Rugby League World Cup 2021 (Merged Threads)

[Damien]

3 hours ago, gingerjon said:

I think the Emirates is going to be a very hard sell before the tournament starts.

It is one which should see a surge (hopefully) after it begins.

How England do is key and as we saw with 2013 tickets can start to fly on the back of decent performances and TV coverage. This tournament has unprecedented coverage and that essentially gives 4 England matches as advertisements (plus the rest of the games) before any semi-final, and fingers crossed England get there. I think tickets may start to fly for this once the tournament starts.

[Archie Gordon]

19 minutes ago, nadera78 said:

Given the overall state of the sport down here, that (anecdotally) few people seem to know the tournament is taking place, and it being the only game played outside the north, I wouldn't be surprised if ticket sales are very low for that semi-final.

I really think they've missed a trick in not having an England group game down here (the one v France would have been ideal; huge French community, a relatively close game expected, a very 'sellable' rivalry). I think it'll end up being a 'decent' attendance but we had 68,000 at Wembley in 2013 and, even discounting the smaller capacity, we're going to end up a long way short of that figure.

I'm way more optimistic. Quite a few union and football parents I talk to both know about it and have bought tickets. Big games in London get big crowds (generally) and I agree that one other would have been sensible and profitable. I wouldn't have gone for England necessarily - Australia or NZ QF would have been brilliant.

As noted above, some blocks at the Emirates have no tickets left and I am pretty sure this is because they've sold out because I'vd previously looked into buying seats in those areas but prevaricated. Other areas where I tried to buy 4 tickets didn't have 4 together.

[MattSantos]

3 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

I'm way more optimistic. Quite a few union and football parents I talk to both know about it and have bought tickets. Big games in London get big crowds (generally) and I agree that one other would have been sensible and profitable. I wouldn't have gone for England necessarily - Australia or NZ QF would have been brilliant.

As noted above, some blocks at the Emirates have no tickets left and I am pretty sure this is because they've sold out because I'vd previously looked into buying seats in those areas but prevaricated. Other areas where I tried to buy 4 tickets didn't have 4 together.

Goes to Google prevaricated.

 

[Archie Gordon]

1 minute ago, MattSantos said:

Goes to Google prevaricated.

 

So have I. It doesn't quite mean what I thought! I probably meant procrastinated.

[nadera78]

5 minutes ago, Archie Gordon said:

I'm way more optimistic. Quite a few union and football parents I talk to both know about it and have bought tickets. Big games in London get big crowds (generally) and I agree that one other would have been sensible and profitable. I wouldn't have gone for England necessarily - Australia or NZ QF would have been brilliant.

As noted above, some blocks at the Emirates have no tickets left and I am pretty sure this is because they've sold out because I'vd previously looked into buying seats in those areas but prevaricated. Other areas where I tried to buy 4 tickets didn't have 4 together.

I hope you're right. London usually does well, but that's not the feeling I'm getting right now form talking to people. And, as others have pointed out, we've often seen seats unavailable for purchase that end up being empty.

[MattSantos]

1 minute ago, Archie Gordon said:

So have I. It doesn't quite mean what I thought! I probably meant procrastinated.

Good lad.

[MattSantos]

I like it when we go to good modern grounds in exciting cities. Emirates was always on my ticket list and would potentially have been for a non-England game as it gives me an opportunity for a proper weekend away.

 

[Chris22]

Given a bit more thought to ticket sale numbers. We have 350,000 sold across 61 matches, which an average of around 5,700 per match. But, a lot of these matches are women's and wheelchair matches which will be a lot lower.

We know some details about ticket sales for individual matches

- 35,000 sold for England v Samoa
- 10,000 sold for England v Brazil
- 20,000+ sold for England v France
- 50,000 sold for the final
- Almost all seats sold for Australia v Fiji (so realistically over 10,000)

If you minus these figures from 350,000, that leaves 225,000 between the remaining matches. That is an average for the remaining fixtures of around 4,100 per match.

The number of double headers makes this trickier to assess, as does the fact that we have never run women's and wheelchair tournaments concurrently with the men's tournament.

We've heard nothing at all about England's match against Greece at Sheffield, which reading between the lines suggests sluggish sales. 

I wonder if we may be in a position where the big matches get some good crowds and the lesser matches may be quite a bit tougher?

