North Queensland Cowboys CEO Jeff Reibel shares excitement for players and fans ahead of Vegas 2026 game
North Queensland fans are set to be the biggest cohort of NRL fans to converge in Vegas in 2026. See what the CEO had to say about the historic announcement.
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North Queensland fans are set to be the biggest cohort of NRL fans to converge in Vegas, if expressions of interest are anything to go by.
With the news that the Cowboys would be on the line-up as one of the four teams headed to Vegas in 2026, excited chief executive Jeff Reibel said the round one international opener has become a significant part of the yearly fixture.
“Vegas is something that started as an experiment, but now is something that is firmly entrenched in the NRL calendar,” he said.
“It’s fast becoming probably one of the most unique and most engaging ways to start a season and for the North Queensland Cowboys to represent our club.”
Mr Reibel said the exposure on the world stage in front of 40 to 50,000 people, for the younger players especially, would add to the professionalism of their game.
“You’ve got some young guys that are just barely out of their teenage years, going to run out on a stadium that hosted the Superbowl,” he said.
Mr Reibel said following the success of the previous years, in terms of engagement both in person and online, it was fantastic for the Cowboys to be added to next year’s games.
With keen fans already putting their hands up to head to Vegas, Mr Reibel said he was very proud of North Queensland fans for getting behind the team.
“The last two times Vegas has happened, we’ve gone out with some expressions of interest to say ‘if we were ever going to play there, would you like to come?’. Both times over 2000 people came back,” he said.
To get the expected large cohort to Vegas, Mr Reibel also announced a chartered Cowboys themed flight is on the cards to take fans from Townsville to Brisbane to then be able to fly internationally to the US.
“We are expecting that to be full and then the opportunity for further packages after that,” he said.
Being one of the “most travelled teams in the NRL”, Mr Reibel said the idea was floated to the players who were keen to represent the club on the world stage.
Using other teams’ experiences as a learning opportunity, he said the club was going to take on board what worked for other teams in terms of recovery and pre-game training.
The Cowboys plan to head over to Vegas a week before the game.
“The Warriors were over there last year, another team that does travel a lot, and so we were able to talk to them about how it was for them, how did they prepare, how did they get back and how quickly did they get back after that?,” he said.
On what American fans will think of the North Queensland spirit, Mr Reibel said it will be “fantastic” and said he hoped fans of the Dallas Cowboys would get behind another Cowboy team.
“We share a pretty iconic name in Cowboys and when I was over there I was fortunate to be there for year one,” he said.
“So when they get to see North Queenslanders in their passion, I think they are going to adopt pretty quickly over there.”
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