Quote ="Wellsy13"How do you sell tickets and schedule these matches if you don't know who's playing where 2 of the 3 weeks?
As soon as they've lost their first game, the rest of the fixtures will be total non-sellers. That's why we have group games. They are a fixture at a set venue that you can sell for weeks.
Non-starter for me.'"
There are 4 seeded teams, 3 of which are sure to progress through to the semi-final, so you can sell week II quite easily, knowing almost certainly which teams will be there... Then the GF, like any match is up in the air... Don't think like 4 Nations stadiums like Wembley will be used, here's an example of how it could go:
Week 1:
Aus vs Samoa @ the Stoop
NZ vs Wales @ Wrexham
England vs PNG @ Salford
France vs Ireland @ Avignon
Week 2:
Aus vs France @ Toulouse
NZ vs England @ Hull
------
Wales vs Samoa @ Wrexham
Ireland vs PNG @ Halifax
Week 3:
Grand Final @ Huddersfield
3rd place playoff @ St Helens
5th place @ Headingley
7th place @ Leigh
Cheap tickets for the 3rd, 5th, 7th placed matches... The tournament would still turn a profit...
We'd be seeing 12 matches in 3 weeks, instead of 7 in 4 weeks, as is the case in the Four Nations...