Edited October 1, 2022 by Chris22

[Yakstorm]

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)

[Leyther_Matt]

We’ve just had 15 minutes of Robbie Hunter-Paul being interviewed on the pitch at half time in the Bolton v Lincoln game. Trophies on the sideline and a mini game from Westhoughton U8s. All very positive, although there was a bit of a gasp when it was announced “tickets start at £55”

[Maximus Decimus]

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I think there is a possible outrage coming over the quarter finals.

My brother text me this morning saying he'd got tickets to the QF at Warrington which would likely be Samoa/England vs Tonga. I remembered reading that they were ensuring that the England QF was going to be at Wigan.

Naturally, he wasn't best pleased and feels he's been missold. I went to the ticketing website and there is literally zero mention that the event might be moved. It is advertised as the winner of Group D and runner up of Group A which isn't necessarily the case. 

In fact the only article I could find explaining this was on Loverugbyleague. My brother coaches amateur RL and has been a lifelong fan of the game. If he doesn't know about this change there will be countless others.

The last thing the WC needs is to create a bad taste in people's mouths. If England lose the opener there are going to be plenty of upset people.

[gingerjon]

Just now, Maximus Decimus said:

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I think there is a possible outrage coming over the quarter finals.

My brother text me this morning saying he'd got tickets to the QF at Warrington which would likely be Samoa/England vs Tonga. I remembered reading that they were ensuring that the England QF was going to be at Wigan.

Naturally, he wasn't best pleased and feels he's been missold. I went to the ticketing website and there is literally zero mention that the event might be moved. It is advertised as the winner of Group D and runner up of Group A which isn't necessarily the case. 

In fact the only article I could find explaining this was on Loverugbyleague. My brother coaches amateur RL and has been a lifelong fan of the game. If he doesn't know about this change there will be countless others.

The last thing the WC needs is to create a bad taste in people's mouths. If England lose the opener there are going to be plenty of upset people.

It really does need to be a lot clearer than it is.

Which is about the only way I can write it that doesn't set off the sweary filter.

[Tommygilf]

2 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I think there is a possible outrage coming over the quarter finals.

My brother text me this morning saying he'd got tickets to the QF at Warrington which would likely be Samoa/England vs Tonga. I remembered reading that they were ensuring that the England QF was going to be at Wigan.

Naturally, he wasn't best pleased and feels he's been missold. I went to the ticketing website and there is literally zero mention that the event might be moved. It is advertised as the winner of Group D and runner up of Group A which isn't necessarily the case. 

In fact the only article I could find explaining this was on Loverugbyleague. My brother coaches amateur RL and has been a lifelong fan of the game. If he doesn't know about this change there will be countless others.

The last thing the WC needs is to create a bad taste in people's mouths. If England lose the opener there are going to be plenty of upset people.

Its utterly dire that this hasn't been made clearer.

I can't remember if it was obvious when it was Anfield rather than Wigan.

[Dave T]

9 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but I think there is a possible outrage coming over the quarter finals.

My brother text me this morning saying he'd got tickets to the QF at Warrington which would likely be Samoa/England vs Tonga. I remembered reading that they were ensuring that the England QF was going to be at Wigan.

Naturally, he wasn't best pleased and feels he's been missold. I went to the ticketing website and there is literally zero mention that the event might be moved. It is advertised as the winner of Group D and runner up of Group A which isn't necessarily the case. 

In fact the only article I could find explaining this was on Loverugbyleague. My brother coaches amateur RL and has been a lifelong fan of the game. If he doesn't know about this change there will be countless others.

The last thing the WC needs is to create a bad taste in people's mouths. If England lose the opener there are going to be plenty of upset people.

It is most likely to be Samoa v Tonga, worst case Samoa v PNG possibly. 

But yes, the lack of clarity on this is terrible, and us surely an easy win for sales at Wigan and Arsenal. 

[Cumbrian Fanatic]

40 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Its utterly dire that this hasn't been made clearer.

I can't remember if it was obvious when it was Anfield rather than Wigan.

It was very obvious when the Q/F was due to be at Anfield that it would be the England game if they got there, that's why I bought the tickets

[Maximus Decimus]

42 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

It really does need to be a lot clearer than it is.

Which is about the only way I can write it that doesn't set off the sweary filter.

I fully expected it would be in the small print somewhere. The hospitality tickets still mention Bolton.

The RLWC has always involved fudging and the irony is that this one is the least fudged ever. It is the first since the opening up in 95 that they haven't started with England-Australia to try and drum up interest.

