Rugby League World Cup 2021 (Merged Threads)

[GeordieSaint]

22 minutes ago, Dave T said:

One of the issues is that you are targeting repeat customers here and when people are paying more for certain games, they are having to be more selective. I'm one who is in this boat. I'm still to pick up tickets for some midweek games, but so far budget has been spent sorting out the likes of the Newcastle event. 

The sales strategy is interesting. They have made the conscious decision to not focus on price, with no discounts available (they are sort of lying with that), and their approach seems to be to focus on scarcity, their ads all talk about % sold. The problem with it is not a single game is sold out, so that scarcity isn't there. It's really tone deaf tbh. 

Hopefully this Saturday will look great and will get the tournament off to a bang and we'll get sales off the back of that, but so far it hasn't been great. 

I started a thread a few weeks back highlighting the good value tickets for games, yet the organisers aren't talking about that. I haven't seen a single ad for £15 tickets at Leigh for example. Or that you can see Samoa v France for £20. It's just not mentioned. 

Seen a fair whack of complaining from certain Saints supporters that their club seat is more expensive for the WC; they don’t want to sit somewhere cheaper… 

[Dave T]

32 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

Seen a fair whack of complaining from certain Saints supporters that their club seat is more expensive for the WC; they don’t want to sit somewhere cheaper… 

For top seats at Saints it is £60 or £70, and two of those games are likely to be walkovers. Those seats are £30 for top Saints games. 

It's no use just saying 'but it's a World Cup' as we sit with thousands of empty seats. 

 

[Just Browny]

I saw a tweet saying tickets should be free 'to grow the game' yesterday.

Ultimately nobody knows whether the strategy being used here is a good one or a bad one until we see how many people are in grounds at the actual World Cup. I'm not sure if they have got it right, but it seems *somewhat* positive that they are not hitting the panic button yet and sticking to their strategy. Of course it would be a terrible look to start slashing prices now when many people have already paid top whack.

[Balmain1969]

For the non UFC fans here, the below message is amazing for the Brazilian Womans Team. This is Jose Aldo, UFC superstar and one of the most famous athletes in Brazil, up there with their footballers.

 

[glossop saint]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

One of the issues is that you are targeting repeat customers here and when people are paying more for certain games, they are having to be more selective. I'm one who is in this boat. I'm still to pick up tickets for some midweek games, but so far budget has been spent sorting out the likes of the Newcastle event. 

The sales strategy is interesting. They have made the conscious decision to not focus on price, with no discounts available (they are sort of lying with that), and their approach seems to be to focus on scarcity, their ads all talk about % sold. The problem with it is not a single game is sold out, so that scarcity isn't there. It's really tone deaf tbh. 

Hopefully this Saturday will look great and will get the tournament off to a bang and we'll get sales off the back of that, but so far it hasn't been great. 

I started a thread a few weeks back highlighting the good value tickets for games, yet the organisers aren't talking about that. I haven't seen a single ad for £15 tickets at Leigh for example. Or that you can see Samoa v France for £20. It's just not mentioned. 

I don't want to get into a 'Northern Powerhouse Funding discussion' and there is so much to be positive about for this WC but some of the venues and pricing is just bizarre. You can't just expect the same folk to splash out high prices multiple times. There needed to be a wider target audience and even where there is some variation in location it just doesn't seem to make sense. How were they expecting to fill the Riverside at those prices to people who in general aren't particularly affluent and have little connection to the sport?

Looking back to 2013 and there was a much better spread of games and even that could be improved on.

[Damien]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

One of the issues is that you are targeting repeat customers here and when people are paying more for certain games, they are having to be more selective. I'm one who is in this boat. I'm still to pick up tickets for some midweek games, but so far budget has been spent sorting out the likes of the Newcastle event. 

The sales strategy is interesting. They have made the conscious decision to not focus on price, with no discounts available (they are sort of lying with that), and their approach seems to be to focus on scarcity, their ads all talk about % sold. The problem with it is not a single game is sold out, so that scarcity isn't there. It's really tone deaf tbh. 

Hopefully this Saturday will look great and will get the tournament off to a bang and we'll get sales off the back of that, but so far it hasn't been great. 

I started a thread a few weeks back highlighting the good value tickets for games, yet the organisers aren't talking about that. I haven't seen a single ad for £15 tickets at Leigh for example. Or that you can see Samoa v France for £20. It's just not mentioned. 

There's been little evidence of 75% of the marketing budget being held back for the last 6 weeks, as per comments a few months back.

I genuinely think they are hoping for a great opener, England playing well and winning and that ticket sales flow on the back of that plus the coverage from the BBC. That may well happen and did happen to some extent in 2013, bar England winning, with England group matches against Fiji and Ireland selling out in the week prior to the games.

