f**k me. 1 week out and our CEO is relying on walk ups, eligibility furore and England causing an upset for this to be a success. Bulldogs have picked up a real winner here...
http://www.afr.com/business/sport/h...cup-can-be-a-financial-winner-20171020-gz4uwm
Rugby League World Cup chief executive Andrew Hill will know the tournament will be successful if he sees long lines of fans queuing to get in for the two Lebanon games at the Sydney Football Stadium in about two weeks' time.
The World Cup kicks off on Friday night with a match between hot favourites Australia and long-time rivals England, but wider interest in the tournament that will be played in Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea will ultimately hinge on the fans of other countries becoming passionate about the event.
In Sydney, that means Lebanon. Plenty of players across NRL teams in the city are of Lebanese descent, and Hill and his team have worked hard to pique the interest of the large Lebanese community in order to get them to turn up to matches against England and Australia on November 4 and 11, respectively.
"We've reached out and appointed 200 ambassadors from the community," Hill tells The Australian Financial Review. "They are people of influence [like] church leaders, school teachers and other community leaders. We know there is strong pride in their culture and as Lebanese-Australians what would be better for them than to turn up to watch an iconic sporting event.
"But what we are told is that many in the community have that habit of turning up [to sports events] and paying cash at the gate on the day. So while we have that expectation that we will get strong crowds, we really don't know for sure until then."
If the tournament gets on a roll though – and i
nterest is picking up after the high-profile defection of players such as Australian international Andrew Fifita and his New Zealand counterpart Jason Taumalolo – then the fiscal returns will be greater.
Hill and the Rugby League World Cup 2017 organisation are working with a
budget of about $40 million, and based on sponsorship, government support, broadcast revenue and ticket sales he says the event is heading towards a
"modest profit" that would be used by the Rugby League International Federation to promote the sport around the world.
Higher ticket sales will ultimately lead to a bigger profit.
What has boosted the event has been a bit of old-fashioned controversy, something usually not too far away from rugby league at the best of times.
The Fifita defection to Tonga – players from "Tier 1" nations are allowed to shift to the "lesser" nations if they choose to, in an effort to boost the international game – along with Taumalolo has sparked greater interest.
So much so that Hill says sales for Tonga's group matches in New Zealand are tracking higher than that of the home nation and other games so far.
There are some other unique points to the tournament, including a new broadcaster in Seven West Media which will also have host production duties.
For Seven, it has meant bringing on new sponsors such as CrownBet and Oak Hill to complement long-time rugby league corporate supporters such as Telstra and Harvey Norman. "We will show all the men's and women's tournament matches and it really opens us up to a new audience," says Seven's commercial head Kurt Burnette. "The World Cup takes us through October and November and then next year we've got Australian Open tennis, Winter Olympics and the Commonwealth Games."
The World Cup itself has 25 commercial partners, including Telstra and XXXX Gold beer. But the tournament has also attracted new sponsors such as Energizer and the $10 billion ASX-listed oil and gas company Oil Search that operates all of Papua New Guinea's oilfields.
"The Oil Search one is interesting," says Hill. "They are a company that has not been involved in rugby league before but we sold them the vision of the matches we have got in Papua New Guinea and the importance of the sport there."
The tournament has also scheduled Italy matches in Cairns, where there is a large population of Italian descent, and many other matches thanks to local and state government support across the rugby league heartland of Queensland – much to the consternation of some critics that hoped for more matches in NSW.
A semi-final and the grand final will be held in Brisbane, which will coincide with the first Ashes cricket test against England.
Hill has his fingers crossed England will make it that far in the rugby league side of things, and signed up the Barmy Army as a travel partner.
But first Hill needs a strong showing from the team in the tournament's first match, a tough ask given the Australian side coached by Mal Meninga is stacked with the world's best players such as Melbourne Storm captain Cameron Smith.
"With international rugby league there can be some doubts about the competitiveness of it, so we need the Wayne Bennett-coached England to get off to a good start and play well on Friday night. We know the rest of the tournament will benefit from that."
