NRL 2026: Peter V’landys says NRL’s vision is to play games in Miami, Japan, Hong Kong and more, global, Las Vegas, reaction, news

ARL Commission chief Peter V’landys has never been one to die wondering.

In addition to being behind the NRL’s Las Vegas opening round innovation, he is considered the brainchild of The Everest horse race, which in just ten years, has become the second most popular race in Australia behind the Melbourne Cup.

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Springboarding off the success of Las Vegas, V’landys and NRL are desperate to expand rugby league’s reach on a global scale.

“We want a global round. We want to go right around the world,” V’landys told Fox Sports News in Las Vegas ahead of the 2026 season opening double header.

“We’re looking at Wembley Stadium (UK), we’re looking at Abu Dhabi, Japan, Hong Kong and even Miami.

“I think people will add this occasion as a part of their holiday … We’re giving them bucket list items to attend.

“You have to have ambition. If you don’t have ambition, you’ll just stay still.”

V’landys is a pie in the sky thinker but even he could never have imagined the rousing success of the NRL’s decision to start the season in Vegas.

Television viewership in the US went up 285% between the first and second year while Australian travellers to Vegas for the double-header have gone up year on year.

In fact, V’landys revealed that this year will break a new record for Australian visitors.

“This is the biggest Australian contingent we’ve ever had. Close to 20,000 have made the trip and another 10,000 from England… We’ve basically taken over Las Vegas” V’landys said.

“Everyone looked at us blankly when we said we were going to Vegas and 20,000 people later, look how successful it is.

“It has exceeded my expectations. I expected us to get three or four thousand Australians but to end up getting 20,000 it’s unbelieveable.”

The ARLC boss also detailed the unintended benefit the Vegas experiement has had back in Australia.

“Vegas has given us the momentum for the rest of the season and gets us off to a flying start,” he said.

“We have the highest rating round being round 1, but those viewers have stuck on. They’ve started off casual fans but now they’re engaged viewers and that’s part of the success of Vegas which we didn’t expect, and that’s getting a new audience in Australia

“It’s getting traction here which is key. Last year we had over 500,000 viewers (in the USA) which is great but what is also great is that a lot more people are subscribing to our international app WatchNRL which generates significant new revenue for us.

“It’s had that ancillary benefit which wasn’t planned in promoting the game around the Australia and getting that momentum.”