By Tom Parsons
May 2 – The English Rugby Football Union has announced that eight football grounds will be used to host games at the 2015 Rugby World Cup. The tournament, predominately held in England, will be staged at 13 different venues around England and Wales during September and October 2015.
Villa Park in Birmingham, Manchester City’s Etihad stadium, St James’ Park in Newcastle, Leicester’s King Power Stadium, Stadium Milton Keynes, Leeds United’s Elland Road, the Amex Stadium in Brighton and Wembley will all host group stage games during the competition.
These eight stadia were preferred ahead of stadiums in Bristol, Coventry Derby, Southampton and Sunderland who applied to host games but failed to be confirmed as venues by the organisers.
The decision to include eight football grounds did not come as a surprise due to the obligations by tournament organisers to the International Rugby Board to make £80m from the competition.
It’s been suggested that to fulfill this commitment, there has to be 2.9 million ticket sales at an average attendance of 55,000 throughout the event – hence the requirement to include higher capacity football stadia rather than smaller rugby venues.
The move to use only two traditional rugby grounds outside of Twickenham and the Millennium Stadium will come as a bitter blow to many Aviva Premiership teams across the nation.
Sandy Park, home to Exeter, and Kingsholm, Gloucester’s home ground, are the only two top-flight rugby stadiums to benefit from hosting Rugby World Cup matches.
One of the more controversial choices was to choose Leicester City’s Kings Power stadium rather than rugby’s Leicester Tigers’ Welford Road as a venue – a difference in capacity of just 8,000 in favour of the football team.
Leicester Tigers chairman Peter Tom stated ‘We are hugely disappointed to learn that Welford Road will not play a part in England’s hosting of the Rugby World Cup in 2015. We have hosted many, many major occasions over the years, including visits from South Africa, Australia and Argentina national teams in recent seasons.”
Speaking on the decisions, Rugby World Cup chairman Bernard Lapasset said: “We have … worked hard with all stakeholders to deliver a match schedule that is fair and balanced for all teams and that will provide the stage for the world’s finest players from 20 nations to perform to the best of their ability during a six week festival of world class rugby,”
Wembley stadium will host two matches including the high profile New Zealand v Argentina fixture with the Olympic stadium hosting five – including the bronze medal match. Meanwhile people in Manchester will be fortunate to witness England’s final group game at the Etihad whilst all England’s other games will be held at Twickenham.
This reward was probably helped by the fact that organisers stepped in and asked if Manchester City would be interested in hosting games at the last minute due to Old Trafford pulling out. The red side of Manchester’s decision to withdraw was a back room decision based on concerns about hosting three matches at the stadium. This caused panic with the organisers, but a solution with the blue side of Manchester quickly rectified the city as a venue.
Rugby World Cup 2015 venues:
Twickenham – 81,605 (London)
Wembley – 90,256 (London)
Olympic Stadium – 54,000 (London)
Millennium Stadium – 74,154 (Cardiff)
Etihad Stadium – 47,800 (Manchester)
St James’ Park – 52,409 (Newcastle)
Elland Road – 37,914 (Leeds)
King Power Stadium – 32,312 (Leicester)
Villa Park – 42,785 (Birmingham)
Kingsholm – 16,115 (Gloucester)
Stadium MK – 30,717 (Milton Keynes)
Amex Stadium – 30,750 (Brighton)
Sandy Park – 12,300 (Exeter)
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