I'm interested in the views of paying supporters if they perceive a problem. I'm less interested about reading gripes from those with no intention of attending any games. Hopefully this post doesn't hit any raw nerves as everyone from both camps will be attending at least one, hopefully many more, of the WCC games. I'm particularly set on those at Derwent Park, a ground I haven't visited for far too long.

Pathetic. The game would be better off without fans like you.

We (me and familly) spend approximately £700 per year on tickets and probably £300 on stuff like food, programmes, replica kits for the kids, etc. Not to mention a Sky Sports subscription for nothing other than RL. But presumably my money comes marked with "pathetic pessimist" and therefore isn't welcome at the bank and no good to the sport. Sorry we pollute your game.

I have only 1 gripe, the fact that in englands group they have 2 matches on the same day. Will the RFL have kick off times whereby you can attend both games.
2nd nov games at Hudds and Saints (hopefully a 15:00 & 20:00 kick off)
9th nov Hull and Limerick (private jet needed)

and on 16th 2 quarter finals Wrexham and Wigan.

The RFL have not indicated times for kick offs so buying tickets for both games on 2nd and 16th could be a waste of money......They need to make a decision and announce it.

No need to apologize for being optimistic about the world cup. In general, I am. I was defending the person accused of 'fantasy' for having concerns about tickets. I share those concerns and think that we need behind the scenes some kind of emergency plan to fill those seats, because this is best exposure we're going to get for 4 years and if not quite "appearance is everything" it's ridiculously important given where we're at right now.

If you want to call it pessimistic, fine, I am pessimistic about filling seats for a lot of games under 'normal' sales. If I'm wrong, and they're all full of paying fans then - despite the inabilty of people to understand this, and their STUPID ASSERTIONS that critics hate the sport - I would be delighted. I'd be almost as delighted if they're filled using some sort of plan B, C, or D because more than anything I want people to turn on the TV and see full seats.

Your bitter and poisonous attitude are what arent welcome.

Your family are more than welcome. With all your negativity, death-riding and bitterness gone they would probably enjoy the game more.

Where do I fill in the form to get your permission to watch Rugby League? You could really clean up the sport and turn it into something akin to North Korean celebration. Happy smiling faces all round, it would be lovely.

everything is cool....nothing to worry about...move along

I never said you werent allowed. I said the game would be better off without you.

And if you were somehow banned it wouldnt be anything like a north korean celebration, it would be exactly the same as it is now except there would be one less moron in the stands and one more bitter jackass sat at home moaning to themselves.

Have you managed to find out what the thing you were complaining the RFL didnt have was called yet. After all it was such a terrible, amatuerish thing not to have, surely it has a name?

You dont know that isnt the case. you dont have the information to know.

I appreciate there are changes you would like to so see, and many times i agree with your suggestions and think there are some very good points you make. But you are half-way around the world and have no information to base your assertions on.

Your views seem to have become coloured by your experiences of London and the RFL which to be fair were a fair old time ago now.

If the RFL can sell 350-400k tickets then they World Cup will be a relative success. Not relative to RU, not relative to football or the olympics, relative to RL and were we are. Were we are right now is pretty close to where we would expect to be to hit those targets.

RL cannot afford to discard fans Smokey, I think you are a complete goon and I am sure you feel the same way but the sport must find unity, and not by simply excommunicating one side or the other.
Many RL people are disillusioned with the way our sport has been run, that is a fact and doesn't stop them being the low hanging fruit we must get back behind the sport.
I hope we can go someway to achieving that soon and if so a united RL fanbase will make this comp the headline act it deserves to be.
I will be attending 3/4 games, I may attend more if I feel more motivated to do so.

Breathe.....aaaand.....relax....repeat. We're not worth getting worked up about, seriously. Leave us stew in our anti-RFL rage, we'll just implode eventually.

Never mind getting them back...I'm disillusioned and still go! Smokey wants me to stop. The mere thought of me sitting in the stands shredding pictures of Nigel Wood as I twitch with uncontrollable rage is enough to ruin his afternoon.

