Only chance it will rival Sl or NRL is if the American Tv companies become interested and develop a viewing audience. Soccer hasn;t managed to do it despite all their money, profile and world game so I'm not holding my breath for RL, we're struggling to get out of North of England and East Coast of Australia.

I would very much like to see the US become a serious player in the RL world – they certainly have the attitude to sport and athletic talent to make it happen if some momentum builds up

The impact on the wider world is not so clear – another strong nation would help with competitive world cups etc but seeing as the US hasn’t really exported its two main sports of American Football or Baseball globally, I’m not sure they could impact the rest of world’s attitude to RL. The US simply operates on a different sporting latitude to the rest of the world

Never embraced monumental change to branching out with certain 'gimmicks' like we've had over the recent years, but having a strong US competition and National team just has something about it which is far more beneficial.

Baseball is a huge worldwide sport, just not in countries we interact with. Check out the players in the MLB, they're from all over the place. Baseball has professional leagues in japan, korea venezuela and is huge (albeit MLB orientated) in cuba, venezula, mexico, has a MLB team in Canada (toronto blue jays). In reality nobody is really global (even soccer has large blind spots) but there are spheres of 'influence' and the US's is huge. I'll settle for an impact via the US on south and central america, japan and korea. Thats what over a billion people?

The next four biggest team sports in the US (baseball, basketball, hockey and soccer) are all played internationally to significant extent. Gridiron is the exception, not the rule.