Not on the list: Welford Road
Tournament organisers have confirmed that Welford Road, home of the Leicester Tigers, will not be hosting matches at the 2015 World Cup.
However, the Olympic Stadium in East London is among the 17 listed potential venues, as are Twickenham, Wembley, the Millennium Stadium, and some of the biggest club football grounds in the country.
Welford Road is the biggest club ground in England but Gloucester's Kingsholm is the only Aviva Premiership arena on the list published by England Rugby 2015.
The home grounds of football sides Manchester United, Newcastle, Sunderland, Aston Villa and
Southampton have all been included after expressing an interest in staging World Cup matches.
And Leicester is represented on the list by the King Power Stadium, which has a capacity of over 32,000.
Other football grounds in the running are the Amex Stadium in Brighton, Bristol City's Ashton Gate, Pride Park in Derby, Coventry's Ricoh Arena, Elland Road in Leeds and Stadium MK.
Critics of the plans think more rugby grounds should be utilised but organisers need to sell 2.9 million tickets in order to raise the £80m they have guaranteed to the International Rugby Board.
England Rugby 2015 will confirm the final list of 10-12 venues early in the new year, once the tournament match schedule has been decided.
Andy Cosslett, England Rugby 2015 chairman, said: "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.
"We are confident that, with the venues selected, we will be able to reach our target of having up to 2.9 million tickets available, opening up the tournament to more people than ever before."
The long list of venues selected by ER 2015 and approved by the RWCL Board is as follows:
1 Villa Park, Birmingham
2 Brighton Community Stadium, Brighton
3 Ashton Gate, Bristol
4 Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
5 Coventry Stadium, Coventry
6 Pride Park, Derby
7 Kingsholm, Gloucester
8 Elland Road, Leeds
9 Leicester City Stadium, Leicester
10 Olympic Stadium, London
11 Twickenham Stadium, London
12 Wembley Stadium, London
13 Old Trafford, Manchester
14 Stadiummk, Milton Keynes
15 St James' Park, Newcastle
16 St Mary's Stadium, Southampton
17 Stadium of Light, Sunderland
Comments
LondonWasp says...
can comeone plaese explain why the Millenium Stadium is being used?
Posted 15:24 10th October 2012
kybone says...
One point which hs also occurred to me is that in 2007 France used a boat load of football stadiums for the WC and no-one said a word. It was also the most attended RWC to date! Here is the list of French stadiums used in 2007-Stade de France, Parc de Princes, Stade Velodrome,Stade Félix-Bollaert,Stade de Gerland, Stade de la Beaujoire, Stadium de Toulouse, Stade Geoffroy-Guichard, Stade Chaban-Delmas, Stade de la Mosson. Those of you that know your stadiums will note that not one of those stadiums listed is a rugby stadium! Even the French national stadium is really a football ground, built specifically for the 1998 football WC. The point being that the French rugby supporting public didn't care that the matches were played in football stadiums. They just got behind the tournement and i think the same will happen here in 2015.
Posted 15:21 10th October 2012
kybone says...
@melkdave- Good isea about RFU investment but it wouldn't work im afraid. You stated a ball park figure of £200k, i can tell you that my club recently built a new stand on the ground at a cost of £4.5M- the stand has a capacity of 1,800! Upgrading of stadiums costs a lot of money.
@lawynd- I agree about Kingsholme. It is a terrible stadium for a WC game. I think the reason that it gets used is because of its history, it did used to be the home of England before Twickers after all.
I too was disgusted when i found out that Leicester City stadium was picked ahead of Welford Road but other than that there were no surprises. I mean did anybody honestly believe that the WC stadia would consist of Twickers, Wembley, and all the Aviva Prem stadiums? Because i didn't. I think Chubbylugs put it best - the World Cup has moved on since it was last here in 99, but the stadiums, by and large, haven't.
Posted 19:40 09th October 2012
jaycee_111 says...
?Critics of the plans think more rugby grounds should be utilised but organisers need to sell 2.9 million tickets in order to raise the ?80m they have guaranteed to the International Rugby Board. ?
Gents the simple answer to the reason football grounds are being used is in the above statement from the article. You either charge a fortune to a supporter to goto a small stadium or reasonable price for them to attend a big stadium. Rugby stadiums are too small to fill at the prices they would have to charge to make the money for the IRB far better to charge a low rate and attract crowds than dissuade them from coming, How much would you pay to see Samoa v Georgia? ?15 or ?50 and if you haven?t ever gone to a rugby game, a lot of the crowd will have to be in that category to make the numbers work, how much would you pay? Large stadium = cheaper tickets = more supporters = more revenue, simples, and that is before you take into account what these punters will spend on food, drink and merchandise whilst at the game.
