As the NRL explores more options for expansion, Australian Rugby Union Committee Chairman Peter V’landys has flagged a bold plan that involves capitalizing on “wasted” talent overseas. .
Speaking on Triple M’s ‘Sunday Sin Bin’, V’landys expressed his desire to create a pathway for college football players who aren’t in the NFL to play football.
The ARLC president said that ambition is part of a broader perception that the game needs to explore “new markets” and different ways to generate interest and growth.
“There’s a market in the US for NFL players to come here,” V’landys said.
“The model is basketball. Anyone who doesn’t play basketball in the US goes to Australia. Then there is the road between the two countries.
“Where would all the NFL players go if they weren’t in the NFL? Where do all the college players go?
“You just get a dozen or so people coming in and there will be a lot of Americans interested in our game.
“America is a big market for us and that’s clear to me when I see how small a country Australia is for broadcasters in the US. You have to look at new markets and the US is potentially a new market for us.”
V’landys said he “absolutely” plans to develop some kind of development fork in the US that will help build a legal pathway for college football players.
“You have to look at the big markets, you have to look outside,” he added.
“Like I said, you have to be ambitious, you have to consider where the growth can come from. One lesson I learned from talking to all the major broadcasters like Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Twitter is that Australia in the scheme of things is a pimple. It’s too small.
“They want big markets so you need to develop your market and if the US is one of those places you should get there sooner rather than later.”
It comes after former NRL player Gorden Tallis pitched a similar idea earlier in the show.
“The most wasted talent in sports is America,” he said.
“If you don’t play in the NFL, there are thousands of people sitting there. There are 20-year-olds and 18-year-olds… if we really want to grow the game and the market, why don’t we look there?”
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