How rugby league took over Las Vegas: A fight in a lift, players treated like NFL stars in UFC facilities and why Wigan Warriors were willing to lose £100,000 to play in the biggest game in the sport’s history

It was on this weekend last year that Kris Radlinski got a glimpse into the future.

After getting up in early hours of that Sunday morning, he turned on his television and then watched in wonder as four top teams from Australia’s NRL put on a show in the entertainment capital of the world.

It was rugby league, but not as Radlinski knew it. And from that moment the Wigan Warriors chief executive only had one mission on his mind – to gatecrash the NRL’s Las Vegas party.

‘I remember watching it and it just seemed like rugby league from a different planet,’ the 48-year-old tells Mail Sport. ‘I just thought, “We’ve got to be part of that”.

‘I contacted our owner and said, “These are the conversations I should be having”. He came back and said, “100 per cent”.

‘So that night I sent an email to NRL boss Peter V’landys and said, “We are an ambitious club, we’d love to be part of this, is there a way we can make it work?”.’

Wigan Warriors have conquered all in England, and are now trying to crack America

They will face Warrington at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium, home to last year’s Super Bowl

That email kickstarted three months of negotiations regarding the second edition of Rugby League Las Vegas, the venture launched last year by the all-powerful NRL, who have a contract to run it until 2028.

Organisers initially offered Wigan a standalone fixture in 2025 on the Sunday, a day after the two showpiece NRL matches. But the Warriors were told they would have to foot a $1million (£790,000) bill to rent the 65,000-capacity Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL’s Raiders, so Radlinski pushed back.

‘I said, “We want to be part of the big dance, we want to be part of the NRL show”,’ he explains. ‘I didn’t need to twist their arm as such. I think they see the value of Super League. They came back with a proposal and it was a no-brainer for us.’

That revised proposal was for Wigan to open the event before the two NRL games, with a women’s international between England and Australia also squeezed into a new four-match Saturday schedule.

Next, Radlinski had to sort out the Warriors’ opponents and he instantly thought of the team they beat in last year’s Challenge Cup final, Warrington Wolves.

That was partly because of what he calls the ‘Sam Burgess effect’, with the Wolves boss being an NRL hall of famer. But it was also down to Radlinski’s strong working relationship with Warrington’s owner, concert promoter Simon Moran, and their chief executive, Karl Fitzpatrick.

‘I just thought Warrington, as a club, fits for us,’ admits Radlinski. ‘Like us, they think outside the box and want to do things differently, so I brought it to them and we got together and it’s all gone from there.’

The historic fixture was officially announced last July, with Super League chiefs only too happy to stage a competitive match in America for the first time.

Catalans Dragons beat Wigan at the Spotify Camp Nou in 2019

Wigan ran out winners when they faced Hull FC in Wollongong, Australia

After all, as Radlinski points out: ‘We are helping them do their job, which is growing the brand of Super League.’

The competition’s only stipulation was that the match must still ‘look like a Super League game’, with the ball, corner flags and padded post protectors all still servicing their sponsors.

For Wigan, their American dream meant forfeiting one of their home fixtures for 2025, losing around £100,000 in matchday revenue. Radlinski, though, saw that as a small price to pay for the global exposure his club would gain.

‘We can’t just keep wondering and keep asking why the dial hasn’t changed,’ says the former Wigan and England full-back. ‘We’ve got to do something about it, so that’s what we’ve tried. I don’t see any downsides.’

Wigan will recoup some of that lost matchday money from their share of ticket sales in Vegas. The quadruple header is expected to attract 50,000 fans, surpassing last year’s crowd of 40,000, largely thanks to around 10,000 supporters coming from the UK.

In theory, Saturday will be a new record attendance for a regular Super League fixture, bettering the 31,555 who witnessed Wigan lose to Catalans Dragons at Barcelona’s Spotify Camp Nou.

That 2019 match is one of only two previous Super League games to have been played outside the UK or France. The other came a year earlier and also involved the Warriors, when they beat Hull FC in Wollongong, Australia.

‘But this feels a little bit different,’ says Radlinski. ‘Sky Sports think it’s the biggest game since the start of Super League. They think this is the cut-through moment.’

