Yakstorm

The negativity about the 2000 RLWC had already kicked in well before opening day. Many fans were complaining about Twickenham and refusing to go, people like Stephen Jones in the UK and many journalists in Australia had already written pieces slamming the teams, especially the number of heritage players, bookies had Australia pretty much at $1.05, they were that confident the Kangaroos would go through undefeated. That may still occur, though at least we getting to the starting line this time before it starts. In terms of some of the changes in targets, the 750K target was removed after the tournament was postponed, the organisers have been aiming for the 500K+ in all their comms since then. I agree they've been overly eager to make matches sound like they are closer to sell outs than what they are, though I guess it doesn't get as positive media coverage if you go "venues are on track to be mostly full".

This tournament is nothing like 2000... firstly 2000 had a ridiculous amount of ambition prior to kick off, ranging from the significant jump in teams from 1995, the location of matches and even from having warm up games in the US and South Africa. It also had its fair share of bad luck with the weather and transport strikes, but it had very little substance to get through setbacks like that and had ridiculous infighting (from club CEOs criticising the event publicly, the NRL giving broadcast rights to 9 for free, etc) Thankfully this time around we are selling well for the England v Samoa & France matches, plus the England QF and the Final. Hopefully Greece picks up and England gets to the London Semi Final.

For a second round match, which looks horrible on paper, having around 4,500 tickets pre-sold isn't horrible either for this type of match. Whether it can get any momentum is another question, but I'll be honest I wasn't expecting more in pre-sales for this one.

Definitely a history making match. Who would have thought Jamaica would qualify for a Rugby League World Cup 18 years after the sport was first introduced?

Three is showing the Kiwis and Kiwi Ferns matches on FTA on delay. https://nzrl.co.nz/how-to-watch-the-rugby-league-world-cup-2021/

At least when you type in Rugby League World Cup, they do have all the fixtures listed, tables and relevant news: https://www.google.com/search?q=rugby+league+world+cup+fixtures#sie=lg;/m/0134hlb4;8;/m/020v9n;mt;fp;1 We don't get that for Super League.

Just got this email from the RLWC team:

FITE have confirmed that all Wheelchair matches will be available free on their service and Women's matches can be watched on the standard FITE+ which is 4.99 per month. Some Men's games will be made available on FITE+, whilst others are PPV or you need to buy the World Cup pack. In the press release from Integrated Sports Media, it says people in the US can watch the World Cup via "iN Demand, DIRECTV, DISH, Shaw, Rogers, PPV.com, and FITE" which I'm not sure if that means it will also be available as a PPV directly through those services (in addition to FITE) or if they are just talking about FITE through those channels. Anyway in terms of Broadcasters, this is what I'm aware of: Participants: England - BBC (FTA) Wales - BBC (FTA) Scotland - BBC (FTA) Northern Ireland - BBC (FTA) Ireland- ?? Australia - Foxtel + Kayo (Subscription) New Zealand - SparkSport (Subscription), Three (FTA) Papua New Guinea - EMTV (FTA) France - beIN (Subscription) Samoa - TV1 (FTA) Fiji - Fiji One (FTA) Tonga - Tonga Broadcasting (FTA) Cook Islands - Cook Islands TV (FTA) Jamaica - FITE (PPV / Subscription / Free) Greece - ?? Italy - FITE (PPV / Subscription / Free) Lebanon- ?? Spain - FITE (PPV / Subscription / Free) USA - FITE (PPV / Subscription / Free) Canada - FITE (PPV / Subscription / Free) Brazil - FITE (PPV / Subscription / Free) Other Markets: Germany - FITE (PPV / Subscription / Free) Sweden - Viaplay (Subscription) Norway - Viaplay (Subscription) Finland - Viaplay (Subscription) Denmark - Viaplay (Subscription) Iceland - Viaplay (Subscription) Poland - Viaplay (Subscription) Netherlands - Viaplay (Subscription) Estonia - Viaplay (Subscription) Latvia - Viaplay (Subscription) Lithuania - Viaplay (Subscription) Central America - FITE (PPV / Subscription / Free) South America - FITE (PPV / Subscription / Free) French Territories - beIN (Subscription) Anyone know any Broadcasters I might be missing?

If there was a game in this tournament to sell super cheap tickets, it was this one.

Australia v Fiji's sales are disappointing, although maybe not surprising. Headingley has a lot of group games at the tournament, so if you're based in Leeds it's not like this is your only choice. Secondly being on the same day as the Opener featuring England does take away a portion of your customer base (and marketing attention) and finally Fiji performing so poorly in their warm-up game wouldn't have helped either. Hopefully the terraces look reasonably full come Saturday night.

I've used up time I should have been using towards more important things, but the black bays that appear to be sold out at St James Park. Encouragingly we know that the East Stand has limited capacity and most of the lower bowl bays appear to be similar. Concerning is possibly that the Cat D's on Level 7 don't appear to have gone on sale yet (or I missed them if they did)

Nice having someone recognisable playing at the opener. Definitely not something we've had in previous World Cups (or at least in Australia) Definitely adds to the prestige of the event. Encouraging to see Cat Es at the opener in the upper tiers selling strongly as well.

This is amazing @SydneyRoosters, thank you for doing it. Whilst there is still a large 'Australia' influence, it feels like we are slowly seeing that percentage decrease. Impressive that Wales now has 50% of their squad born in the principality.

