NRL
4 months ago
“We want to conquer”: Cameron George's steely approach to Warriors in Vegas
By Logan Swinkels
The One NZ Warriors will be one of four NRL teams making the trip to Las Vegas for the 2025 season opening event - and it's being done on their terms.
CEO Cameron George has revealed to SENZ's Running It Straight that their fixture at Allegiant Stadium will be marked as an away game on the NRL schedule for the Auckland-based club.
"That was a non-negotiable for us. It doesn't impact on our schedule for 2025 in terms of the number of home games we have either here in New Zealand, or the Magic Round - that was really important to us."
The Warriors will face the Canberra Raiders at the home of the NFL's Las Vegas Raiders. With a large contingent of their supporters expected to make the trip stateside, George is aware of the marketing opportunities being presented to his club by being involved and expanding their footprint in the rugby league landscape.
"In general, it grows and exposes your brand to new audiences. If we can get over there and capture the hearts of a large amount of new supporters. All of a sudden they buy merchandise, they follow you, they become members and they become your ambassadors around the world - that grows business and that's what it's all about," George said.
"Growing this with the NRL also feeds revenue back into our game. So the more revenue we can make (for) the NRL through these opportunities, the more money that comes back into the sport and filters down into the clubs."
Penrith Panthers, the current NRL champions, will face the Cronulla Sharks as the other NRL matchup in a four-game footy festival. Super League's Wigan Warriors and Warrington Wolves also square off, along with the Australian Jillaroos versus the England women's national team.
The 15-hour journey from Auckland to Las Vegas, and the impact that long haul flights can have on a person's performance, is a factor that the club CEO is looking to manage as best as possible.
"It's very important that we learnt from the experiences of the clubs that went this year. We've had extensive discussions with them and we've learnt what worked, what didn't work," George said.
"For us, another non-negotiable was that we would go to Vegas for the entire time. We don't want to have stopovers in Los Angeles, start training, and then have to move the whole group again. So being stable throughout the week and having the same training facility was some advice we got back, and thankfully the NRL agreed to that as well.
"We will travel the best way we possibly can, and get the most efficient travel schedules we can, to get the boys back (to New Zealand)."
The NRL's festival was a gamble that has garnered criticism, most recently from the Sydney Morning Herald's Andrew Webster, suggesting that the competition's venture to America has already jumped the shark and that four games on the 2025 schedule was simply 'overkill'.
For the Warriors, they are determined to not let the journey become a negative on their campaign, but rather set a winning mentality from 'week zero' onwards.
"It's an experience but it's one that we want to conquer. We want to go there and win and have a great memory of it," George told SENZ.
"There's two parts to it: there's commercial and then there's footy, but there's no greater experience than winning and that's what we've got to do."
The Warriors' Vegas matchup against the Raiders is scheduled for a 1pm kick-off (NZ time) on March 2.
Listen to the latest episode of Running It Straight below:
