Rugby League World Cup 2021 (Merged Threads)

[MattSantos]

1 minute ago, DavidM said:

That’s all very impressive . If possible I’m even more excited and looking forward to it 

I'm either moist or damp, whichever is the wettest

[Dave T]

Think it's 24 men's games on main channels, got over excited and miss-counted

[Chris22]

I'd argue this is the best news announced so far.

People in stadiums are great but real reach comes through TV.

We are a sports mad country and the chance to watch live sport on free to air, especially on weeknights isn't common and will attract a lot of casual viewers.

This level of live coverage, combined with podcasts, documentaries, website coverage, radio comms and social media is larger than this sport has ever has.

An enormous triumph for the organisers.

Edited September 28 by Chris22

[Will Holt]

England vs France at Bolton 5k away from a sell out:

https://twitter.com/YPSport/status/1575149584585617410?s=20&t=S1bT-L_vMKNeiuErYfuXxQ

[Yakstorm]

12 hours ago, Chris22 said:

I'd argue this is the best news announced so far.

People in stadiums are great but real reach comes through TV.

We are a sports mad country and the chance to watch live sport on free to air, especially on weeknights isn't common and will attract a lot of casual viewers.

This level of live coverage, combined with podcasts, documentaries, website coverage, radio comms and social media is larger than this sport has ever has.

An enormous triumph for the organisers.

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.

[The Rocket]

15 hours ago, Dave T said:

BBC are showing games like Cook Islands and PNG live on BBC Three. They are showing 9 wheelchair games on terrestrial and 5 women's games. 

in 2013 they showed a handful of mens games and we had to watch everything else on Premier.

 

15 hours ago, Dave T said:

The amount of experts, commentators, pundits and presenters that they have, shows how seriously they are taking this. Great stuff.

Given this unprecedented coverage it seems like your BBC is viewing this tournament as an opportunity to provide the English public with a bit of an escape in these difficult times.

What with the war in Ukraine, the terrible energy prices hitting people`s budgets and all the talk of a looming world-wide recession a successful six-week tournament could give the nation a real boost in morale hopefully.

[gingerjon]

1 hour ago, The Rocket said:

 

Given this unprecedented coverage it seems like your BBC is viewing this tournament as an opportunity to provide the English public with a bit of an escape in these difficult times.

What with the war in Ukraine, the terrible energy prices hitting people`s budgets and all the talk of a looming world-wide recession a successful six-week tournament could give the nation a real boost in morale hopefully.

It's an international tournament taking place in the UK. When they get the rights, the BBC do usually provide excellent coverage for such things. 2013 RLWC was an exception rather than the rule for home tournaments.

[Dave T]

I'm just gonna have one more moan about ticket prices. Actually it won't be one more at all, but here goes.

I am trying to buy tickets for the Scotland v Italy game for me, my wife, daughter and a brand new fan. 3 adults and 1 child.

The pricing appears sensible - they have seats for £20 and £35, but they are all sold out. So if I look at the available seats, they are £55 with no concessions. Now call me a tight Northerner if you like, but I can't justify £55 a ticket for Scotland v Italy, and certainly not for my 6 year old daughter.

So that moves me onto standing tickets. They have some at £20 (same as some quality seats) - but this is for an uncovered terrace behind the sticks, with the potential for a pretty grim day if the heavens open. So I looked at the terrace behind the other sticks - £35 to stand. This is more expensive than my ticket at St James' Park the day earlier, and £10 more expensive than standing tickets at Headingley for the Kangaroos, and Saints for Tonga. 

So we either stand in Newcastle's version of the Western Terrace, or pay £35 to stand for what in reality is a Grade 3 RLWC game. To charge a £15 premium for a roof is excessive and out of kilter with pricing at the other games. I'm travelling to Newcastle via Edinburgh, staying in a hotel and was hoping to get both games, but they really aren't doing much to help fans. 

One of the things that will annoy me most is that at the time, I guarantee that the sold out seats will not in fact be sold out and are likely to have huge gaps. 

Anyway, a self-indulgent rant, but every time I go on to buy tickets for a game, I end up coming away having not bought.

[Jim from Oz]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

I'm just gonna have one more moan about ticket prices. Actually it won't be one more at all, but here goes.

I am trying to buy tickets for the Scotland v Italy game for me, my wife, daughter and a brand new fan. 3 adults and 1 child.

The pricing appears sensible - they have seats for £20 and £35, but they are all sold out. So if I look at the available seats, they are £55 with no concessions. Now call me a tight Northerner if you like, but I can't justify £55 a ticket for Scotland v Italy, and certainly not for my 6 year old daughter.

So that moves me onto standing tickets. They have some at £20 (same as some quality seats) - but this is for an uncovered terrace behind the sticks, with the potential for a pretty grim day if the heavens open. So I looked at the terrace behind the other sticks - £35 to stand. This is more expensive than my ticket at St James' Park the day earlier, and £10 more expensive than standing tickets at Headingley for the Kangaroos, and Saints for Tonga. 

So we either stand in Newcastle's version of the Western Terrace, or pay £35 to stand for what in reality is a Grade 3 RLWC game. To charge a £15 premium for a roof is excessive and out of kilter with pricing at the other games. I'm travelling to Newcastle via Edinburgh, staying in a hotel and was hoping to get both games, but they really aren't doing much to help fans. 

One of the things that will annoy me most is that at the time, I guarantee that the sold out seats will not in fact be sold out and are likely to have huge gaps. 