[Just Browny]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

There's been little evidence of 75% of the marketing budget being held back for the last 6 weeks, as per comments a few months back.

 

Are we sure about this? I've heard lots of adverts on commercial radio and had a lot chucked at me through various social media and targeted web ads in the last few weeks.

In the world we live now, with so much targeted comms, I think it is very difficult to know how much marketing is happening where unless you are the RLWC2021 marketing chief. For all I know they've had a 60 second ad on every ad break on ITV for the last month but I wouldn't know as I don't watch much live terrestrial telly.

 

[Dave T]

4 minutes ago, Damien said:

There's been little evidence of 75% of the marketing budget being held back for the last 6 weeks, as per comments a few months back.

I genuinely think they are hoping for a great opener, England playing well and winning and that ticket sales flow on the back of that plus the coverage from the BBC. That may well happen and did happen to some extent in 2013, bar England winning, with England group matches against Fiji and Ireland selling out in the week prior to the games.

 

Just now, Just Browny said:

Are we sure about this? I've heard lots of adverts on commercial radio and had a lot chucked at me through various social media and targeted web ads in the last few weeks.

In the world we live now, with so much targeted comms, I think it is very difficult to know how much marketing is happening where unless you are the RLWC2021 marketing chief. For all I know they've had a 60 second ad on every ad break on ITV for the last month but I wouldn't know as I don't watch much live terrestrial telly.

 

Yes, I must admit I'm in Brown's camp on this one. TV ads, digital marketing (it follows me. Onto literally every site at the moment), radio etc - it all adds up and I don't think awareness if necessarily the challenge here. 

TV Ads have been on prime time, including lots of live sport on Sky Sports. 

We have the launch today at 3pm, hopefully that will create some noise for this week, and the games at the weekend should build up some attention. 

I hope the tournament is a massive success, I fear it will be a moderate success based solely on the pricing tbh. 

I hope I'm wrong, but I expect we will see 8 to 10k at Wire on Sunday as opposed to the full 15k we were seeing last time. 

[Damien]

56 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

Seen a fair whack of complaining from certain Saints supporters that their club seat is more expensive for the WC; they don’t want to sit somewhere cheaper… 

I think this is my main issue with the pricing. Paying a premium at St James Park or the Emirates is fine, they are top stadiums and we are appealing to a different audience. Playing at Saints, Warrington, Wigan or Headingley isnt any of that and many people will find it difficult to justify paying premium prices for average stadiums. As an example the quarter final ticket I had at Wigan in 2013 for £15 now costs £70. Now I think £15 was way too cheap but its not appealing to pay £70 for an average venue that I have been to countless times either.

[Dave T]

10 minutes ago, glossop saint said:

I don't want to get into a 'Northern Powerhouse Funding discussion' and there is so much to be positive about for this WC but some of the venues and pricing is just bizarre. You can't just expect the same folk to splash out high prices multiple times. There needed to be a wider target audience and even where there is some variation in location it just doesn't seem to make sense. How were they expecting to fill the Riverside at those prices to people who in general aren't particularly affluent and have little connection to the sport?

Looking back to 2013 and there was a much better spread of games and even that could be improved on.

There are three key issues with pricing imo. 

1. The price. Charging £70 for a seat at the likes of Saints and Wire for level 2 or 3 games at best is silly. £110 for some games are probably the most expensive seats ever sold for RL in this country. 

2. Inconsistencies. £40 to stand at Wire when it's only £25 at Saints, and you can also sit at Wire for £25. If I want covered standing for Scotland v Italy this weekend it costs me £35. Its all over the place with o coherent strategy. 

3. Expansion/development territories. The pricing for Middlesborough, Newcastle, Arsenal etc is excessive and doesn't take into account that these will be tough sells anyway. 

The strategy is arrogant and misguided. 

[Damien]

5 minutes ago, Dave T said:

 

Yes, I must admit I'm in Brown's camp on this one. TV ads, digital marketing (it follows me. Onto literally every site at the moment), radio etc - it all adds up and I don't think awareness if necessarily the challenge here. 

TV Ads have been on prime time, including lots of live sport on Sky Sports. 

We have the launch today at 3pm, hopefully that will create some noise for this week, and the games at the weekend should build up some attention. 

I hope the tournament is a massive success, I fear it will be a moderate success based solely on the pricing tbh. 

I hope I'm wrong, but I expect we will see 8 to 10k at Wire on Sunday as opposed to the full 15k we were seeing last time. 

Fair dos, point taken. I suppose TV ads will gobble up a large percentage of any budget and you are quite correct there have been those.

