Rugby league Immortal Andrew Johns believes the NRL has a big opportunity to get a foothold in America if it can be one of the first sports in the world to return to TV screens.
While the NRL has been given the green light by the NSW Government to resume if it can provide a safe workplace for its employees, opinions are still split on whether the code should come back on the proposed date of May 28.
The Queensland Government has not given its three clubs permission to travel back and forth across the border, with ARLC boss Peter V'Landys confirming he'll send the Sunshine State authorities a proposal on Friday.
If they do pull it off, the NRL will jump in at a rare moment in time, giving them a captive market of sports-lovers all over the globe.
The biggest daddy of them all is the USA, which has the largest sports industry in the world but has been one of the hardest hit nations by the pandemic.
Right now more than 300 million people are stuck at home desperate for entertainment but have no sport to watch at a time when the country would normally be in the thick of the NBA playoffs.
Speaking to Brad Fittler for Wide World of Sports' Freddy and The Eighth, Johns said the NRL needs to be prepared to pounce if it's given the opportunity to resume in late May.
"I'm excited about getting started before anyone else if we get started on May 28. We'll be one of the first sports in the world," Johns said.
"Everyone in the world is crying out for some sport, especially America. If you have a look at the basic rules how NFL is run – the games are so far apart – but the logic of how you play it and the rules can be very similar. If we get a tiny foothold in the US it could be really interesting."
When COVID-19 hit the sports world earlier this year the NRL and AFL were part of a small group of leagues to continue. Both had a very limited window before they too were forced to shut down but reports at the time claimed the NRL was in discussions with US broadcaster ESPN to air games.
At this time of year ESPN would normally be showcasing the NBA, NHL, MLB and college basketball as part of their wall to wall coverage of US sports. But with a big question mark over the American leagues, the network has a huge gap in its programming.
However, any broadcast deal outside of Australia would need consent from Foxtel, with the NRL's current broadcast deal giving Fox Sports the international rights.
Three live NRL games a round are currently broadcast on Fox Sports networks in the US.
Regardless of which network ends up taking the game to American audiences there have been enough signs of a developing cult following in recent years to suggest the US market could be awakened.
Most recently, US sports fans gave the NRL their tick of approval after vision of Jorge Taufua's bone-jarring hit on Cameron Munster went viral. That moment was picked up by US social media giant House of Highlights and within days had more than 2 million views.
It was also given a run by popular sports site Bleacher Report and posted on Twitter, with NBA stars including Bradley Beale lauding the brute force on display.
from WWOS http://wwos.nine.com.au/nrl/nrl-news-andrew-johns-early-return-exposure-us/14838a95-149d-4ea8-94aa-e0034df7aacf
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