RLWC Attendance-O-Meter

[Guest]

Following the win, Rugby League World Cup officials have seen a substantial spike in ticket sales with less than 3,000 tickets now remaining for the clash at the University of Bolton Stadium, which holds around 29,000. Such has been the demand, the World Cup are set to release restricted view seats for purchase, such is the demand.

It's another positive piece of news for the organisers, who were pleased with England's opening game drawing a crowd of more than 43,000 to St James' Park in Newcastle. Tickets sales over the weekend were the competition's best two days of sales for a couple of years.

 

Edited October 17, 2022 by Leonard

[ATLANTISMAN]

44 minutes ago, Dave T said:

There is a good chance we'll see the lowest crowd of the tournament tonight if have thought... 

Hi Dave,

 

Just arrived in Doncaster thats my thoughts as well hope not however i am not optimistic.

 

P 

[Damien]

5 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Following the win, Rugby League World Cup officials have seen a substantial spike in ticket sales with less than 3,000 tickets now remaining for the clash at the University of Bolton Stadium, which holds around 29,000. Such has been the demand, the World Cup are set to release restricted view seats for purchase, such is the demand.

It's another positive piece of news for the organisers, who were pleased with England's opening game drawing a crowd of more than 43,000 to St James' Park in Newcastle. Tickets sales over the weekend were the competition's best two days of sales for a couple of years.

This is basically what happened in 2013 when a decent showing from England, despite losing against Australia, then saw a rush of sales and the remaining group games against Fiji and Ireland sell out.

[Guest]

Just now, Damien said:

This is basically what happened in 2013 when a decent showing from England, despite losing against Australia, then saw a rush of sales and the remaining group games against Fiji and Ireland sell out.

Nearly selling out for France would be a very good result. And also suggest that outside of a WC there might be the chance for some reasonable cross channel internationals.

Sales at Sheffield for Greece will be interesting.

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Damien said:

This is basically what happened in 2013 when a decent showing from England, despite losing against Australia, then saw a rush of sales and the remaining group games against Fiji and Ireland sell out.

Cat A £85, Cat B £70, Cat C £55, Cat D £35 and Cat E £25 for that game as well. That's a decent revenue generation.

[Dave T]

6 minutes ago, Damien said:

This is basically what happened in 2013 when a decent showing from England, despite losing against Australia, then saw a rush of sales and the remaining group games against Fiji and Ireland sell out.

 

4 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Nearly selling out for France would be a very good result. And also suggest that outside of a WC there might be the chance for some reasonable cross channel internationals.

Sales at Sheffield for Greece will be interesting.

That game the other day was a 3hr long advert for the WC and the team didn't let us down, with some superb tries. 

I'd like to think we'll get another decent win at the weekend and that carries through to Sheffield. 

[Maximus Decimus]

56 minutes ago, St Reatham said:

Yes, at what point is it decided that there isn’t enough interest currently to host a WC in the way in which we would all like?

There is a definite question here, and it is one of thr reasons I'll always have a love/hate relationship with the RLWC. The more nations it includes, the more artificial the feel to it as they are inevitably filled with almost purely heritage based teams.

This will always make some matches a hard sell. I'm unapologetic in stating that if Ireland was playing Jamaica in Widnes, I almost certainly wouldn't go regardless of price. I'm not interested in going to a mismatch between two largely artificial nations. There's only so many people you can convince of its legitimacy in this way.

However, and here is the rub, in 2013 they managed to create success despite these issues through successful and strategic planning.

This tournament has not only had some bad decisions around stadia but massively overpriced the group games. The big problem they have now is that the low ticket sales will create the opposite of a feel-good factor, meaning that events will continue to be poorly-attended.

My example above is a good case in point. If Ireland vs Jamaica was in Widnes, the tournament was going well, and there was talk of a decent turn-out then it would make me interested enough to consider getting a ticket.

If I was facing paying over the odds for 4-5,000 then no chance.

