456 replies to this topic

[Yakstorm]

Avignon seems to be selling quite nicely. Some pretty big chunks of the main grandstand now gone for a game that was late to go on sale.

Do we know what the capacity at Avignon is? I know they got 16K-odd for England v France a few years back, but was that capacity?

[Jim from Oz]

Wikipedia has it at 17, 518

http://en.wikipedia....Sports_(Avignon)

Wonder how perpignan game is selling too?

[CANETMAN]

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Avignon seems to be selling quite nicely. Some pretty big chunks of the main grandstand now gone for a game that was late to go on sale.

Do we know what the capacity at Avignon is? I know they got 16K-odd for England v France a few years back, but was that capacity?

Its 17500 hopefully many locals will put their hands in their pockets and buy tickets as 17000 free tickets were given away for the last 2 matches there which is why the crowd was good,many who might have enjoyed the England match might be tempted.CM

Edited by CANETMAN, 27 January 2013 - 12:24 PM.

[audois]

Wikipedia has it at 17, 518

http://en.wikipedia....Sports_(Avignon)

Wonder how perpignan game is selling too?

Jim I'd be surprised if Gilbert Brutus didn't sell out. It was near full last season for four of the Dragons games.This is new territory though here with tickets on sale so early. Great to here they're moving them up in Avignon already. Remember most of those 15,000 who attended games against Ireland and England fairly recently were freebies. But the pricing is reasonable from what I understand. The new Fed President Carlos Zalduendo was up in Provence the other week discussing the NZ game with the organisers including the city council and everybody seems on board. They even popped over to Carpentras to drum up support and the town council there have agreed to provide street side adsel panels to promote the game. As i say we're in new territory here!

Edited by audois, 27 January 2013 - 12:35 PM.

[CANETMAN]

Jim I'd be surprised if Gilbert Brutus didn't sell out. It was near full last season for four of the Dragons games.This is new territory though here with tickets on sale so early. Great to here they're moving them up in Avignon already. Remember most of those 15,000 who attended games against Ireland and England fairly recently were freebies. But the pricing is reasonable from what I understand. The new Fed President Carlos Zalduendo was up in Provence the other week discussing the NZ game with the organisers including the city council and everybody seems on board. They even popped over to Carpentras to drum up support and the town council there have agreed to provide street side adsel panels to promote the game. As i say we're in new territory here!

Good news and hopefully also the maire in Carpentras will start to put some money into the local club again.CM

[DugSWRLgan]

Good to See there was World Cup Promotion at the Gnoll yesterday for the Scorpions v Wigan Academy friendly.

Good Signs indeed keep it up

[South Wakefield Sharks]

Interesting to read that the TV rights have already been sold by RLWC2013 to IMG, who presumably are now trying to shift them on to Sky & the BBC.

[ShotgunGold]

Can anyone remember whether there were these levels of promotion in 1995 or 2000???

Because I think we're onto a winner here.

[Dave T]

Can anyone remember whether there were these levels of promotion in 1995 or 2000???

Because I think we're onto a winner here.

I do remember a fair bit of build up to 2000 - it appeared to be well organised, tickets were released in advance, and a fair few sponsors were signed up.

[South Wakefield Sharks]

I do remember a fair bit of build up to 2000 - it appeared to be well organised, tickets were released in advance, and a fair few sponsors were signed up.

2000 was all talk. Everything was a press release by the organisers. Nothing they said or did got picked up by anyone else. Someone like Granada were the official service station of the World Cup. Never saw anything in any of their service stations, not even on the M62 corridor!!!!

There has been more broader PR about the 2013 World Cup to date, than there ever was for the 2000 World Cup, until it all went belly up!

[South Wakefield Sharks]

There was none of this is 2000

[Jim from Oz]

Wow, that's an impressive sign: well done RLWC 2013 organisers.

From here in Oz, the 2000 RLWC was nothing but a disaster - and it was always going to be from the start. 16 teams was way too many, one team based on racial grounds was shocking, but the worst aspect was having it start a long 2 months after the NRL season had ended (it ended in late August in 2000 because of the sydney olympics). Playing the 2000 RLWC in the shadow of the huge Sydney Olympics also meant zero press build-up for it over here.

Ludicrous timing

[Dave T]

For all its faults there was plenty of excitement about the 2000 WC in advance - tickets were on sale early - venues and fixtures were announced early - sponsors were announced well in advance (fyffes, emirates, posthouse, granada, Lincoln etc)

Lincoln Financial Group ran roadshows at venues in advance to promote it, there was plenty of positivity (as well as the usual negativity) and it looked like a positive spread of venues.

