Venue switch - World Cup QF

[Damien]

A fair downgrade that.

[yipyee]

Its a little disappointing, its clearly off the back of ticket sales to pick somewhere small, at least its not Leigh but maybe they need a train station closer to the stadium.

Whilst ticket sales for QFs are low we don't know who will play in each game and one would imagine ticket sales to increase closer to the event once the line ups are confirmed.

 

[Jughead]

4 minutes ago, yipyee said:

Its a little disappointing, its clearly off the back of ticket sales to pick somewhere small, at least its not Leigh but maybe they need a train station closer to the stadium.

Whilst ticket sales for QFs are low we don't know who will play in each game and one would imagine ticket sales to increase closer to the event once the line ups are confirmed.

 

It’s probably going to be the best QF of the four and most likely to be Tonga v Samoa or England. 

[FearTheVee]

6 minutes ago, Jughead said:

It’s probably going to be the best QF of the four and most likely to be Tonga v Samoa or England. 

Which again makes me think this can't be about ticket sales as they would (should?) be confident of flogging loads of tickets once that plays out.

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

1 hour ago, Jughead said:

It’s probably going to be the best QF of the four and most likely to be Tonga v Samoa or England. 

The England quarter final is to be at Wigan regardless of where they finish in the group, I’m sure this was confirmed recently. So Warrington will be hosting Samoa v Tonga/PNG/Wales/Cook Islands. Presuming England and Samoa qualify which is very likely.

A venue change isn’t ideal but it’s not the big deal some people are making out. Hull, Huddersfield, Wigan and Warrington Quarter Final venue’s are all decent imo. 

[RigbyLuger]

England's (mens) QF is at Wigan, regardless of if they finish 1st or 2nd in the group.

[Dave T]

1 hour ago, Jughead said:

It’s probably going to be the best QF of the four and most likely to be Tonga v Samoa or England. 

Won't the England game be at Wigan, as a double header with England Women? 

Unfortunately the quarter final round looks very 'normal'. Warrington, Wigan, Huddersfield and Hull. I think we needed marquee grounds each weekend, and at least Anfield and Bolton sort of did that, and they've both gone 

[OriginalMrC]

If Bolton can't accommodate a world cup QF then it should have had both games moved to somewhere that really wants to host the tournament! 

[StandOffHalf]

They really have set this draw up haven't they!

England to play at Wigan, irregardless of whether they come 1 or 2.

Can't play Oz (sorry, nearly said wimps from down under) until the final, etc.

Should have QF1, 2, 3, 4, and no pre-selecting of teams to play venues at the knock-out stages IMO

Pity about the venue change.

[Toby Chopra]

2 hours ago, Archie Gordon said:

Would've been nice to have this somewhere in or around London.

Absolutely. I appreciate there was a northern requirement due to funding, but in circumstances such as this I'm sure govt wouldn't have minded. Play it at Brentford and they'd have got 18k of almost completely different fans.       

[Jughead]

12 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Won't the England game be at Wigan, as a double header with England Women? 

Unfortunately the quarter final round looks very 'normal'. Warrington, Wigan, Huddersfield and Hull. I think we needed marquee grounds each weekend, and at least Anfield and Bolton sort of did that, and they've both gone 

I was under the impression it depends on where England finish in the group. If they finished first, they’ll play at Wigan, second and they play at Warrington. 

[Phil W]

For me the disappointing thing here is this is a World Cup quarter final. It should be the only thing people want to see in Bolton on that day but it's been ran out of town by the snooker.

 

[Eddie]

40 minutes ago, Phil W said:

For me the disappointing thing here is this is a World Cup quarter final. It should be the only thing people want to see in Bolton on that day but it's been ran out of town by the snooker.

 

I did wonder why it was us that had to move and not the snooker. 

[Tommygilf]

20 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I did wonder why it was us that had to move and not the snooker. 

Snooker is part of a multi year deal

[Tommygilf]

1 hour ago, Jughead said:

I was under the impression it depends on where England finish in the group. If they finished first, they’ll play at Wigan, second and they play at Warrington. 

Nah, if England are in the quarters it will be at Wigan, just as if England are in the Semis it will be at the Emirates.

[Eddie]

1 minute ago, Tommygilf said:

Snooker is part of a multi year deal

Ok sounds reasonable, I wonder why it’s taken them so long to make the decision then. They can’t have sold many seats at Bolton, the seating capacity at Wire must be less than 6,000 as it’s terraced on two sides. 

[Jughead]

6 minutes ago, Tommygilf said:

Nah, if England are in the quarters it will be at Wigan, just as if England are in the Semis it will be at the Emirates.

Little point to having a draw then if you’re just going to manufacture it. 

[Barley Mow]

4 minutes ago, Jughead said:

Little point to having a draw then if you’re just going to manufacture it. 

It seems to be a very similar scenario to people suggesting lower tier teams should automatically be at home in Challenge Cup matches.

England being at Wigan and Emirates if they reach quarter and semi-final, regardless of how they get there also seems to be to ensure better crowds.

Like the Challenge Cup issue, there seem to be people for and against it. 

[gingerjon]

17 minutes ago, Jughead said:

Little point to having a draw then if you’re just going to manufacture it. 

They’re not changing the team England will play, just guaranteeing the venue.

I believe the same thing was done in 1966 in soccer when, according the original draw, England should have played their semi final away from Wembley.

[Jughead]

11 minutes ago, gingerjon said:

They’re not changing the team England will play, just guaranteeing the venue.

I believe the same thing was done in 1966 in soccer when, according the original draw, England should have played their semi final away from Wembley.

They’re fiddling the draw around. 

England finishing top of the group should play at Wigan, if they finish second they should play at Wire, as per the draw. 

[Toby Chopra]

1 minute ago, Jughead said:

They’re fiddling the draw around. 

England finishing top of the group should play at Wigan, if they finish second they should play at Wire, as per the draw. 

As long as the draw is legit in terms of who you play, which it is, I'm totally fine with them choosing the best stadiums to make the tournament a financial sucess. 

Cricket world cup used to do this, until they went the whole hog and decided that everyone should play everyone else anyway! 

[Jughead]

9 minutes ago, Toby Chopra said:

As long as the draw is legit in terms of who you play, which it is, I'm totally fine with them choosing the best stadiums to make the tournament a financial sucess. 

Cricket world cup used to do this, until they went the whole hog and decided that everyone should play everyone else anyway! 

I’m true Rugby League style, this is not clear on the RLWC ticketing site and shows Wigan as having the womens game but “Winner Group A v runner up Group D” and nothing about it being the guaranteed venue for the England game regardless of where they finish. 

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

21 minutes ago, Jughead said:

They’re fiddling the draw around. 

England finishing top of the group should play at Wigan, if they finish second they should play at Wire, as per the draw. 

Some people just have to complain about something, even when there is nothing to complain about. Do you have tickets for either venue?

[Spidey]

34 minutes ago, Jughead said:

I’m true Rugby League style, this is not clear on the RLWC ticketing site and shows Wigan as having the womens game but “Winner Group A v runner up Group D” and nothing about it being the guaranteed venue for the England game regardless of where they finish. 

Are you sure about that. I’ve read it somewhere on the website

[theswanmcr]

1 hour ago, Jughead said:

Little point to having a draw then if you’re just going to manufacture it. 

Every draw in any sport is manufactured to some extent - even at football World Cup you can’t have more than two countries from each continent in the same group etc.

This is the least manufactured we have had. Previously we had the Super Group with 3 from 4 qualifying and inter group games.

This is much clearer. Of course it keeps the big guns apart until later. And as others have said, pre-selecting the host venue is prett standard too.