Ever regret posting a positive thread on the VT?

Blimey, calm down everyone!

Can we all not just enjoy this tournament and get behind it?

To be fair (even to Smokey et al) though, the thread was "World Cup Ticket Sales", not "Will you enjoy the World Cup?"

I don’t want you stop going. I want you to stop being such a bitter h0le who would see the game suffer to get what they want, that wishes ill on the game they profess to love because they don’t like some of the things that happen, that presents a negative bias and searches out negativity to try and damage the game to effect the changes they want. Your attitude is almost the perfect example of cutting off your nose to spite your face, except you are trying to cut off everyones nose. You stop doing that then great.

But if it is a choice between you not being an RL fan, or you being an RL fan who pushes a personal vendetta through unhelpful, unnecessary, counter-productive, bitter, negative, childish means then we would be better off without you.

It doesn’t ruin my afternoon at all, I have just got my tickets to see springsteen open the Leeds Arena, Leeds play Melbourne tonight at headingley, Today is a good day

What would the critics have done differently?

So do I, sponsor 2 players and chuck a few bob in other areas. Its the ones who have walked I meant.

Smokey has his vision and even though its a version of the emperors clothes he is passionate about belittling any alternate opinion - don't rise to it, pity him instead as change is on the horizon.

Do you mean re. ticket sales?

Despite Smokey's caricature, I'm not sure I qualify as a 'critic' on this one, because I haven't criticized RLWC ticket sales nor the way in which they've been conducted. I entered the thread in agreement with a poster who suspected that we'd still have problems of large numbers of empty seats in some games - but this isn't a 'criticism', its just what I worry is true. I don't know if its 'different' because they may already have this sort of plan, but FWIW I'd have a back up plan to fill them for the sake of TV. Sure, the cynical RU press might comment that we had to give seats away, but your average viewer doesn't care much and a few snide comments are worth the benefit of full stadia...its just SO much better for the brand. Besides, if the free seats are given to various public servants such as army, etc. its a bit hard to knock without coming across as mean-spirited. I also totally understand why you wouldn't go public with the back-up plan when paying tickets are still on sale, so (no doubt to Smokey's surprise) I'm not sat here steaming with rage because I haven't seen such a plan yet.

That’s the difference between you and RLbandit and me is honestly couldn’t not care less what changes are made if they work. I don’t want the game to suffer so my ‘side’ gets their way. I don’t want franchising because I like it, I want it because I think it is the best way to go for us. If we went to P+R I wouldn’t want it to fail so that we would go back to franchising. I would want it to succeed.

You two on the otherhand are so entrenched in your position that because the game has gone a different way to what you want, any success has to be ignored because if it is a success then there isn’t a reason to change it, and any negative over-played because damage to the game might necessitate change. It’s a pathetic and childish standpoint.

Been thinking back, and I am pretty sure that the same people knocking ticket sales were also went off on a big rant about how the KIDS mascots were a disgrace and proof the competition is doomed, back in November. Says it all.

To illustrate my point...

Correct, though in this instance the targets of opprobrium and ad hominem attack appear to be mainly you and gutterfax for having the audacity to apply reasoning and realism to the world cup ticket sales debate. At least it's been fun witnessing the further unravelling of TorquemádaTA and his agenda

Your schtick has become boring now. Your NRL fanboy trolling was a lot better.

Its been downhill for you ever since your enforced absence for anti-semitic jokes about the killing of jews during the holocaust.

So your 'solution' to this imaginary problem is to give multitudes of tickets away for free because you don't have faith in RL fans to support their game. Probably the same fans like you who sit at home and deathride the tournament months before it has started and ignore all evidence to the contrary.

I'm not sure which matches you think will have 'problems with large numbers of empty seats', but if there are empty seats at any World Cup match then it's the fault of RL fans. Not the RFL, RLIF or anyone else, if there are empty seats and you haven't attended the match then it's your fault, and you have no right to complain about anything if that's the case.