LAS VEGAS — Patrick Delany stood in front of an elaborate outdoor Fox TV set with the backdrop of the Las Vegas Strip in the background, beaming.
This is where Fox is delivering much of the pre-game content for the build-up to Saturday’s historic first-time National Rugby League doubleheader pitting the Manly Sea Eagles against the South Sydney Rabbitohs and the Brisbane Broncos against the Sydney Roosters at Allegiant Stadium.
Delany is the chief executive officer of the Foxtel Group, which oversees the broadcasting of the NRL matches, and sounded overwhelmed by the buzz that these matches are creating.
“From a perspective of getting our game into America, it’s the start of a journey,’’ Delany told The Post. “They’ll have to come back every year (there is a five-year contract signed) and keep pushing it forward. We have an international streaming service called ‘WatchNRL’ so Americans can watch it there. We’re also running it on Fox-1, so you can see what the sport’s like.
“The other interesting thing is that betting on the NRL is very, very big in Australia,’’ Delany went on. “That’s another aspect of this. America is a young country in sports betting, so it may well be that part of the betting will make it bigger here. It may well turn out that betting on the league is something that takes off in America.’’
What is a success this week?
“I can tell you in Australia it’s already is a success,’’ Delany said. “There’s such a big buzz. We’re a little island nation and for us to take something like this overseas. We’ve taken our game to Las Vegas has created a buzz for this season already.
“I’m interested to see what the crowd is Saturday night. I think anything over 30,000 people that are coming to see us would be great — and I think it might be much bigger than that. And if you get bigger than that in that magnificent stadium, you’ll get quite a bit of atmosphere. So that’s a huge win.
“And,’’ Delany went on, “just speaking to you (The Post) and you guys talking about the NRL in America is big.’’
Delany and Foxtel are also with Kayo Sports, which is a streaming service for the matches.
“The first thing, thinking domestically at home, I’m happy with all the noise this has created in Australia,’’ Delany said. “Every sports fan in Australia is going, ‘What is this thing, Las Vegas and the NFL there?’ So that helps us sell more subscriptions to Kayo.
“The teams that are playing each other are such glamorous places in Australia — Manly Beach, Bondi Beach for the Roosters, then up in Brisbane, where the Broncos play, is another hugely glamorous city. It’ll be interesting to bring that part of Australia to America as well.’’
Tickets for the NRL matches are available and can be purchased through Ticketmaster, with the prices starting as low as $19 — a far cry from the lowest face-value price of a Super Bowl ticket last month ($950). Seats in the lower tier start from $39 and go up to $189 for club seats.
The first of the two matches begins at 9:30 p.m. Eastern time and can be seen on “Watch NRL,’’ a streaming app.
The doubleheader will be shown in the US on FS1.
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