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, Damien said:

I think this is my main issue with the pricing. Paying a premium at St James Park or the Emirates is fine, they are top stadiums and we are appealing to a different audience. Playing at Saints, Warrington, Wigan or Headingley isnt any of that and many people will find it difficult to justify paying premium prices for average stadiums. As an example the quarter final ticket I had at Wigan in 2013 for £15 now costs £70. Now I think £15 was way too cheap but its not appealing to pay £70 for an average venue that I have been to countless times either.

They have taken an approach of no discounts. Which is fine, and there is a fair argument that discounts are harmful to the game overall. But the double whammy here is that they have also increased pricing massively. So as you say, tickets have seen 3-400% increases between these tournaments. 

If you were going to scrap discounts, they needed to go in the middle ground. Or you set prices at £80 and then discount. They've gone aggressive at both ends. 

 

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, Damien said:

Fair dos, point taken. I suppose TV ads will gobble up a large percentage of any budget and you are quite correct there have been those.

My only hope here is that a lot of unseen work is going on and sales are happening that we are just not aware of. 

I recall in 2013 being really surprised when it was suddenly announced that the final had sold out, same at the HJ, we just suddenly heard that there were limited tickets. 

I hope there are loads of people like me who still have plenty to buy. 

[The Hallucinating Goose]

40 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

Are we sure about this? I've heard lots of adverts on commercial radio and had a lot chucked at me through various social media and targeted web ads in the last few weeks.

In the world we live now, with so much targeted comms, I think it is very difficult to know how much marketing is happening where unless you are the RLWC2021 marketing chief. For all I know they've had a 60 second ad on every ad break on ITV for the last month but I wouldn't know as I don't watch much live terrestrial telly.

 

I was watching something in ITV about a week ago and there was indeed adverts for the World Cup with information given as to where to buy tickets as well. 

[gingerjon]

52 minutes ago, Dave T said:

My only hope here is that a lot of unseen work is going on and sales are happening that we are just not aware of. 

I recall in 2013 being really surprised when it was suddenly announced that the final had sold out, same at the HJ, we just suddenly heard that there were limited tickets. 

I hope there are loads of people like me who still have plenty to buy. 

Assuming the reported numbers are true then we should already have passed the ticket income for the 2013 tournament.

[Jim from Oz]

Not sure if people can watch this in the United Kingdom but this program on Michael Cheika, the coach of the Lebanese rugby league team, has just been shown on ABC Australian television… well worth watching!!

https://www.abc.net.au/austory/in-a-different-league-michael-cheika/14076734

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

1 hour ago, glossop saint said:

I don't want to get into a 'Northern Powerhouse Funding discussion' and there is so much to be positive about for this WC but some of the venues and pricing is just bizarre. You can't just expect the same folk to splash out high prices multiple times. There needed to be a wider target audience and even where there is some variation in location it just doesn't seem to make sense. How were they expecting to fill the Riverside at those prices to people who in general aren't particularly affluent and have little connection to the sport?

Looking back to 2013 and there was a much better spread of games and even that could be improved on.

I'll keep expressing my surprise that only one game outside of the semi is not in the North if England 

I'll be going to the Coventry game as it's an hour and bit ......wish there were more. 

Pretty sure a game at Northampton or Leicester would do okay....plenty of rugger fans would be up for some cross code watching 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

50 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I was watching something in ITV about a week ago and there was indeed adverts for the World Cup with information given as to where to buy tickets as well. 

Soccer AM had some promos on it at breaks this weekend 

[Bedfordshire Bronco]

50 minutes ago, The Hallucinating Goose said:

I was watching something in ITV

Oh my God how gauche

[Yakstorm]

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)

[Will Holt]

30 minutes ago, Yakstorm said:

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)

Organisers said at the end of August that East Stand (including both corners) and that the Gallowgate and Leazes End (lower bowl) were 70% sold out..I'd hope they're close to capacity now

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, gingerjon said:

Assuming the reported numbers are true then we should already have passed the ticket income for the 2013 tournament.

Yes we should have absolutely smashed ticket income tbh, and apparently we have exceeded sponsorship income, so there is a lot of good stuff. And as we saw with the women's Euros, a tournament can be seen as a success despite lots of empty seats. 

[rlno1]

1 hour ago, Jim from Oz said:

Not sure if people can watch this in the United Kingdom but this program on Michael Cheika, the coach of the Lebanese rugby league team, has just been shown on ABC Australian television… well worth watching!!

https://www.abc.net.au/austory/in-a-different-league-michael-cheika/14076734

The tournament is also about profit so that it can be pumped back into the international game to grow it.

[JonM]

Fwiw, my extended family down in Oxford - general sports fans who will also go to England Ru games, premier League football etc.  have had adverts and paid full price for 4 final tickets. That will be their first RL since 2013 WC.

[JonM]

Also, did anyone go to the Bradford Greece warm up game, which seems to have flown under the radar? A 34-34 draw I think.