Expected crowds for the tournament

[crimpo]

Avignon certainly shouldn't be a problem - over 14,000 showed up to see Ireland there a couple of years ago. Neath may not be the biggest stadium (c6,000) but if they can sell it out then that would be very good work by Wales RL. The last three years have seen Ireland play there twice - each time drawing just over 2,000. Wrexham will be interesting - they'd expect to top 5,000 there too.

I'd be slightly more worried about the Workington and Bristol fixtures - but, like Rochdale, its good that folks there will get the chance to see a World Cup game. Hope for respectable crowds there rather than anything earth-shattering!

 

[Evil Homer]

Avignon certainly shouldn't be a problem - over 14,000 showed up to see Ireland there a couple of years ago. Neath may not be the biggest stadium (c6,000) but if they can sell it out then that would be very good work by Wales RL. The last three years have seen Ireland play there twice - each time drawing just over 2,000. Wrexham will be interesting - they'd expect to top 5,000 there too.

I'd be slightly more worried about the Workington and Bristol fixtures - but, like Rochdale, its good that folks there will get the chance to see a World Cup game. Hope for respectable crowds there rather than anything earth-shattering!

Workington is apparently close to a sell-out for both fixtures.

 

[roughyedspud]

as is rochdale apparently

 

[mattystans000]

as long as we match the 16,331 average of the last world cup i'll be happy...

Out of interest, I looked at the wikipedia-given crowd capacities of all the RLWC2013 Stadiums. If we maxed out each stadium with a capacity under 20k, through the group stages, we'd have an average crowd of 11,909 across 15 games.

The remaining 11 games of the tournament, groups and knockout stage, (including Opening Ceremony, Semi Finals & WC Final) would need to average 22,362 to equal the 16,331 average of RLWC08.

Do people think this is an achievable target? Doesn't seem unreasonable if the Opening Ceremony, Semi Finals & WC Final all get huge 50k+ crowds, and i'm sure they'll each get something close to that.

 

[deal.with.it]

I think its very reasonable. But Bristol, Salford, limerick could let us down. But a sold out final and strong opener & semi would fix that.

What a shame BBC is only showing England's matches.

 

[deluded pom?]

I've just bought eight tickets for four games including the opener at Cardiff for £85 for all eight using the 100 DAYS code!!!! I'm off to Halifax to see Tonga v Italy for the ridiculous price of £7.50 for a seat in the East stand.

 

[undertaker]

I think its very reasonable. But Bristol, Salford, limerick could let us down. But a sold out final and strong opener & semi would fix that.

What a shame BBC is only showing England's matches.

They did exactly the same in the 1995 World Cup (+ the 2 semi-finals and final). I don't know why you thought anything different would eventuate.

Before the Ch7 deal was struck in Australia for this year's World Cup, even Fox Sports only wanted to show the Australian matches + finals.

 

[deal.with.it]

Yeah I'm not expecting more, but it's still a shame - purely based on a developmental viewpoint and the wonders having a heap of rugby league being broadcast to a large UK audience with packed stadiums.

I'm not sure Premier Sports has more than 10k subscribers.

 

[JonG]

I think its very reasonable. But Bristol, Salford, limerick could let us down. But a sold out final and strong opener & semi would fix that.

What a shame BBC is only showing England's matches.

Bristol sales are going very well by all accounts - for some reason there is a bit of a buzz about this game.

BBC are also showing the Wales opener at Cardiff, and I believe the other semi final is being shown by the BBC.

So that's 8 games on National FTA.

I reckon they will also show a couple more as we get closer, and they have full highlights package.

With this 100DAYS offer I think we will be getting another media release soon stating a surge in sales - a lot of the grounds now have all sections open - a sure sign sales are going well

 

[deal.with.it]

I thought BBC was only showing one quarter and one semi final.

 

[undertaker]

BBC are also showing the Wales opener at Cardiff, and I believe the other semi final is being shown by the BBC.

So that's 8 games on National FTA.

I thought BBC was only showing one quarter and one semi final.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/rugby-league/22090001

For this year's tournament, there will be live TV and radio coverage of all England's group games, plus a quarter-final, a semi-final and the final.

In addition to live coverage, there will also be regular TV highlights programmes throughout the tournament and extensive coverage on BBC Radio, the BBC Sport website and the BBC Sport app.

