The Warriors are going to Las Vegas.

The Auckland team will be part of the league extravaganza in the Nevada city next March, after being officially chosen as one of four teams for the season-opening weekend in 2025.

The Warriors will be joined by the Penrith Panthers, Cronulla Sharks and Canberra Raiders, with the dates set to be confirmed later this week. The match will be played at the 65,000 capacity Allegiant Stadium, home of the NFL’s Las Vegas Raiders.

It means the Warriors’ 2025 season will start a week earlier – in what is dubbed “round zero” – to allow players’ sufficient travel and recovery time before their round two match a fortnight later.

It’s a timely move for the Auckland club. It means they can capitalise on their current popularity, shown by the run of sellout crowds this season. It’s also seen as good timing – in the second edition of the five year Las Vegas deal – when interest from both potential travelling fans and curious American residents will still be high.

The Warriors have been in the mix for a Vegas spot since last December, when the Herald was first to report that the club had put their hat in the ring, along with seven other NRL teams. Since then they have had time to undertake due diligence on the venture, as well as soak up lessons and advice from the four clubs that made the trip this year (Manly, Brisbane, South Sydney and Sydney Roosters).

Former Warriors Reece Walsh put on a show in the first edition of NRL Las Vegas. Photo / AP

The club are excited by the opportunity, in what will be a chance for commercial growth, given the pockets of support they already have in the United States. They are also counting on a significant number of Kiwis who will make the trip, with charter flights for fans likely to be organised.

More than 15,000 supporters made the trip this year from Australasia. While the matches didn’t attract the United States television audience the NRL had hoped for – mainly due to scheduling – the crowd was impressive, with more than 40,000 in attendance for the double header.

The week also garnered massive media exposure, while tickets for the matches were purchased in 31 countries around the world. The Roosters versus Broncos match also attracted the largest television audience (in Australasia) for a regular season match in NRL history.

There are performance considerations to the trip but the football department is obviously confident they can be managed. The match will be classed as an away game for the Warriors, which was a non-negotiable factor to their involvement, given they already have home games in Christchurch and Brisbane (Magic Round) next year.

The Warriors are seen as a trump card for the NRL in their attempts to grow the brand, given they have much wider appeal than the average suburban Sydney club. For this reason they did consider holding the Auckland team until the 3rd or 4th year of the Vegas deal, to boost the offering towards the end of the current contract the NRL holds with Las Vegas. But they eventually decided that 2025 was the best option, especially given the explosion of interest around the Auckland team.

Michael Burgess has been a sports journalist since 2005, winning several national awards and covering Olympics, Fifa World Cups and America’s Cup campaigns. He has also reported on the Warriors and NRL for more than a decade.