I'll take that as a complement, given I wrote the bid and delivered the programme...

Huge kudos to RLWC2013 for a courageous decision to run with Bristol. The top team there, Sally Bolton, Jon Dutton, Mark Forster and Martin Johnston, have been superb throughout.

In fact they created the structure that has made this comp a success... a bidding process that meant local partners had to commit to delivering each individual game on a local level.

In Bristol there have been some brilliant, key individuals, who made it possible, and some fantastic organisations, particularly Bristol City and South Glos Borough Councils, Bristol Rovers, SGS Filton College (did you know we have a RL Academy in Bristol?), Bristol Sonics RL, UWE, and Watershed Arts Centre.

But the framework for success was set by the RLWC2013 team, and in turn by the RFL who commissioned and created them.

My big question.... what next?

Here's a few thoughts:

- invest in development staff in Bristol, to run a primary programme that follows a generation of kids from 5 to 16, adding in years below as the first intake move up through the years

- stage big events in Bristol. England vs Wales, with Cardiff only 40 minutes away? Super League on the road? I'd push for Magic Weekend at Ashton Gate... yes, it holds around 26,000 and current ticket sales are 30,000, but suddenly instead of being a 'maybe/maybe not' event, fans would have to get in early and it would sell out. How about an extended-format WCC game there?

- invest in Bristol Sonics. It would take a couple of salaries to make them into a Championship 1 side. No more that that on top of the existing central contributions to all Champ 1 teams.

- support Student RL, and the Student Alumni properly - that's a genuinely national game, and why? Because it is self-run by smart young adults.... a pool of (intellectual) talent we don't nurture and sustain after they graduate (which is sad, because they become the bosses, teachers, leaders in the next generation)

- plan for a Bristol SL team. Not parachuted in, or on the whim of a rich benefactor, but a strategic 10 year growth plan, so that those primary age kids who start playing now, are pushing for first team contracts by the time Bristol RL hit the SL. There is nothing special about the kids in Wigan or Leeds that makes them more suited to RL than the kids in Bristol and Bath... just years of coaching and playing opportunity. Even then, how many of our greats only played their first game of league as adults.... Boston, Sullivan, Davies, Van Vollenhoven, Risman... etc.... the SW is a Rugby heartland, and unlike in the north, where playing union is a social class thing, it's just the game that the ordinary blokes play if they are too tough for soccer.

Of course, the SL clubs can't even stay in a meeting room together at the moment, and the RFL has the will, but not the money, to grow the game without their revenue from the tv deals. It would take vision, especially from the smaller-town SL clubs and aspiring Championship clubs, to make the game truly national because they'd find it much harder to reach the top of a SL game that had teams in Bristol, Coventry, Glasgow, Newcastle. But if the pie gets bigger, everyone gets more. League 2 football teams turn over more money, and attract more fans, that some current SL teams. If only the current SL teams could think that far ahead.

How many tickets sold for the four QF games so far?

249,923 people have so far watched 20 games at this RLWC so depending on which church you worship at, gives an average of 12,496 or 14,748.
A full stadium tomorrow night will see the Group stages complete with the entire attendance of the 2000 RLWC almost overtaken having played 10 less games....well done to the host cities who in the main have done their bit and created the great buzz surrounding the RLWC 2013.

QF's up next, and other than the DW England game, I suspect Leeds and Warrington will sell well and only the Wrexham game could disappoint.

Looks like my prediction of 360k is going to be blown out of the water and I couldn't be happier...240,000 possible attendance from the 6 knock-out games.......I see no reason why Wembley won't sell out other than an England loss in Wigan and the Final is as good as sold out anyway....
..amended projection.....460,000

......now if only they could kick on and get these people back through the gates come February!

If the figures given for sales for the semis and final are right, then 360,000 is beaten without including qf gates. The French game tomorrow should produce a 5 figure crowd and then there should be a real panic over getting qf tickets. regular updates from the organisers should help push up sales.

They might, dependant on their location.

But the most important thing is that RL raises it's profile as a result and increases participation across the board. Getting more people interested in playing is imperative.

Many people thought the Olympics and Paralympics were a waste of time and money, slating it before it began. Just a further example of unfounded scepticism by the general (...ly clueless) public where the old adage about opinions and bum holes couldn't be more apparent.

Well done to the team involved, competitors, host towns and cities and of course the hundreds of thousands of supporters.