The Rugby Football League (RFL) has started a search for a headline sponsor for this autumns inaugural Four Nations Rugby League tournament involving Australia, England, France and World Champions New Zealand.
The four week long tournament, to decide the best team in World Rugby League in 2009, kicks off in late October and will see games played in London, Yorkshire, Lancashire and France.
All games will be televised to 40 countries worldwide and in the UK games will be broadcast by either the BBC or Sky Sports with viewer numbers expected to vary between 350,000 and 1.5 per million per game.
A launch event is also planned for later this year as is an international awards ceremony in the build up to the Four Nations Final that will be played at Elland Road, Leeds.
Paul Kimberley, the RFLs Commercial Director, said: This is a fantastic opportunity for a brand to raise its profile and associate itself with one of the UKs fastest growing sports by sponsoring a prestigious international tournament. Last years World Cup in Australia was a huge success commercially with record TV audiences and its likely that this years Four Nations will follow suit.
Rugby League prides itself on being a family sport and inclusive for all and were pricing tickets for this event accordingly. Not only will this tournament attract bumper crowds but also big TV audiences with both the BBC and Sky screening fixtures.
Following their World Cup victory last year, New Zealand will start the tournament as joint favourites with Australia. However with games on home soil both France and England will fancy their chances of success.
This will be the first year that a Four Nations tournament has taken place and is an expansion of successful Gillette Tri-Nations events involving Australia, England and New Zealand that were held in 2004, 05 and 06.
Although Gillette will continue as England shirt sponsor for the next two years they have decided not to follow up their Tri-Nations sponsorship with that of the Four Nations.
Nathan Homer, Business Leader, Gillette UK & Ireland, said: The Tri-Nations was a fantastic event for Gillette and helped us meet our objectives at the time.
Since the last tournament weve changed our sponsorship objectives slightly and are now investing more resources into grassroots Rugby League as well as the England national team who we are committed to until the end of 2010. We naturally wish the RFL, who are one of our longest standing and strongest partners, all the best with this years tournament.
Anyone wanting more information on the Four Nations should e-mail
huw.ellis@rfl.uk.com
