By Tom Degun
October 10 – A total of 13 of the 17 venues that have been shortlisted for the England 2015 Rugby World Cup are football venues.
Wembley Stadium is on the list alongside the Premier League home grounds of Manchester United, Newcastle, Sunderland, Aston Villa and Southampton.
Also in the list are football stadiums Amex Stadium in Brighton (pictured below), Bristol City’s Ashton Gate, Pride Park in Derby (pictured bottom), Coventry’s Ricoh Arena, Elland Road in Leeds, King Power Stadium in Leicester and Stadium MK in Milton Keynes.
The London 2012 Olympic Stadium in Stratford has also been shortlisted.
It means that just three of the venues shortlisted for the 2015 Rugby World Cup are designated rugby venues in the form of Gloucester’s Kingsholm, Cardiff’s the Millennium Stadium and London’s Twickenham.
“The selection of the long list of potential venues represents an exciting milestone for Rugby World Cup 2015, when fans up and down the country can begin to get excited about the prospect of one of sport’s greatest events coming to their local city or town,” said England Rugby 2015 chairman Andy Cosslett.
“Our vision for Rugby World Cup 2015 is to ensure that we take this prestigious tournament to as many parts of the country as possible and we believe that the geographical spread of venues selected will enable us to maximise the reach of the tournament.
“In addition, we will be selecting further venues for training and team base camps that will ensure that the rugby community is at the very heart of Rugby World Cup 2015.”
England Rugby 2015 must sell 2.9 million tickets to cover the £80 million ($128 million/€99 million) guarantee owed to the International Rugby Board (IRB).
However, the shortlist is only the preliminary stage of the process and the final list of 10 to 12 venues that will be used for the competition will be named in early 2013 after the tournament match schedule has been formulated.
A decision is set to be made before the end of the year.
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