Massive potential but will sadly require massive investment that we don't have. Better to start grassroots and build slowly.

It would be very difficult. Popularity in sport generally stems from familiarity. Football, soccer, baseball are already too ingrained into the social culture over there. For rugby league to become popular it would have to become familiar. For it to be familiar it needs to have widespread participation in schools and there needs to be some sort of career path with a pro league etc.

You only have to watch state of origin to know that if the yanks were familiar with it, they'd love it.

If i was roman abramovich rich i'd chuck a few hundred million at it. I'd be saying look, theres so much competition in football, it's the best of the best, but heres a new a new, fast growing sport you could be successful in.

I think if you were able to get it played in schools with eventually a pro league set up, then within a generation, say 25 years, the US would be the dominant rugby league nation on the planet.

Have you just compared RL in the UK with the whole world of Association football? Really?
RL in the UK is small and that is just in the UK when you try and compare it with US sports it goes from small to tiny. That is hardly unachievable is it.

Wont mean much in the states with the fans that watch already the USA team is unknown to most of them to the one that played Canada a few weeks ago.

I don't think we have the resources or even the remotest of possibility to crack the US.

We should concentrate on the home nations and France.

If you're talking about impact from the World Cup, I think Italy should be the next step. Talk in the RL papers last week about a team in Northern Italy.

The nasl didn’t have a huge profile, big crowds or international stars. There was a short period of time in the mid 70’s that the league splashed out to bring some household names in to try and gain a profile but it didn’t work its best league averages were 13k. For the last few years it was a joke league that even had the US mens national side playing in it at one point. It collapsed in 1984 and the US was without a professional league for 12 years before the MLS was set up.

For a long time the US almost defined its sporting psyche in opposition to football. But the MLS now has done brilliant work. It is now, by no means a small sport or competition. That wasn’t the case 20-25 years ago. Then it was a joke. It took the catalyst of the 94 world cup for them to get their house in order and put in place a structure that could grow in to what the MLS is now.

Is RL realistically going to become the new NFL? No, probably not, certainly not in the next 50 years. Could within 10-15 years the US have a strong healthy pro game which matches the traditional big 3? Yes.
There are thousands of athletes in the US that could be stars in our game that simply will never play competitive sport again after high-school never mind college. There is a clear window in the market for a contact sport during the US summer. The fact is that even without getting to MLS levels of support and visibility, the US could have a competitive, stable, professional RL league, which could compete with the big three.

I always think that Japan would be a far better rugby league side than a union one. Fierce in the tackle, brave and skillful. Don't see it happening though.

It is pointless speculating about prospects for rugby league in the USA when the RLF dominated RLIF cannot even get the World Cup televised in the USA!

Rugby League in the USA?

For any sport to go pro there has to be money. There is relatively very little money in RL. Certainly not enough to break into the USA.

It seems we are always on the look out for someway to break through some barrier domestically or internationally.

The game in the USA is going to be grown by enthusiasts and amature set ups.
We must remember that RL as a pro sport is less than 20 years old in the UK. Players have been paid, but only as part-timers, until relatively recently.

I think a more concentrated effort in places like France and Wales will yeild better fruit in terms of increasing the competitiveness of national sides. I'm not saying abandon all other places. But there must be a focus for the majority of resources into places that can yeild results within a time frame of less than 100 years.

There would be zero point in the govering bodies of RL investing cash in the USA.

I have always been of the opinion that investing in somewhere like Nigeria would have been the way to go - but probably missed the boat now. As a country it has a huge population, a big, athletic population and money in the past went a long long way.

Just because RL may never big a huge sport in the US doesn't mean it should be developed and made into a viable semi-pro/pro sport there. Too many people are eager to give up!

Rugby league in the US is like a fart in a thunderstorm. Always will be. This World Cup will have absolutely zero impact for a number of reasons.

Might aswell just give up then eh? Actually let's just cancel rugby league and join union instead

Not necessarily. All I am saying is let's not get hysterical as to what reaching the quarter-finals might do and whether the RFL need it to happen. There is a long list of more pressing issues that the rugby league world needs to worry about first, even if anybody had the untold millions to plough into the sport in the US for the next 2 decades.

As I keep saying on here, Canada is a far better bet - no petty squabbling, TV coverage, 8k crowds, sponsorship. Of course, it's not seen as glamorous as the US so never gets the credit it deserves.