Las Vegas could host Lions warm-up match in 2029

The British and Irish Lions could play a warm-up match in Las Vegas en route to New Zealand for their 2029 tour.

It is one of several cities in the United States under consideration to host a landmark Stateside match as the tourists try to keep innovating around their itinerary.

A stop in the USA would break up the journey to New Zealand - the most distant of the Lions' three touring destinations - and provide a showpiece commercial opportunity.

The Lions' next tour sees them visit Australia in 2025.

On their tour of New Zealand in 2017, a jet-lagged Lions team struggled to a scrappy 13-7 win over a Provincial Barbarians side after a 48-hour journey from London to Auckland, featuring brief stop-offs in Dubai and Melbourne.

However, on their last trip to Australia in 2013, they faced the Barbarians in Hong Kong during a stop that tied in with the location of the headquarters of the team's main sponsor at the time.

The Lions will play Argentina in Dublin on 20 June next year as they make their way down under once again.

In addition to three Tests against the Wallabies, next summer’s fixture list includes a match against a combined Australia and New Zealand team.

Las Vegas has made a concerted move into hosting sport in recent years, with the city putting on the NFL's Super Bowl, a Formula 1 Grand Prix and the NBA’s In-Season tournament this year.

Baseball's Oakland Athletics are the latest major franchise to relocate to the city, joining top-level American football and ice hockey teams.

The city has also hosted rugby league and next year Vegas will be the venue for a four-game event, featuring two NRL fixtures, Wigan v Warrington, and England's women's team taking on their Australian counterparts, booked in for March.

A warm-up match for the Lions in the United States in 2029 could form part of a series of events to build interest in rugby union in the run-up to the 2031 and 2033 Rugby World Cups in the country.

New Zealand and Ireland are set to meet in Chicago in autumn 2025, with the 2030 edition of the new biennial Rugby Nations Championship, set to begin in 2026, another possibility to be staged on that side of the Atlantic.