Just as long as what they try isn't overly ambitious and leaves the sport looking like a laughing stock if anyone outside the heartlands even realises there's a World Cup happening.

Like 2000?



Like I say, the best way to do it is to make the funding out of sponsorship (Like the RLWC0icon_cool.gif, any seats you fill are profit... so you have the opportunity to offer free/cheep tickets to introduce people to the sport...

Grounds imo will be: -

Elland Road, DW Stadium, The Stoop, KC Stadium, Anfield, Old Trafford, Milllenium Stadium, Keepmoat Stadium.. plus a few more.

Wouldnt mind St James Park being added to the frame and get the game more publicity up there.

what about the final at murrayfield? continue the work up there after Magic! both semis in one weekend at cardiff!

Have got to have the final at Wembley, which, if its the same format as 2008, would leave 5 "big" games.
England v Australia
England v NZ
Australia v NZ
and the 2 semi's.

Now even these games would look embarrassing at the Millennium Stadium or Old Trafford, but Anfield and Elland Road could be good grounds to hold some at. As for the other games, the likes of the Keepmoat, Stoop, and Halliwell Jones would be obvious grounds to hold them at.

Cant see how we'd hold a game at St James Park though without it being embarrassing

Range of rugby league grounds for the group games. (maybe add St James to the frame)

Elland Road, Anfield, KC and DW to host Quarters imo

Millenium Stadium and Old Trafford to host Semis.

Wembley for the final.

That would look good imo.

Has anything actually been decided yet about how the tournament is going to be structured?

If it's a ten team competition again, then you're only going to get something like 13 games including the final which limits your options for taking the games out of the heartlands IMO.

Final apart, I'd be surprised to see stadia bigger than 25k capacity being used. The RFL need to be realistic, and there is f*ck all interest in the representative game in this country. Just take a look at the crowds for the last Aussie and Kiwi tours.

Added Anfield to get Liverpool involved in the RLWC.. however I think Liverpool will be out of Anfield and into their new ground by 2013.
I think you could be right with the grounds being too big, i think im just hoping for a good competition, however there is alot of grounds that could be chosen from in the UK. I would say Elland Road and maybe COM Stadium will get a semi final.
And think Old Trafford will get the final (as it did in 2000 FWIR).

what I said above is what I would call a dream competition for grounds if we could fill them.

Realistically we would be looking at: -

KC, DW, Galpharm and other ground hosting quarter finals.

Maybe - Elland Road and City of Manchester Stadium to host semis.

Final going to Old Trafford.

Don't forget there will be an Olympic Stadium by then..........

I can't immediately find any UK viewing figures for the RL World Cup. I can tell you that England RU's group matches in the 2007 World Cup ranged from 2.39 million for the match against the USA, to 5.3 million for the match against South Africa. The final got an audience of 13.3 million on ITV.

The RL World Cup claims a 19.2 million global audience, although whether this is cumulative or average or maximum isn't stated. It still seems unlikely that anything like those numbers watched in the UK doesn't it? Unless anyone can find some figures. The "cumulative audience" globally for the RUWC was 4.2 billion, but I can't say how this compares with the RLWC's like-for-like figures because I don't know what that 19.2 million reported actually represents.

In terms of live attendances, even with the RLWC being played in an RL-friendly nation, it was attended by a total of 290000 people, compared to an aggregate attendance of 2.2 million for the RUWC.

You do have to factor in that the RUWC was broadcast on ITV and so available to everyone as compared to the RLWC being broadcast on SKY and the fact that the RUWC included more games than the RLWC so the totals will naturally be higher.
Having said that I'd still be incredibly suprised to find the RL figures were even close to that of RU.

Indeed. The games in RLWC were also on at rather inconvenient times for UK audiences, so the comparisons might well not be seen as valid in many respects. But I found the best figures I could get my hands on with a very quick google search. Since they tend to support my gut feeling about the sizes of the two audiences, I shall stick to my original view until somebody finds me some more reliable viewing figures which suggest otherwise (mine came from Wikipedia nad BBC Sport mostly, so such a feat isn't improbable if people know where to look).

Headingley shouldn't get a look in for rep games unless they sort out the South Stand.

Southstand will be done by then for sure now IMO.

Way way too big, how many would go to cardiff to watch NZ v France?

12'000ish

That was a draft of what I would call a dream competition. The other one that I said is more realistic i think.

I would enjoy games much better at headingley if they put a mural up (like they did at highbury in the 90's) instead of the SouthStand.

If they put a pair of car speakers to play a crowd noise, it might make more noise than the current SouthStand too

The Aus V NZ game has to be played in London IMO due to the amount of ex pats that live down there, I think Loftus Road would sell out

Loftus Road, Craven Cottage, Reduced capacity Olympic Stadium?

I would rather see the games go to RL stadia, what is wrong with the Stoop?

Nothing, except that its' really a RU stadium isn't it?

Reduced Capacity Olympic Stadium would be a good bet if Scholars are given the go ahead to move in.

10/10 for observation!

Olympics in 2012, RLWC in 2013, RUWC in 2015 and possibly football world cup in 2018.. could be the best 10 years in UK Sport history.