ROUND One of the 2024 NRL Telstra Premiership was taken away from Australia to Las Vegas for the very time this year and a reported 15,000 Aussie’s made the trip to see the historic sporting event.

The chance to visit Allegiant Stadium, just off the famous glitter strip, was an opportunity too good to pass up for thousands of sporting fans, including well-known Hervey Bay businessman Glen Fry and his family.

“We primarily made the decision to go, as Souths are my team and the idea of watching them play in Vegas was too good to pass up. Secondly, we hadn’t been on a decent holiday since pre-covid times so this was a no brainer,” Glen said.

“Once I knew the games were actually locked in at the end of 2023, I started investigating all the options to make it a great family trip. I’ve been fortunate enough to have been to the United States many times over the years and planning a three-week trip isn’t actually that hard once you have a starting point.”

“We had a rental car for the entire trip so once we landed in LA, we drove to Williams AZ, went to the Grand Canyon, Vegas, San Diego, Santa Monica and then home. One of the best road trips I’ve done and I had my kids with me.”

Glen had seen a few other sports events in America on previous trips, but not with the same intent as this.

“I’ve seen a couple of NFL and Baseball games over the years but they were purely by chance. I just happened to be in the right place at the right time.”

“I honestly didn’t see much of the lead up in Australia but I can tell you there were “a lot” of Aussies on the plane and they were all going to Vegas to watch the footy.”

“I spoke to several on the plane and they all had the same plans we did. Albeit other destinations tagged on, but the catalyst was the same. Their favourite team was playing round one in Vegas and it wasn’t to be missed.”

Once the game day came along, it was an experience Glen and his family will always remember.

“We were surrounded by Aussies. We had a couple of Broncos supporters next to us, who live in Canada who caught the ball from the goal kick in the Brisbane vs. Roosters game and got to keep it.”

“There was a guy from Sydney now living in Utah there with his daughter and they were both so excited. Everyone was so pumped it was just awesome.”

“The event itself was absolutely epic. Apart from an Origin game, I’ve never been to a game like it. The launch of round one in Vegas with about 45,000 Aussies (that’s what I’ve heard) is something I’ll never forget.”

Although the event was a big hit in Australia, Glen didn’t see that same frenzy on the ground over there.

“Surprisingly we didn’t see much in the way of advertising at all apart from the massive LED signs on the actual stadium that you could see as you drove by.”

“I did catch a segment on FOX sports the day before and the presenter was giving a rundown on the game play. Kick off, passing, tackles, tries, goal kicks, drop goals etc. He was winding it up as American sports presenters do and I can only assume there was a massive amount of advertising going on before we got to Vegas that we didn’t see.”

“When asked by staff in shops why we were here we would tell them and honestly most seemed to not know anything about it which I found a little surprising.”

“The ones that did know, had no idea what our game was and thought it was soccer. Then you got into the whole conversation trying to explain the differences between Rugby League and Rugby Union and whatever they thought Rugby was.”

“Listening to my daughter Macie trying to explain who the Rabbitohs were to some random shop assistant, was pretty funny when you think about it.”