisphere (as build up to Origin, as stated in the NZRL article - let’s keep hammering home to the Aussies what opportunities there are in North America) and in in the UK.

2) Travel distances. More western location makes it fairer on NZ.

3)  This is organised by Moore Sports, who are organising the 2025 World Cup. They need to broaden the range of locations that can draw a crowd. Toronto can already probably garuatee a good crowd. Hopefully this will be true of Hamilton, New York and Boston by then. After 3 of these tests in 3 years, Denver too. 

[JonM]

19 hours ago, Scubby said:

The week before USA play Scotland in Houston, Texas. I'm no expert on USA geography but I'm not sure that is down the road?

They have a fixture in Denver at the soccer stadium, week before the one in Houston, on June 9th, opponents TBD. Looks like all the main RU international teams already have a game that day, so it may either be a reserve team ("England Saxons") or one of the pacific islands.

[Scubby]

9 minutes ago, JonM said:

They have a fixture in Denver at the soccer stadium, week before the one in Houston, on June 9th, opponents TBD. Looks like all the main RU international teams already have a game that day, so it may either be a reserve team ("England Saxons") or one of the pacific islands.

Yep not even having an opponent at this stage and being 2 weeks before the England v New Zealand game. I think any potential impact on the RL event will be minimal. 

[JonM]

1 minute ago, Scubby said:

Yep not even having an opponent at this stage and being 2 weeks before the England v New Zealand game. I think any potential impact on the RL event will be minimal. 

It does smack of an attempt to try to upstage the RL event - was announced 3 weeks ago.

[Man of Kent]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

I wonder whether the altitude in Denver will affect the game in any way. It's 1600m above sea level - not really enough to be a big thing, but in a sport like ours where endurance is important, maybe it comes into play. Maybe the ball travels slightly further on kicks due to the thinner air?

At that altitude, the bombs may literally come back with snow on them!!

Could see a few 40-20s and lengthy drop goals. Shaun Johnson will, as ever against England, have a big say.

[Scubby]

The Moore Sports team are certainly thinking big - and long term. I really hope they can gain some traction. When all said and done, they really have nothing to lose. Also, very clear in this SMH article is the rhetoric of obstruction has died down somewhat. Interesting that things can actually happen if you stand your ground.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/promoter-behind-historic-denver-test-wants-to-take-nrl-games-to-usa-20180228-p4z25g.html

"This is putting them on the world stage in front of the largest sports marketplace on the planet. Nearly 70 per cent of the revenue of all sports globally comes out of the United States. The players that do this will be the first in history and you can’t change that. We’ll be a big fish in a small pond, where going to get cut-through and own the town for a week. It’s a big deal, it’s going to be super.”

[Big Picture]

5 hours ago, roughyedspud said:

I know all about the CTE issue in american football! But you said...

And that's simply not true..CTE is increasingly being discovered in numerous sports..rugby,boxing even football from heading the ball! And we can all name athletes from them sports who have killed themselves.

I was referring to other team sports, not fighting sports such as boxing.  I haven't heard of any such suicides among their former players.

[Big Picture]

6 minutes ago, Scubby said:

The Moore Sports team are certainly thinking big - and long term. I really hope they can gain some traction. When all said and done, they really have nothing to lose. Also, very clear in this SMH article is the rhetoric of obstruction has died down somewhat. Interesting that things can actually happen if you stand your ground.

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/nrl/promoter-behind-historic-denver-test-wants-to-take-nrl-games-to-usa-20180228-p4z25g.html

"This is putting them on the world stage in front of the largest sports marketplace on the planet. Nearly 70 per cent of the revenue of all sports globally comes out of the United States. The players that do this will be the first in history and you can’t change that. We’ll be a big fish in a small pond, where going to get cut-through and own the town for a week. It’s a big deal, it’s going to be super.”

The reporter thinking that "one-and-done" was "won-and-done" says a lot about the poor quality of modern journalism.

[Scubby]

18 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

The reporter thinking that "one-and-done" was "won-and-done" says a lot about the poor quality of modern journalism.

True. What was sneaky is the promoter throwing them a bone and saying maybe NRL games could be played there in the future. Very crafty work now he has got his agreement for the international.

[John Drake]

19 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

The reporter thinking that "one-and-done" was "won-and-done" says a lot about the poor quality of modern journalism.

You didn't have to pay to read it. The journalist probably got paid very little, if anything, to write it.

The two things are connected.

[Cowardly Fan]

41 minutes ago, Big Picture said:

I was referring to other team sports, not fighting sports such as boxing.  I haven't heard of any such suicides among their former players.

The fact that you haven't heard about it doesn't mean it hasn't happened. I'm not sure we want to get into listing these unfortunate players, but I can think of a couple from rugby league. In NFL they have more pro players and there's more press about these issues due to CTE.

It may be likely rugby league has a lower CTE risk, but don't think we should be complacent. Definitely not a reason to watch the sport as well.  

[JonM]

I see Ricky Stuart is having a moan about the game, because Elliott Whitehead has an important fixture for Canberra 7 days later.

[Cumbrian Fanatic]

19 minutes ago, JonM said:

I see Ricky Stuart is having a moan about the game, because Elliott Whitehead has an important fixture for Canberra 7 days later.

There are many good reasons for playing the game but upsetting Ricky Stuart is the best one I've heard so far 

[glossop saint]

Brilliant news to my ears.  Even more so if there is a double header involving the USA (v Canada potentially).  I think that we need to be careful not to judge this after only one year.  There is a 3 year deal and we need to look at how it pans out over the full term. 

It is a great first step though.  If we can get France/Wales over to play USA in future years as part of a double header then that would be brilliant.   With already Salford v Catalan possibly heading over there I would love to see other on-the-road games.  Hopefully the WCC or even WCS as well.  If this goes well we could be seeing 6 or 7 top class games over there per year in a few years time (not including any Toronto, New York, Hamilton or Boston).  That is enough to create a following and to hammer home any interest and really start to build up to the world cup. 

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, JonM said:

I see Ricky Stuart is having a moan about the game, because Elliott Whitehead has an important fixture for Canberra 7 days later.

So 24hrs after the game has been announced we have already had NZ Warriors and Canberra complain and undermine the fixture.

Its enough to make potential travelling fans wonder whether to bother.

[Scubby]

2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

So 24hrs after the game has been announced we have already had NZ Warriors and Canberra complain and undermine the fixture.

Its enough to make potential travelling fans wonder whether to bother.

I think part of the problem is the Aussie/Kiwi media. They know exactly what comments to elicit to kick up a stink. They are renowned for it. Look at how they were stirring the pot with the RLPA and boycotting the World Cup. 

[deluded pom?]

6 hours ago, Big Picture said:

The reporter thinking that "one-and-done" was "won-and-done" says a lot about the poor quality of modern journalism.

 We’ll be a big fish in a small pond, where going to get cut-through and own the town for a week. It’s a big deal, it’s going to be super.”

 

Shouldn’t that also be we’re or am I reading it wrong?