Posted 13:20 09th October 2012
APV1 says...
@ lardon - I know, but it was the principal I was trying to highlight.
@ porridge_time - you're right, "...the RFU will be relying on a lot of local support from predominately non rugby playing communities." but they will also be relying on travelling fans who want to support their team. And that's exactly what it's about. I'm not local to London, nor a big fan of athletics or equestrianism, but I went to London 2012. Likewise, I'd expect many to go to RWC 2015, as it's a "once-in-a-lifetime" opportunity.
I think that Chubbylugs has a good point - most rugby grounds are not up to scratch. just consider the pictures from the 4N recently. Someone sin-binned or subbed goes off and sits on a little plastic chair with his iced foot up on an old crate. Then consider the seating in the "dug-out" in some soccer stadia. What a contrast!
@ lawynd - I agree on the Leicester and the Warriors points, absolutely. And Kingsholm always seems to get these matches, although I don't know why.
As a setting The Rec tops almost everywhere. As a ground (and, especially, as a pitch), it falls short. Shame, as I'd love to see the RWC at The Rec.
Posted 11:48 09th October 2012
physiodan says...
@Waz4before I dont believe all rugby grounds should be used and I aggree that some football grounds should definitely be used, my concern is mostly with the use of the souless KingPower stadium over Welford Road. I have been severtimes to this ground and it just carries no atmosphere. For a smaller ground you are far too far away from the action. If it gets a game then it will likely host a minnow who may not have the travelling support and I feel it will be a shameful representation of English rugby culture.
How do the FA propose to allow the games. Are we going to have a continuous run of Friday night games so that it doesn't intefere with wendyball and the Andrex Premier League?
Posted 09:25 09th October 2012
lawynd says...
@Waz4before - my only beef is with choosing Leicester City over Leicester Tigers; it just sends out the wrong message. The other locations either don't have a suitable rugby grounds or the difference in capacity is vast, but by the time the RWC rolls around, Welford Road should be only 2k and change shy of City's ground capacity. The default decision should always have been to go with a rugby stadium if it was a negligible decision like that.
As for Kingsholm, how? It's ugly, archaic, has terrible facilities, is not as easy to get to as Sixways and will most likely be smaller than Worcester's ground by 2015 too. Utter madness.
Posted 08:52 09th October 2012
davodiablo says...
NZ took the WC to the rugby heartland , England gives it to football clubs . Arguably Taranaki with a population of 70 thousand has a better stadium than any of the English Clubs. Does all the money go to Twickenham ?
Posted 08:23 09th October 2012
Waz4before says...
why do critics "think more Rugby grounds should be used" .. whats that got to do with staging a world cup??
Posted 05:56 09th October 2012
melkdave says...
I have no complaints about football stadia being used ,commercialy it makes sense 2.9 million tickets is alot to sell,to recoup the £80million the RFU will have to pay the IRB for hosting the RWC.If only rugby stadia where used tickets would have to be very expensive ,as most have capaciys of 10-15000 only atm.So commerically speaking its much better to use stadiums with 40-60,000 + capacity if possible,Thus allowing tickets to be a hell of alot cheaper ,and to hopefully gain new supporters for the game .Which is a big aim of the RFU from this RWC
@Lardon thanks for the info on Sandy Park,i know the RFU doesnt give money to clubs for stadium development ,but wouldnt it be nice if they did say give £200.000 say to the championship and premier clubs for stadium development a year,after all £5 million isnt a great amount for the RFU considering they have a budget of over £100 million a year.They could even write it off as a charitable donation ,by using the govt community sports programmes.Then we wouldnt have the London Welsh fisaco ect.It would also allow clubs to invest more in player development and training,something to consider anyway imo.
Posted 22:40 08th October 2012
dunks says...
Bernard Lapasset, Rugby World Cup Limited Chairman, said:"Rugby World Cup Limited is delighted with the range of locations and iconic stadia, steeped in sporting folklore, that have been selected as potential Rugby World Cup 2015 match venues.
At most I count 6 that fall into that category...