We can possibly put the England v France match closer to 23K as they have confirmed that there are less than 5K tickets and Bolton holds over 28K. The last RLWC release said there were only 1,000 tickets left for the Wheelchair Final at Manchester Central, which holds 10K doesn't it? The Wheelchair Semi at Sheffield is marked as sold out too (though I believe its capacity is only 2K) For double headers / etc, I feel it's safe to say there isn't any double counting. They are specifically using the wording Tickets and in any PR are comparing the ticket sale figures, not attendance figures (ie. RLWC2017 arguably had an attendance over 400K, if you count people per event they sat through, but only 380K tickets were sold) This will potentially work in the organisers favour post tournament when comparing where we finish up with against the original 700K target (ie. We can add another 50K for the Women's Final, 10K for PNG v Canada, 2K for other Wheelchair Semi Final)

Agree the TV, Radio and Digital coverage will really amplify the event and makes it far more likely for more casual fans to actually be aware of the tournament and take some sort of interest, but also will make it more likely for other media groups to talk about it as well. We all know everyone loves to talk about what everyone else is already talking about. Still do hope crowd wise we can show decent crowds at a number of the big matches. Most people don't care how full a ground is or how many tickets have been sold, but if there are significant number of empty bays in the TV arc, it can detract from the spectacle or reduce the likelihood of a casual watching it. Opener shouldn't be an issue, I believe the TV arc has been pretty much sold out (it's the East Stand that the cameras face right?) and hopefully a similar approach is being taken with the TV covered grounds as well.

Bougainville has previously bid to join the Digicel Cup for the 2019 season. The bid club was called the Bougainville Pride and was only rejected because the PNGNRLC decided not to expand that season. Not sure why they didn't bid again, however there is a good relationship between the Bougainville Rugby League and Rabual Gurias (New Britain) and their sponsor Agmark. Hopefully independence doesn't mean plans like the Bougainville teams joining the Ipatas Cup fall through. Also, whilst their senior competitions have had issues over the past decade, there has been a lot of work done in the schools on the Island for the code by the NRL in PNG development officers, you would hate to see that evaporate.

The plan is to add an additional 3,000 seats plus corporate space. Catalans are also planning on replacing the Guasch Stand, so additional capacity may come out of that work. Looks like the venue would be around 16Kish when done.

Ticketing site is now saying limited availability on the Western Terrace, which is encouraging. You probably say, especially with all other sections sold out (or less than 150 tickets) we'd be around the 15K mark. Very encouraging, especially as it's on the same day as the Opener. Other games on the opening weekend are looking solid. Most of the Grandstand at Kingston Park has been moved for Scotland v Italy, whilst NZ v Lebanon & Ireland v Jamaica are both reporting low availability.

Just to clarify a few assumptions that have been added to this thread. Firstly one of the reasons the Dolphins haven't used 'Redcliffe' in their name is due to the QRL. The QRL conditions of participation in the Hostplus Cup and many of their other senior competitions prevent NRL clubs having a club with the same name, logo and management. The club doesn't want to forfeit their spot in those competitions and of course wants to represent more than just Redcliffe at the NRL level. Secondly if you're going to look at populations for the area they are in, you should look at the entire Moreton Bay (450K+) versus just Redcliffe. We don't look at only Cronulla (17K) & Sutherland (10K) or Canterbury (7K) & Bankstown (32K) for other clubs, so its not fair to do that for the Dolphins.

There was nothing in the RLWC2021 bid document that required the organisers to generate a certain amount of ticket sales revenue in order to qualify for the full amount of Government investment. The requirements were all based upon reach and exposure of the tour, volumes of travelling fans, community investment, etc. Now maybe that changed when the government handed out more money late last year, though I'd be surprised. Generally governments are more concerned around how much economic activity you generate around an event and couldn't care less if you sell tickets for GBP 1 or 100 so long as people spend in the town, in the ground and on their way to and from. On pricing, the fact Cat Ds and Es are selling out quickly, whilst arguably the best seats on the halfway line are not, does indicate some pricing issues. I'm sure this drove the recategorisation at many venues, which is like discounting, but allows the organisers to save face and continue to say there will be no last minute discounts.

I'm sure that was a driver in them recategorising a number of bays / venues. Even being able to announce a sellout or two in the near future will provide a significant halo effect.

So for the opener we know that Cat A & B are over 70% allocated, the lower bowl is over 90% and the East Stand is full. Definitely sounds like it's on track for a capacity or near capacity crowd. With the Final also selling well, it's providing some good bookends for the tournament.

They don't but it is encouraging how many games have now moved to 'low' availability and that in the first weekend of their six week advertising blitz, it produced such a big uptick. Following games now have 'low' availability in the Men'stournament: England v Samoa, Scotland v Italy, Jamaica v Ireland, NZ v Lebanon, England v France, NZ v Jamaica, NZ v Ireland, England v Greece, Fiji v Scotland, Samoa v France, Wigan QF, Leeds SF, London SF, Tournament Final We know as well that some of the other games, like Australia v Fiji have been selling solidly as well with most Cat C & D tickets sold out.

Guess it depends on what the opposition kit looked like. For the original England RLWC kit, the predominantly blue kit would provide enough contrast, whilst the predominantly white kit would contrast enough against Samoa and if they were to face the likes of France at any stage.

Men's and Women's PM XIII Challenge to be hosted at Suncorp Stadium and will be grouped with the NRLW Semi Finals. https://asiapacificrl.com/2022/08/26/suncorp-stadium-to-host-mens-and-womens-australia-prime-ministers-xiii-v-png-prime-ministers-xiii/