Match Day in Vegas 2025: The Sharks vs The Panthers?🏉🦈🐈🏈🎲

This was the game that had brought me halfway around the world to watch.

I had zero interest in visiting Las Vegas before the National Rugby League had announced that The Sharks would be playing their first 2025 fixture in Sin City -

A Visit to the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay on Match Day?🏉🦈

And I had very little interest in ever visiting the USA before that either.

The Vegas police had closed some major roads for us Rugby League fans to make our way to the stadium to see the first of 4 games.

Allegiant Stadium

This was the home of the NFL Vegas team known as The Raiders, which ironically the Australian NRL team the Canberra Raiders would be playing their first game of the season also, against the New Zealand Warriors.

After walking all the way to the stadium, we saw a conditions of entry sign outside of the stadium and my son had to walk all the way back to our Luxor hotel room to leave his backpack and then walk all the way back while I waited outside in the Vegas sun -

A Weekend in Vegas at The Luxor? 🎲🎰

The first game had already started by the time my son got back, but it was only between the two English teams, Wigan and Warrington, and I've never been a fan much of English RL, to be honest.

We took the time to walk around the stadium while the start this game was being played.

Before I found my seat behind this random Rabbithos guy, who happened to be an English guy supporting the Warrington Wolves.

He said he was a Sam Burgess fan, hence the Souths jersey he was wearing.

The Rabbithos weren't even playing that day, and I explained the random Souths guy phenomena to him.

I'd never watched a game of Rugby League under a closed roof before ... or any game of football for that matter.

The tickets we had bought were on the second level above and to the side of the Shark supporter bay.
But after the women's match and right before the Sharks/Panthers game we moved down into the Shark supporter bay, as we noticed a heap of empty seats in there where Pommy footy fans had left vacant for some time, either because they were out drinking at the bars, or gone into Vegas, because their girls were getting smashed on the park by our girls.

We were sitting amongst a lot of Warrington Wolves supporters and were cheering for their team, as they were the underdogs, but they got smashed by Wigan ... and later when The Sharks were playing, and these supporters were going for The Panthers and giving us Shark supporters s#it, I was glad that Wigan had smashed them in that first game:-)

From what I could tell on the night, the Warriors supporters were the ones with the most fans in Vegas and had really come out to support their team.

Unfortunately for them the Canberra Raiders smashed them on the scoreboard in that game.

But the biggest flogging on the night was when our Aussie girls beat the Poms by a cricket score. 

That game emptied out the stadium a fair bit, which gave me the idea to sneak down into the Sharks supporter's bay and grab two seats.

These seats were a lot dearer than the ones we had paid for on the second level.

At least our game had the closest scoreline on the night, even though my team lost.

And the real Sharkie fans like us hung around until we got kicked out of the stadium.

Unfortunately, where we were standing at the end of the match made it near impossible to shake hands with the players.

But it was still a night to remember, as that's the furtherest any of us Sharkie supporters have travelled for an away game I believe:-)

But will we do it again in 5 years' time?

Good question?

I had to laugh when watching a replay of the game on Fox Sports when I got back to Australia, that my son made it onto the TV screen, and I got cut out of the picture because I was on his left:-)
Plus, there was another random Souths person on the screen:-) 

UPDATE: April 3rd, 2025

Ironically, my Sharks helmet and Vegas drink holder, which I ordered before I left for the USA arrived on April Fool's Day:-)