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Las Vegas: “The Black Hole” is the Las Vegas Raiders’ infamous group of hardcore fans who occupy the pocket near the tunnel and the end zone.
Since 1995, they have been the most notorious sub-section of the league’s most notorious fanbase, dressing up in menacing clobber and destroying visiting players and fans with venomous vitriol.
Spencer Leniu at Allegiant Stadium.Credit: NRL Photos
But, on Sunday afternoon, rugby league melted their hearts. They had nothing but love for this strange game from a strange land and, in particular, Roosters weapon Spencer Leniu.
“Hey uce!” yelled one fan as Leniu walked by before the Raiders’ match against Minnesota Vikings. “I used to play rugby!” yelled another as Leniu posed for selfies and shook hands.
The NRL has rolled into Las Vegas this week to promote the season-opening double-header at Allegiant Stadium here in March.
Before, during and after the Raiders match, the NRL was given the type of publicity it cannot buy and will most certainly need if it’s to live the American Dream.
The double-header was publicised regularly on the big screen throughout the match while Leniu, Manly’s Aaron Woods, Souths’ Campbell Graham and the Broncos’ Billy Walters did interviews with US sports network Fox Sports before the match and at half-time.
Earlier, they had posed for a photo outside the stadium before kick-off, prompting one Raiders fan to poke his nose in and innocently ask, “Um, who are you people?”
When Leniu walked in front of the faithful, though, the Raiders faithful loved him – even if they weren’t entirely sure who he was.
“I think because I’m Polynesian and they were Polynesian they recognised me,” Leniu, who is of Samoan heritage and born in Auckland, explained.
Rugby league’s incursion into the US market is, to some, a pipedream. Yet ARL Commission chairman Peter V’landys and NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo deserve credit for thinking so big.
Rugby league has toyed with playing games in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco, but it amounted to nothing and was consigned to the too-hard basket.
The current NRL administration wants to dip its toe in the US wagering and broadcast markets and is taking a long-term view.
There has been speculation the whole exercise could cost the game $10 million – something V’landys and Abdo scoff at. “We’ll probably break even in the first year,” V’landys says.
Wisely, Abdo’s team has partnered with the Raiders, NFL, and NBA in putting the event together.
Before the match, he gave Raiders president Sandra Douglass Morgan a Kangaroos jumper and she gave him a Raiders jersey with his name on the back. He’ll need a few more squats if he’s to realise his lifelong dream of becoming a linebacker.
Spencer Leniu was a hit with the Las Vegas Raiders’ faithful.Credit: NRL Photos
“The Raiders have been fantastic to work with,” Abdo said. “They haven’t seen us as the opposition at all – they’ve wanted to build a relationship. We have a long-term strategy around this fixture.”
Ticket sales are tracking well. Nearly 20,000 have been sold but Douglass Morgan has assured Abdo that Vegas is a city of walk-up starters to events. The NRL has privately set itself a target of 40,000 in a stadium that has a capacity of 65,000.
Standing on the field before the match, a couple of things struck me.
Concerns about fitting a rugby league configuration on an NFL ground aren’t as serious as some have suggested. The playing surface will be four metres narrower than it normally is, but the sidelines won’t be hard up against the fence line. Wingers won’t be sliding into walls chasing kicks into the corners.
There are fears about serious injuries because the match is being played on a foreign surface but there shouldn’t be: Allegiant Stadium’s field is all grass, not synthetic nor even partly synthetic.
“That’s a win,” Walters said, before adding cheekily: “I wouldn’t say it’s as good as Suncorp.”
Allegiant Stadium will host Super Bowl on February 11, giving the NRL three weeks for the surface to recover and painted logos to grow out.
“And if they haven’t, we’ll paint it green,” Abdo said.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo.Credit: NRL Photos
The roof — and, more specifically, the speakers hanging from the roof — feel much lower than when you are watching on TV or in the stands.
Minnesota punter Ryan Wright launched several towering spiral kicks during the warm-up, coming within metres of the speakers. It made you wonder what would happen if Matt Burton or Nathan Cleary played at this venue with their hellacious bombs that nudge the stratosphere.
“Adam Reynolds’ little legs couldn’t get the ball that high,” Walters said. “But Cleary and Burton could. That’s probably why the NRL hasn’t brought them over – they’ll get scouted [by NRL teams] straight away.”
Whether this wishful foray into the US market will be a success is the great unknown. The US is sport’s mecca. Walk into a sports bar here and people are glued to NBA, NFL, UFC, college sport, Major League Soccer — there doesn’t appear to be much room for anything else, even if the NRL seeks a toenail in the market.
But there wasn’t much love for the Raiders after they lost 3-0 in what keen NFL judges were calling “the worst game ever played”.
Wait until they see the greatest game of all, baby.
The author travelled to Las Vegas courtesy of the NRL.
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