World Cup Venues confirmed

[vin rouge]

[quote="smalldell"]This is the biggest insult to the Leicester Tigers community that the RFU could have inflicted upon us. quote]


Are there not games in Leicester? The rugby viewing population of Leicester has been catered for. Unfortunately our club won't see the revenues but you can't say the fan base hasn't been considered.

[Eon B]

All in all it's a sound economical decision in the current climate.

I'd have probably gone to see Namibia vs Portugal (or anything similar) at our place.

I won't bother with the Walkers, so saving money.
Reasons, other than principle, are no standing, bad beer, and Nurenburg rally levels of enthusiasm on the PA.

If I wanted to be shouted at I'd go and stand in Gallowtree Gate.

No WR, No WC!

[mol2]

I guess if the ground size was an issue back then Tigers could have turned the pitch 90 degrees.
A bit too late now they have built the Cat stand.

In the long run you guess they could grab a few yards if they rebuild the A&L stand to make it longer and a few yards wider when the Crumbie is rebuilt.

I wonder if the club had hoped to get some funding from the RFU for that prior to the world cup but that hope went no further. Given that the capacity is generally adequate for all but the biggest games it would be hard for the club to justify the spend without the sweetner of RFU money and or world cup games.

Shame we miss out and money that could and probably should have been kept within rugby, for the benefit of rugby gets shared with soccer stadia owners.

[Darc Tiger]

Suppose games at the crisp bowl will have to do. I will hopefully make a match or 2.

[WiggoTiger]

I feel its a cop out, play games at The Bowl to keep the Leicester rugby fans happy. Will they fill the ground to capacity??

[jgriffin]

The point is that it is a fairly extreme financial gamble. There would be no real problem staging a slightly scaled down break-even WC, using more actual rugby grounds.
However they have to largely fill bigger stadia to reach their target, and it is here that the choice of venue and the disparity with actual paying fans numbers becomes a banana skin.
It is possible that some bandwagon effect could've been generated by regionalisation with identified teams or pools being touted as the teams to support in that region.
Any South Seas team located at WR would've got huge support!

[kingol22]

Will they fill the ground to capacity??

If the organisers really want to fill the grounds then I think they will but they have to have a pricing strategy that is not going to rule lots of fans out straight away. There are not many fans who will pay premium prices to go see a game between 2 tier two nations and so they need to reflect that with the ticket prices. Sell tickets to smaller games at £15 and they are more than likely to sell well, put them at £30 and it will be pretty empty for the smaller games.

[Jimmy Skitz]

This is the biggest insult to the Leicester Tigers community that the RFU could have inflicted upon us. We, along with clubs like Gloucester and Northampton, have consistently drawn in big crowds and the communities are passionate about rugby.

It says everything about the attitude of the RFU to the club and its supporters....

How many Lions players have Gloucester and Exeter provided this yr?

except for the fact the ground is too old and de-creped to facilitate the World Cup, and considering its not sold out all that often why would the Tigers board spend money they may not have to make it bigger just to have 3 extra games at Welford Road. Seriously stop playing the victim, the reasons given are clear and open and NOTHING has or will change for them to change their mind, just be glad that there will be 3 world cup games taking place in the city and it will bring increased exposure to the sport, which is still a distant no 2 at best.

[Jay C]

Will they fill the ground to capacity??

If the organisers really want to fill the grounds then I think they will but they have to have a pricing strategy that is not going to rule lots of fans out straight away. There are not many fans who will pay premium prices to go see a game between 2 tier two nations and so they need to reflect that with the ticket prices. Sell tickets to smaller games at £15 and they are more than likely to sell well, put them at £30 and it will be pretty empty for the smaller games.

Quotes from Torygraph :

The Rugby Football Union had originally budgeted for an average ticket price of £71 on the understanding 2.9 million would be sold across 48 matches. But it emerged yesterday that fewer than 2.6 million could end up being available based on the existing capacities of the chosen stadiums.

and

Chief executive Debbie Jevans confirmed yesterday that she intended to honour the pledge made at the time of the bid that prices would start at £7 for at least some games.

By my reckoning, the loss of 300k ticket sales due to smaller grounds means the AVERAGE ticket price will now be £80.
If they are genuine about offering some at £7, then other tickets will be AT LEAST £150 to cover the difference - and that's if they sell out EVERY game, which is unlikely IMO.

For me, the maths just doesn't add up.

Why did the RFU allow themselves to get stitched up over the £80m commitment to the IRB, whilst at the same time telling us that the RWC would be spread all around the country ?

[Bill W (2)]

allow themselves to get stitched up over the £80m commitment to the IRB, whilst at the same time telling us that the RWC would be spread all around the country ?

As ever they spoke with forked tongue. They are more concerned with egos that with providing for rugby fans.

I would expect tickets for "premium" games to be £250+ and I am still not sure that they will make a profit.

[yellow_balaclava_hunter]

A few things for people to note.

Despite the age of the ground, the facilities are superior than the ten year old Walkers Stadium which has previously been used for Rugby and resulted in thousands of complaints by Rugby supporters about their experience there. Even Leicester City have struggled since playing there as it has no atmosphere so they lose any home advantage.

The pitch size issue can easily be rectified by either A, narrowing the concrete area at the side of the Caterpillar stand or B removing the first couple of tiers on the terrace and replacing it with grass then C shortening the in-goal area which would still be larger than it will at a lot of the Football grounds. This could easily be done in the close season.

The capacity question is a reasonable one but if the RFU had chosen Welford Road then you would expect that the club would have gone ahead with the next stage of development, furthermore Sandy Park and Kingsholm have much smaller capacities so that argument is irrelevant anyway.

If you asked a player from Argentina or Tonga would they rather play in a generic bowl used to host second tier Football matches or play at a Rugby ground that has been the home of previous World Cup winners and many legends of the game, how do you think they would vote?

The only winners from this decision are the owners of the Walkers Stadium.

[Bill W (2)]

Doubt that they are winners. They wont make much ££ out of it!

[yellow_balaclava_hunter]

Doubt that they are winners. They wont make much ££ out of it!

Correction, the IRB.

[Bill W (2)]

Doubt that they are winners. They wont make much ££ out of it!

Correction, the IRB.

Concur. IRB win whichever way up. Due to big egos and no nouse in RFU.

[Rizzo]

Talking to friends and acquaintances who are not particularly rugby minded, none of them seem that keen or even that interested in the games to be played at the King Power stadium. Rugby minded friends dislike the place, I've heard comments about lack of atmosphere at previous Tigers games that have been played there.

But - the City Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby seems very excited by the prospect, on local radio he was discussing the "tens of thousands" of visitors this will bring into the city, increasing revenue to retail, bars and restaurants and hotels.

I do wonder where they will all park though.