The club’s chief executive, Paul Lakin, explains how they reached the top so quickly and what it will take to stay there
When Hull Kingston Rovers play Leeds Rhinos in Las Vegas on Saturday night, they will do so as domestic treble winners and world club champions. The club’s chief executive, Paul Lakin, explains how they made it this far and what they want to achieve next.
Leeds say they will struggle to break even on Vegas as the Super League teams have to pay all their own costs. So how difficult a decision was it to give up a home game to go? “It was a big decision and one that we didn’t take lightly. Part of our strategy is to constantly raise our profile and when you looked at the results from a marketing and audience perspective for Wigan v Warrington in Vegas last year, the eyeballs on that were incredible. You don’t get given a pot of money: you have to generate your own money through ticket sales. But like Leeds, we felt that we have a big enough fanbase to financially support our ability to go out there. It’s an incredibly tough schedule but to put ourselves on that stage was too big an opportunity to turn down. A year ago we said: ‘What if we won the Grand Final? It’ll be the World Club Challenge and straight into Vegas.’ We just decided to worry about it when it happens. And now it’s happened!”
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