With hindsight there were plenty of things wrong, although there were certainly elements which were not in our control.

I remember watching a positive feature about the game in Belfast on the BBC that talked about a large crowd expected and how the council had backed the game etc. - 3,200 turned up. Similarly 2000 turned up in Glasgow - IIRC both of these games were live on the BBC and really didn;t capture the imagination of the viewers.

When you look back, some of the venue selections were terrible - New Zealand (one of the biggest draws I would suggest) were given games in Gloucester, Reading and Cardiff. Over-ambition with games in Belfast, Dublin and Scotland etc. Twickenham for starters.

My point overall though is that in advance things seemed generally positive, and we need to be careful that we don;t fall in the trap of thinking everything is great with this World Cup. We have seen loads of times press releases talking about great ticket sales and then being rather underwhelmed with the actual attendance! We are still yet to see sponsors.

Whilst the 2008 WC was very enjoyable and positive, it still felt slightly underwhelming, as though it was played safe, certainly with some of the selections - sitting in the SFS for the Kangaroos semi final with 15k in there, when the previous day I had attended the other semi final between two overseas team which pulled a much larger crowd is really not a success.
The events felt really quite low-key - the level of entertainment and occasion was much lower than a regular game. They had an 'anthem' Heroes - which was just not used at all, the song was played at the opening ceremony and Inever heard it at a game after that, including the final.

We can't get complacent, we need to keep the promotion up, we need to keep talking it up instead of talking ourselves down as we often do - the 2013 WC so far looks to have been organised brilliantly and sensibly - let's keep that up and make it the most successful WC ever.

[Yakstorm]

Everything that could do wrong with the 2000 RLWC went wrong.. In terms of 'excitement' and positive vibes, the 99 Tri-Nations did Great Britain no favours, and then the mid-season test where Australia pumped NZ by a record score, more or less set public perception that the World Cup was a one horse race.

Bad weather in the UK, train strikes, the issues over international TV rights which killed the tournament's biggest revenue stream, over ambitious choices with venues, significant lack of pre-sales (despite the early on-sale, Twickenham was the only match that had more than a couple of thousand pre-sales) all contributed to what was the 2000 RLWC... throw in scheduling that just compounded the issues (opening the tournament in Belfast, playing the likes of England v Australia in front of lots of empty seats all hurt).

Fast forward 13 years, and things have changed. The Kangaroos and Kiwis struggled to draw decent crowds at home in 2000, now they have a healthy supporter base. NZ's tournament wins in 04 and 08 have shown the Kangaroos aren't invincible any more. People from outside of Europe will actually travel to support tournaments like this, versus in 2000 it was all die in the wool RL fans... Throw in other factors now like nations such as Scotland & Ireland actually have runs on the board now (almost 20 years of being around versus 3-5), more sensible scheduling so have a bit more creditability, the fact RL's supporter base has actually grown over the past 13 years (Average attendance of SL in 2000 - 7,415 versus 10,151 in 2012 (37% increase), plus TV audiences are significantly greater) the environment is there for a far better tournament than 2000.

That said, what Dave T says is correct, we can't be complacent, and just think the tournament will just continue to chug along and be a success. Honestly where possible we should be, as fans of the code, should be trying to help promote the code. Even if it's just by raising awareness or getting people thinking about the event, every extra eyeball on TV viewing, or ticket or piece of merchandise the tournament sells helps change perception about RL's events, and hey whilst people might not say 'RLWC2013 was the biggest and best sporting event ever in the UK', we can hopefully move a long way from the comments everyone was saying after the 2000 tournament.

[hindle xiii]

Do/have/will the ticket prices change? I think I better get my bum in gear and get the Halifax and Huddersfield games bought.

[brooza]

Just bought 12 for the final

[EastLondonMike]

just got 9 for the opening games.. Gonna wait till i'm a bit more cashed up then get the Wembley tickets..!

[Jim from Oz]

The big question is the opening double header: it's a huge stadium and without a huge crowd it could be a damp-ish squid. Any news on ticket sales for the opener?

And I suppose once kick-off times are confirmed, ticket sales may start to pick up again … any news on that and/or TV deals both domestic and international?

[EastLondonMike]

Read something on twitter last night that BT Vision were interested in some capacity in the RLWC rights.. to what degree i do not know though

[John Rhino]

Read something on twitter last night that BT Vision were interested in some capacity in the RLWC rights.. to what degree i do not know though

I really hope BT do get involved. Perhaps the only company left that has pockets deep enough to give Sky some competition for SL