 

[N2022]

4 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Following the win, Rugby League World Cup officials have seen a substantial spike in ticket sales with less than 3,000 tickets now remaining for the clash at the University of Bolton Stadium, which holds around 29,000. Such has been the demand, the World Cup are set to release restricted view seats for purchase, such is the demand.

It's another positive piece of news for the organisers, who were pleased with England's opening game drawing a crowd of more than 43,000 to St James' Park in Newcastle. Tickets sales over the weekend were the competition's best two days of sales for a couple of years.

 

I haven't been able to read the whole thread, but as a general sports fan (rather than a league die-hard) having bought Eng v Fra tickets some time ago and then bought Eng v Sam tickets on a whim on the morning of the game, and looked for others out of interest since, thought I would add my observations. To me it seems that there are always enough people with the money and inclination to buy up the relatively few premium seats - even if that means forking out several hundred pounds for the match alone. The tickets they seemingly can't shift all of are the masses of non-premium ones. People are aware of the quality of view they might get for that money and people faced with a slightly / much (?) tougher winter ahead are being a bit savvier with their spending, so won't spend out on multiple games (or potentially any if they already have a football season ticket). Whilst I agree with people that £20 adult and £5 a child deals at a world cup are unrealistic, tickets for £30 for all but the biggest teams aren't a bargain and the junior seats being £20 rather than £10 or £15 makes it unappealing for families, which is surely not the aim of the tournament. On the terrace tickets, I've watched a lot of sports standing on terraces in the past, but would I want to stand and watch two teams of relatively unknown players on an October evening game in something that isn't my main sport? No. Basically, I think attendances will be fairl decent, but they've maybe misjudged price points in some areas and might end up with similar revenue but fewer people at the games.

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

15 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Following the win, Rugby League World Cup officials have seen a substantial spike in ticket sales with less than 3,000 tickets now remaining for the clash at the University of Bolton Stadium, which holds around 29,000. Such has been the demand, the World Cup are set to release restricted view seats for purchase, such is the demand.

It's another positive piece of news for the organisers, who were pleased with England's opening game drawing a crowd of more than 43,000 to St James' Park in Newcastle. Tickets sales over the weekend were the competition's best two days of sales for a couple of years.

 

Bought mine. Anyone know when the last time was that we got a bigger crowd against France? 

[Damien]

4 minutes ago, Dave T said:

 

That game the other day was a 3hr long advert for the WC and the team didn't let us down, with some superb tries. 

I'd like to think we'll get another decent win at the weekend and that carries through to Sheffield. 

I said last week that it seemed like the organisers were banking on this when it came to selling matches and the tournament and thankfully got lucky.

[Hull Kingston Bronco]

1 hour ago, Keith989 said:

Did having three 4 nations tournaments before the 2013 World cup help sell tickets? The lack of international matches each season means its hard for casuals to really get behind a team. 

Yes I think consistency is important. That’s why last week’s talk of Kiwis here in ‘23, and Ashes tour (including France) in ‘24, would be so important ahead of the World Cup over the channel. 

[Guest]

1 minute ago, Damien said:

I said last week that it seemed like the organisers were banking on this when it came to selling matches and the tournament and thankfully got lucky.

There will always be an element of the host nation doing well pulling along a competition and that is outside the hands of the organisers.

Say England were beaten by Samoa and lost the QF (Tonga?) that makes the whole tournament a bit of a slog.

[N2022]

Also on ticketing, it might encourage more people to buy tickets if the ticketing system were a bit more consistent. Almost didn't buy our 3 tickets on the morning of the Eng v Samoa game as I happened to notice St James's Park wouldn't process tickets on smartphone. No printer at home, so had to find a stationer's which would print them off USB on the way to the ground! I'm not a smartphone addict, but even I can see that in 2022 that policy will be putting quite a few people off buying - especially people who might hear about it from friends in the day or two before the game and buy spontaneously once they know weather is OK, Kaiser Chiefs also on etc. Sure, some will say 'we don't need that kind of fan', but realistically the bigger the crowd the better, surely?

[Big Picture]

4 hours ago, Davo5 said:

Isn’t the World Cup on BBC.