1. Villa Park, Birmingham
2. Br
ighton Community Stadium, Brighton
3. Ashton Gate, Bristol
4. Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
5. Coventry Stadium, Coventry
6. Pride Park, Derby
7. Kingsholm, Gloucester
8. Elland Road, Leeds
9. Leicester City Stadium, Leicester
10. Olympic Stadium, London
11. Twickenham Stadium, London
12. Wembley Stadium, London
13. Old Trafford, Manchester
14. Stadiummk, Milton Keynes
15. St James' Park, Newcastle
16. St Mary's Stadium, Southampton
17. Stadium of Light, Sunderland
Posted 20:32 08th October 2012
Chubbylugs says...
Pro rugby just isn't as established as football. It makes sense to use bigger stadia if they can be sure of filling them. Lets face it, for all the charm of the rec, or the comparative size of welford road, they aren't a scratch on most premier league or even championship soccer grounds. The rwc is now what the 4th or 5th biggest sporting event on the globe. These grounds may have been fine in 1999, but things have moved on, most rugby grounds haven't
Posted 20:14 08th October 2012
kybone says...
Personally im a little disappointed that Welford Road isnt going to be used but other than that i think its ok. There were always gonna be a boat load of football stadiums used purely because there are only a handful of club rugby stadiums that are anywhere near WC quality. Remember this is a preliminary list and there could be up to 7 of these stadiums chopped by the time the final selection is made. Id imagine that those to go will be Sunderland, at least one if not 2 or 3 midlands stadiums, One of the south coast stadiums, one of the SW stadiums, and maybe one more. One thing that the moaners need to realise is that we don't all live on Londons' doorstep, or near to a premiership rugby club. I want to go to as many games as i can without having to travel 200 miles down to London to do it. So im actually pretty happy that stadiums in Newcastle and Leeds are being considered. If people from the south want to go to games held up here then they're the ones that'll have to do the travelling for once. They can't complain. London usually gets bloody everything for Christs sake!
Posted 20:02 08th October 2012
heathy says...
There are one or two comments on here that either don't understand the commercial reality or have blinkered views. Yes, it would be fantastic to have the matches played in the rugby stadiums but commercially completely unrealistic. Most of the grounds either don't have the facilities, are not large enough or have not wanted to be involved. There needs to be a geographic spread, a willingness for the ground to be used, the capacity required and the facilities available including infrastructure. Most of the rugby grounds just will not tick the boxes. Also, if punters were asked to cough up a lot of money for tickets then they would all complain. Before jumping up and down, look at the bigger picture folks. I'm a huge rugby fan and would love the rugby stadiums to be used but it just isn't going to happen I'm afraid as commercially it will not work. Also, and this is just a view, don¿t you think that the powers that be would have thought this through?
Posted 13:13 08th October 2012
froggy73 says...
I like Cardiff stadium for WC :-)
Posted 12:59 08th October 2012
lawynd says...
This stinks, and isn't helping the game in England. Tigers have spent a great deal of money increasing the size of Welford Road and making a much more modern stadium; even more of the work would be complete by 2015 and capacity even larger. Where then is the incentive for other clubs to follow suit when their own national association passes them over in favour of an absolute coffin of a stadium owned by the local football team? Disgraceful.
Posted 12:54 08th October 2012
porridge_time says...
They're also well spread throughout England and will bring the RWC to areas where Union can be showcased
On paper and principal this is a reasonable sound idea, but the RFU will be relying on a lot of local support from predominately non rugby playing communities.
Posted 12:33 08th October 2012
lardon says...
@melkdave
Plans have already been submitted to increase the capacity of Sandy Park to just over 20,000. Development is expected to begin at the end of the season and will take place in stages as it will take a few years to complete. Also the RFU has a silly policy of not giving clubs any funding to develop their grounds.
@APV1
The Mennaye has a capacity of 3500. Its in a great location but having players changing in a temporary structure really wouldn't set a positive picture for the RWC.
Posted 12:32 08th October 2012
Propmelsey says...
No to Wales' Millenium .. No to ALL the soccer stadia ... if we do have to go outside Rugga Union .. which i personally think we do not .... have a look at some of the rugga league venues ..... but only as a last resort ..... If the RFU bleat on that it can only fund it by hiring soccer grounds then we're in a worse state than i could ever have imagined and shouldn't even be bidding to be hosts!! :(((
Posted 12:14 08th October 2012
jaycee_111 says...
Loads of compalints about the Millenium Stadium but how do you think England got enough votes to host the tournament? If they don't pay thier debts the Welsh won't vote for them again.
Posted 12:05 08th October 2012