Anyway, a self-indulgent rant, but every time I go on to buy tickets for a game, I end up coming away having not bought.

Can you somehow tell RLWC / Jon Dutton this? This is very valuable feedback with two weeks to go and lots of tickets to sell

[Spidey]

One issue I've got is I bought Cat C tickets for the Warrington games (18 months ago)  They've landed and I've been put on the end of a side, probably due to being classed as better seats, even though I wanted behind the sticks

I wrote to them on email, and they said there were no Cat C tickets behind the sticks and offered me standing (even though I sent them a screen shot of the stadium layout to begin with)  So knowledge at the customer service team is lacking

Now if I was able to select the seats, or even the block at time of booking none of this would be happening. 

[Dave T]

21 minutes ago, Spidey said:

One issue I've got is I bought Cat C tickets for the Warrington games (18 months ago)  They've landed and I've been put on the end of a side, probably due to being classed as better seats, even though I wanted behind the sticks

I wrote to them on email, and they said there were no Cat C tickets behind the sticks and offered me standing (even though I sent them a screen shot of the stadium layout to begin with)  So knowledge at the customer service team is lacking

Now if I was able to select the seats, or even the block at time of booking none of this would be happening. 

That's rubbish. The majority of seats behind the sticks are Cat C. 

[Chris22]

In slightly more cheerful news...

https://www.rlwc2021.com/article/471/rlwc2021-hits-350000-ticket-sales-milestone

[Dave T]

Just now, Chris22 said:

In slightly more cheerful news...

https://www.rlwc2021.com/article/471/rlwc2021-hits-350000-ticket-sales-milestone

Ticket sales at Bolton seem very strong. 

[Just Browny]

26 minutes ago, Chris22 said:

In slightly more cheerful news...

https://www.rlwc2021.com/article/471/rlwc2021-hits-350000-ticket-sales-milestone

Call me a doomster and a gloomster, but if we have sold 35k at Newcastle and say 100k across the Emirates and Old Trafford, we are looking at 3k or 4k average across the other 58 games. Sales for some of the matches must be in the hundreds.

[Dave T]

8 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

Call me a doomster and a gloomster, but if we have sold 35k at Newcastle and say 100k across the Emirates and Old Trafford, we are looking at 3k or 4k average across the other 58 games. Sales for some of the matches must be in the hundreds.

We know we have sold around 23k for Bolton too. I think your number for the final and Arsenal may be ambitious.

 

[JonM]

We're already a good way ahead of the 2013 pre-tournament sales.

I'm pretty sure that if we were anywhere close to 50k for either  Emirates or Old Trafford at this point, we'd be hearing about it. 

[Dave T]

42 minutes ago, JonM said:

We're already a good way ahead of the 2013 pre-tournament sales.

I'm pretty sure that if we were anywhere close to 50k for either  Emirates or Old Trafford at this point, we'd be hearing about it. 

We should remember that this has 61 games across 46 events. 

31 games (31 events) are for the men's WC. 

I expect that maybe 325k of those are sold so far for mens events 

263k would see us match 2000 average (already beaten) 

421k would see us match 2017 average

508k = 2013 and 2008

549k = 1995

So I think with a couple of weeks to go we are doing OK. 

I worry about ticket prices and people seeing it on TV, then going online and leaving without buying, but if we have sold over 320k for the men so far, that is pretty solid, not spectacular. 

 

[DI Keith Fowler]

Interesting to note that it's gone from 250k to 350k in the time from mid-August to late September. 

[The Rocket]

14 hours ago, Dave T said:

 

I am trying to buy tickets for the Scotland v Italy game for me, my wife, daughter and a brand new fan. 3 adults and 1 child.

 To charge a £15 premium for a roof is excessive and out of kilter with pricing at the other games. I'm travelling to Newcastle via Edinburgh, staying in a hotel and was hoping to get both games, but they really aren't doing much to help fans. 

 

Discussing the purchase of tickets to games involving Scotland and using expressions like " out of kilter ". Nice touch.

Edited September 29 by The Rocket

[gingerjon]

13 hours ago, JonM said:

We're already a good way ahead of the 2013 pre-tournament sales.

I'm pretty sure that if we were anywhere close to 50k for either  Emirates or Old Trafford at this point, we'd be hearing about it. 

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.

[Archie Gordon]

18 minutes 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.

When I bought my tickets a few weeks ago, the Emirates had quite a few blocks sold out already. The organisers are missing a trick in not blacking out the sold out areas on the maps to indicate scarcity visually.

[gingerjon]

1 minute ago, Archie Gordon said:

When I bought my tickets a few weeks ago, the Emirates had quite a few blocks sold out already. The organisers are missing a trick in not blacking out the sold out areas on the maps to indicate scarcity visually.

With the usual caveat that they really are sold out then that is positive. I'm still not sure whether I can make the date but if I end up not being able to go because there are no tickets left then I'll see the bigger picture ...

[Toby Chopra]

52 minutes 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.

Yes, given the amazing TV coverage plans, i think (hope) we can get a women's euros style roll on. If so i think we could shift another 100,000 tickets easily once things get going. 

It may be that attendances for the men's tournament don't end up much higher than 2013 (adjusted for number of games) but given the pricing is a lot higher revenues should be decent. 

I'm genuinely excited about the opening weekend, if a little worries about the state of the England squad. 

Overall, still optimistic about the tournament. 

[Gerrumonside ref]

Just 5,000 tickets left at Bolton according to an email I have received from the RLWC team.

[nadera78]

2 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.

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.