Yes it is, but remember that Sky put the game on 2 years' notice to prove its value if it wants Sky to keep doing business with RL.  You can bet their management is paying close attention to this tournament and how well it does.

[RP London]

1 hour ago, Keith989 said:

Did having three 4 nations tournaments before the 2013 World cup help sell tickets? The lack of international matches each season means its hard for casuals to really get behind a team. 

I would say regular internationals are a must and would definitely help.

[GeordieSaint]

 

[RP London]

1 hour ago, Damien said:

I personally don't think a lack of bids is any excuse for not having another game in London, at Brentford's ground for example. The organisers could have rented a stadium and had a match there quite easily.

I'm not sure if councils in London would feel the need to bid for this in the same way as other places to be honest. If they didn't then I feel the game should have been more proactive.

i suppose it may simply be a balance of weather they think that the rent will be sufficiently covered by the crowd compared to the bids from other cities where the risk is less.. 

an underfunded governing body and desperation for this to make a profit may well lead to the decisions made (whether rightly or wrongly).. its a risky place to be but i would guess its pretty much where we are. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

 

Great news - even with the additional competitions. Cue the argument over whether £s or bums on seats matter more.

[Dave T]

3 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

 

Well that proves they haven't sold the same number as 2013. Because if they have (458k), then they have only made around an additional £2.50 per ticket. 

It's interesting that as sales are proving to be poor, Dutton has started to talk about gate receipts, something we haven't done for decades. 

Spin, spin, spin. 

This £1m number makes no sense at all. 

[Guest]

2 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Well that proves they haven't sold the same number as 2013. Because if they have (458k), then they have only made around an additional £2.50 per ticket. 

It's interesting that as sales are proving to be poor, Dutton has started to talk about gate receipts, something we haven't done for decades. 

Spin, spin, spin. 

This £1m number makes no sense at all. 

Why would they sell the same amount of tickets 5 weeks out from the end?

I get the point - but that seems an odd comparison at this time.

[Cowardly Fan]

9 minutes ago, GeordieSaint said:

 

Even factoring in a bit of spin & the inflation that seems positive. As imagine they can add 10-20% to that during the tournament

[RL Tragic]

42 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Following the win, Rugby League World Cup officials have seen a substantial spike in ticket sales with less than 3,000 tickets now remaining for the clash at the University of Bolton Stadium, which holds around 29,000. Such has been the demand, the World Cup are set to release restricted view seats for purchase, such is the demand.

It's another positive piece of news for the organisers, who were pleased with England's opening game drawing a crowd of more than 43,000 to St James' Park in Newcastle. Tickets sales over the weekend were the competition's best two days of sales for a couple of years.

 

To be fair the sold out against Ireland 2013 we should be disappointed with anything less than a sell out 

[Dave T]

6 minutes ago, Leonard said:

Why would they sell the same amount of tickets 5 weeks out from the end?

I get the point - but that seems an odd comparison at this time.

So if we try and interpret that, as Mascord's post doesn't make much sense. 

Is the point that after 5 games, we have made a million more than after 5 games of 2013?

So if it continues we can maybe expect an additional £10m over 2013?

That would make sense based on price increases, but not really what Mascord has said. 

Apparently we have already sold over 350k, so if total ticket income is only £1m higher based on those sales, that's where the number is paltry and makes no sense. 

So fingers crossed it is the first interpretation. 

[GeordieSaint]

9 minutes ago, Dave T said:

Well that proves they haven't sold the same number as 2013. Because if they have (458k), then they have only made around an additional £2.50 per ticket. 

It's interesting that as sales are proving to be poor, Dutton has started to talk about gate receipts, something we haven't done for decades. 

Spin, spin, spin. 

This £1m number makes no sense at all. 

I don’t think I believe Dutton on the comparison of sales between 2013 and 2022. I suspect Mascord has got his numbers wrong with the tweet.

[Dave T]

7 minutes ago, RL Tragic said:

To be fair the sold out against Ireland 2013 we should be disappointed with anything less than a sell out 

Wasn't it 24k versus Ireland, so hopefully surpassed that now based on capacities?