BY JOHN DAVIDSON
WIGAN and Warrington have already sold more than 4,000 tickets to their history-making game in Las Vegas next year and are targeting sales of 10,000.
The Super League match in Vegas was only announced in mid-July, with tickets going on sale on July 24. But demand in just two weeks has surged, with the event still seven months away.
Kris Radlinski, Wigan’s CEO, has been blown away by the response.
“I’ve hit my budgets, what I needed to hit already, so anything now is an absolute bonus,” said Radlinski.
“We’ve put travel packages on, we’ve not even entered the retail space yet, or the sponsorship space to see if there’s an American angle there or anything like that. But, yeah, everything from now on in is a positive swing for us.
“We’ve sold 4,333 tickets in two weeks with six or seven months to go. It’s crazy. It’s really crazy.”
Wigan will take on Warrington at Allegiant Stadium on March 1 as part of a quadruple bill with the NRL where Canberra Raiders will face New Zealand Warriors, Penrith Panthers will clash with Cronulla Sharks, and England’s women will meet Australia’s Jillaroos.
Radlinski is unsure of how many tickets they will sell in total, but he believes 10,000 would be an amazing result.
“I don’t know where we’ll get to; if we go to 10,000 it’d be absolutely incredible,” he said.
“What’s been interesting is that there’s an element of fear of missing out.
“Around Wigan there are people who are saying they can’t not go, which is a really cool thing.”
Radlinski has conceded that not all Wigan fans are happy about his club playing a home game in America, but he believes that it’s part of a plan to grow Rugby League.
“It doesn’t please all the fans,” he admitted.
“There’s some fans locally who, for many reasons, will not be able to attend. And that I guess is something that I need to live with. But I hope people realise what we are trying to do is to try and grow the sport.
“You’ve got to try everything you can while you can. Otherwise, what am I in the position for? If I’m accused of anything, I hope it’s trying to grow the sport and showcase the world that we think this is the best sport on the planet.
“If I’m guilty of that and if Karl Fitzpatrick is guilty, then so be it. We love our sport, we’re passionate about it and we’re in positions where we can try and influence change. But we can’t do it on our own.
“I really value my relationship with Warrington and the people who run that club. But we need Super League to help us. We need every Super League club to help us. We need the media to help us and all the fans, because we’ve all got a role to play here, I believe.”
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