Michael Buffer has been getting involved in the promotion as part of Sky Sports’ coverage

Buffer presided over a ‘wedding’ ceremony at a pop-up Vegas-style chapel set up in Wigan’s car park

Wigan season-ticket holders John Synott and Sharon Jukes were the happy couple and will get married for real in Vegas on Friday

Proof of how seriously Sky are taking it came earlier this month, when they flew legendary boxing announcer Michael Buffer over from the States to give a Vegas feel to Wigan’s Super League opener against Leigh.

Buffer, whose appearance fees reportedly range from £20,000 to £80,000, introduced the teams on to the pitch with his trademarked catchphrase, ‘Let’s get ready to rumble’.

The next day, the 80-year-old was back at The Brick Community Stadium, presiding over a ‘wedding’ ceremony at a pop-up Vegas-style chapel set up in the car park, which was filmed for a Sky promo.

Wigan season-ticket holders John Synott and Sharon Jukes were the happy couple and will get married for real in Vegas on Friday.

‘When my office was contacted by Sky, at first I thought, “Where is Wigan?”,’ Buffer admits to Mail Sport. ‘They said, “Well, it’s Manchester” and I’ve been to Manchester many times over the years to introduce Ricky Hatton and other great fighters.

‘I soon found out it’s actually an hour from Manchester, but it turned out to be a happy trip and a lot more exciting than I thought it was going to be.

‘I think rugby as a sport has to catch on because it’s just as exciting as the NFL. I’d like to see more fans get involved in watching it. It’s going to have to be marketed right in America, but I think there is an audience out there just waiting for this type of thing.’

The scenes on the Strip so far this week have proved Buffer to be right, with players reporting a buzz among Americans, as well as the travelling English and Aussie contingent.

Buffer was drafted in for Wigan’s Super League season opener against Leigh this month

The Las Vegas Sphere will light up to promote the historic rugby league match

‘It’s as if NFL players were here,’ says Warrington centre Toby King. ‘We were asking a taxi driver where he recommended us to go sightseeing on our day off.

‘He said, “How long are you here for because there is a big game at the weekend – the rugby is in town”. He was excited and wanted to get tickets himself. We trained at the UFC HQ this week and all the fighters were wanting to know about the game and a few of them want to come down. So we are bringing high-profile names into the stadium.’

The Allegiant Stadium spectacle is being promoted all over Sin City, including on the giant LED screens that wrap around the exterior of the famous Sphere arena. A fan hub has also been set up at the popular sports bar RedTail in the Resorts World hotel, where teams have been doing signing and Q&A sessions.

‘Everywhere you look, there is some kind of reminder the event is on this week,’ says Warrington first-team coach Martin Gleeson. ‘There is a carnival atmosphere about the place.’

At times, however, it has also felt like a circus. Gleeson has been forced to take Wire’s training this week after head coach Burgess arrived in Vegas three days late following a delay in being issued his visa, stemming from driving offences he pleaded guilty to in Australia in 2021.

That unwanted sideshow, though, was nothing compared to the embarrassing episode involving two Canberra Raiders stars on the team’s first night in Vegas last Thursday. Morgan Smithies – formerly of Wigan – and Hudson Young came to blows in a hotel lift after a room mix-up left the former without a bed. An inflatable baseball bat, purchased as a souvenir earlier that evening, was mistaken for a real weapon, prompting security to intervene.

The off-field controversy in the build-up, however, is unlikely to overshadow Saturday’s on-field action. For cash-strapped Super League, the chance to share a stage with the mega-rich NRL is a golden one and they are determined to make it count, particularly with a place at the next Vegas events at stake.

‘The NRL are throwing so much at this and is it a great privilege to be part of it,’ says Radlinski. ‘It’s an opportunity to showcase our competition alongside the premier competition in the world. Hopefully it will show Super League in a great light and we can attract new supporters.

Former Wigan player Morgan Smithies was involved in a fight in a lift with his Canberra team-mate last week after a mix-up over beds

Wigan have been unstoppable in recent years, shown here lifting the Super League Grand Final trophy in October 

‘I would love to go to Vegas again, but success for me would be two other Super League clubs going the following year to be part of it.’

King adds: ‘There will be people who question it and say, “What is it going to bring to English rugby league?”. But it’s just getting eyes on our game.

‘I think it can be huge for the sport and something that’s been well needed in rugby league for a long time. We would love to come out here and play in it every year.’

Viva Las Vegas indeed.