I suspect they planned the tournament presuming Samoa would represent a test in the same way Fiji did in 2013 but not beat England. It is the strength of Samoa that has thrown the whole thing out.

[Maximus Decimus]

39 minutes ago, Dave T said:

It is most likely to be Samoa v Tonga, worst case Samoa v PNG possibly. 

But yes, the lack of clarity on this is terrible, and us surely an easy win for sales at Wigan and Arsenal. 

There's a huge difference between Samoa/England vs Tonga and Samoa vs PNG competitive wise.

Call me a bad RL fan, but I've watched too many blowouts to get any enjoyment out of them anymore. Samoa-PNG is probably just about worth it but I'll be hoping even more for an England win.

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

There's a huge difference between Samoa/England vs Tonga and Samoa vs PNG competitive wise.

Call me a bad RL fan, but I've watched too many blowouts to get any enjoyment out of them anymore. Samoa-PNG is probably just about worth it but I'll be hoping even more for an England win.

I expect England will be favourites and play PNG at Wigan. 

If so, Tonga v Samoa at Warrington is likely to be the standout Quarter Final. 

[Dave T]

8 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

I fully expected it would be in the small print somewhere. The hospitality tickets still mention Bolton.

The RLWC has always involved fudging and the irony is that this one is the least fudged ever. It is the first since the opening up in 95 that they haven't started with England-Australia to try and drum up interest.

I suspect they planned the tournament presuming Samoa would represent a test in the same way Fiji did in 2013 but not beat England. It is the strength of Samoa that has thrown the whole thing out.

Tbh, that is irrelevant, when it was Anfield they just stated that England would play there. I think it is the same for the Wigan game now (remember the England women are playing so it's a double header). 

It's just another example of poor comms and sales approach for this tournament, I don't know if they laid off the people responsible for this. 

But it's another failed delivery, up there withe the esports partner, the squad trips, website, and the like. 

[Maximus Decimus]

7 minutes ago, Cumbrian Fanatic said:

It was very obvious when the Q/F was due to be at Anfield that it would be the England game if they got there, that's why I bought the tickets

It was obvious because Samoa weren't supposed to represent a competitive team. In the last World Cup they drew with Scotland and they were battered by Fiji in 2019.

It is beyond ludicrous to expect that people will book tickets for a game that clearly states 'Winner of Group A vs Runner up of Group D' but be thinking that it only applies if England are in it.

[Maximus Decimus]

1 minute ago, Dave T said:

Tbh, that is irrelevant, when it was Anfield they just stated that England would play there. I think it is the same for the Wigan game now (remember the England women are playing so it's a double header). 

It's just another example of poor comms and sales approach for this tournament, I don't know if they laid off the people responsible for this. 

But it's another failed delivery, up there withe the esports partner, the squad trips, website, and the like. 

If they've stated it, they've done a spectacularly bad job of doing so as I can only see a loverugbyleague article about it.

It seems like they're gambling that England will win the first game so they won't have to say anything.

[Maximus Decimus]

8 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I expect England will be favourites and play PNG at Wigan. 

If so, Tonga v Samoa at Warrington is likely to be the standout Quarter Final. 

Without my negative England hat on, regardless of the strength of the Samoa squad, they won't have played much together and will be doing so for the first time in front of 40k+ English fans at the end of October.

I'd be warier if we were playing them 3rd game in or something.

[Dave T]

6 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

If they've stated it, they've done a spectacularly bad job of doing so as I can only see a loverugbyleague article about it.

It seems like they're gambling that England will win the first game so they won't have to say anything.

There is an official hospitality brochure that states it, I can't provide the link to it. Most articles are from 18months ago and have been superceded. 

https://www.seatunique.com/blog/england-fixtures-rugby-league-world-cup-final/amp/

This is a 3rd party site, but it states it. 

[Dave T]

5 minutes ago, Maximus Decimus said:

Without my negative England hat on, regardless of the strength of the Samoa squad, they won't have played much together and will be doing so for the first time in front of 40k+ English fans at the end of October.

I'd be warier if we were playing them 3rd game in or something.

That's my thoughts. But I am pretty nervous about it. 

[Maximus Decimus]

9 minutes ago, Dave T said:

That's my thoughts. But I am pretty nervous about it. 

Yeh I've just looked at the Samoa squad and I've completely changed my mind .