Only England's 3 group games vs Australia/Fiji/Ireland, ONE quarter-final (the one that England is involved in), ONE semi-final (the one England is involved in if they make the semis which they should) and the final. 6 games out of 28 on FTA tv. I'm somewhat surprised BBC didn't get to televise the other semi-final and other 3 quarter-finals, hence taking the overall FTA tally to 10 games.

Although it's a part of the opening double header, the Wales/Italy game isn't going to be on BBC. Why the hell would BBC want to? It'd rate terribly, hence why it's the second game of the double header.

 

[undertaker]

I'm not sure Premier Sports has more than 10k subscribers.

The more and more I think about this, I can't believe that either Premiers Sports outbidded Sky Sports for the PayTV rights, or Sky Sports simply did not WANT the PayTV rights for this tournament. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the second option after they found out that BBC got the rights to England's matches which is all they may have been interested in (just like Fox Sports in Australia only wanting to broadcast the Aussie games + finals). Sky Sports did televise numerous games of the last ill-fated 2000 World Cup, including the opening match between England and Australia at Twickenham.

Sky Sports has a much larger audience compared to Premier Sports. Sucks to think that a major matches such as quarter-finals and furthermore, a semi-final will be on a tv network with about 10,000 subscribers as you said.

 

[yakstorm]

BBC has confirmed since that release that they will broadcast the Wales v Italy game on BBC2.

BBC has rights to pick up another 7 fixtures. Whether they do or not won't be decided till later in the tournament and I'm sure dependant on gaps in their programming.

 

[Storm13]

Does all of the Uk share the same tv provider's/content?

 

[undertaker]

Just had a look at an old site and in the 2000 World Cup, BBC covered 8 matches:

*4 games during the group phase (Ireland vs Samoa, Scotland vs NZ Maoris, England vs Fiji and Wales vs New Zealand),
*2 quarter-finals, (Australia vs Samoa and Wales vs Papua New Guinea)
*1 semi-final (England vs New Zealand)
*Final (Australia vs New Zealand)

All games kicked off at 3pm except for the Wales/PNG Q/F which was at 5pm

Sky covered 10 matches

*5 games during the group phase (England vs Australia, Wales vs Cook Islands, England vs Russia, Wales vs Lebanon, and Ireland vs NZ Maoris)
*2 quarter-finals (England vs Ireland and New Zealand vs France)
*1 semi-final (Australia vs Wales)
*Final (Australia vs New Zealand)

So, only 17 out of 31 matches in the tournament were broadcasted in the UK by Sky or BBC

In addition, Australia's matches vs Russia and Fiji were shown in Australia on Fox Sports (called by Andrew Voss IIRC).

 

[undertaker]

BBC has confirmed since that release that they will broadcast the Wales v Italy game on BBC2.

BBC has rights to pick up another 7 fixtures. Whether they do or not won't be decided till later in the tournament and I'm sure dependant on gaps in their programming.

That's good to hear an additional game on terrestrial tv over there.

If BBC do have the rights to pick up 7 more, I'd have to think if they have the choice that they'd be stupid not to pick the remaining 3 Q/Fs + the other semi as 4 of those matches.

 

[deal.with.it]

That is good news. Do u have a link?
don't know why Scotland and Wales' matches on local bbc or bbc 2.
When should we expect tv rights for the rest of the world to be confirmed?

 

[Evil Homer]

The more and more I think about this, I can't believe that either Premiers Sports outbidded Sky Sports for the PayTV rights, or Sky Sports simply did not WANT the PayTV rights for this tournament. I wouldn't be surprised if it's the second option after they found out that BBC got the rights to England's matches which is all they may have been interested in (just like Fox Sports in Australia only wanting to broadcast the Aussie games + finals). Sky Sports did televise numerous games of the last ill-fated 2000 World Cup, including the opening match between England and Australia at Twickenham.

Sky Sports has a much larger audience compared to Premier Sports. Sucks to think that a major matches such as quarter-finals and furthermore, a semi-final will be on a tv network with about 10,000 subscribers as you said.

They didn't outbid them, Sky wanted exclusive broadcast rights which was not an option.

BBC will hopefully show more games, they've already confirmed Wales v Italy in a live prime-time slot on one of the main channels

 

[BODISGOD]

I read in Forty-20 that Sky came in with a poor offer, IMG went off and looked elsewhere then came back to negotiate. Sky said they had spent the money already.

 

[Arucard]

10k sold for the Avignon game.
One stand sold out in Neath.
One stand almost sold out in Huddersfield.