I actually asked the BBC to justify their massive handout in terms of value for money at the last contract renewal..Didn't even get a coherrent reply. It's got feck all to do with how good the event is or even what is might actually bring to the nation as part of free to air TV, it's about the people involved & money exchanging hands in one form or another, no more no less.
It's almost as bad the old F1 deal, not that that is much better now (sharing with sky) and F1 has been nearly as boring as RU for years..

Game 1 & 2 Eng v Aus / Wales v Italy : 45052 (74500)
Game 3 PNG v France : 7500 (10150)
Game 4 NZ v Samoa : 14965 (15200)
Game 5 Fiji v Ireland : 8872 (10,249)
Game 6 Scotland v Tonga : 7,630 (10000)
Game 7 USA v Cook Islands :7,247 (12,100)
Game 8 NZ v France : 17,518 (17,51icon_cool.gif
Game 9 England v Ireland: 24,375 (24,500)
Game 10 Aus v Fiji : 14,137 (18,000)

Total so far : 147,296 (192,217)
Percentage of seats taken up : 76.63%
Average per game : 16366*

*Double headers counted as one

Game 4, 5 and 9 were sold out IIRC. Any extra seats in the capacity wouldn't have been available for one reason or another.

Four sell outs from 9 events. Has there ever been a more successful RL tournament?

Tonga v Cook Islands at the Leigh Sports Village is about 500-800 tickets from being a sell out also.

Absolutely gutted I won't be there.

That's a great effort. I think the icing on the cake has been the crowds at Workington, Rochdale and Bristol.

Got to say that up to now the strategy of the RFL on stadiums and pricing has been spot on, well done the RFL, yes it actually hurts to say it, but yes

WELL DONE THE RFL, I hope it continues through to the final hopefully with England in it

Tickets where sold but never redeemed.

I can't think of a poor turn out to be honest. I'm looking forwards to the WC in the future as well as the games between the less favoured nations hopefully have set a standard to go forwards with.

Looks decent crowd at Wrexham

I must say I have been very and pleasantly surprised by the turn outs for all of the games, lets hope it keeps up.
well done to everyone concerned..

Thrilled with RLWC crowds myself, but the double edged sword is that Knock down Nigel will get credit for it and more years messing up the domestic game.

This is what get's on people's nerves Faxy. A lot of your posts, no matter what the thread topic is, come back to your beef with the RFL. I'm not saying your wrong, and I agree with most of what your saying, but it's tiresome.

Fair enough.....thrilled with the RLWC crowds to date!!!!!!!!!

So am I

To be fair i think it's mainly been Sally Bolton running things. The rebel SL clubs won't take this in to account, they're focusing solely on SL.

To be fair I think the rebel SL clubs may take notice of this as it proves that if you have a strategy and a marketing plan then there's a very good chance of success.
Ian Lenagan is the press appointed leader and Wigan's marketing is the best in SL by a country mile!

Just under 200 tickets remain for France v Samoa at Perpignan. Should be a wonderful atmosphere.

Alternatively, a successful World Cup on his CV might make it easier for him to "move on to pastures new"?

RLWC are working as a stand alone company - so it's not the RFL I don't think? Obviously they'll have a close relationship.

The CEO of the RFL is also Chairman of the RLIF at this time.

It's interesting that blundering CEO Nigel Wood got the RLIF job ahead of the ostensible Chairman of the RFL, the empty suit known as Brian "look at my connections" Barwick.

He's a bad example and figurehead whenever I hear or see his interviews. He seriously needs to go. A bad stereotypical image he gives to the game.

13 games into the comp, 166,447 in attendance giving an average of 12,803 (16,269 for the optimistic double-counting fringe) and tracking well against previous RLWC's.

disappointing gate in East Hull again tonight.......really thought with the new stand open they would have filled it twice.

When did Nigel Wood become Chair of the RLIF? I thought it was Scott Carter.

Under a 1000 tickets left for tonights game at Leigh. Capacity limited to 12005, but should be a great atmosphere at the LSV.

Three games in Hull was just too many. It'll be close if not a full house at the KC next Saturday. With the two Craven park games that'll be approx 40,000 fans watching World Cup games in the city. Add in, many Hull fans won't set foot in Craven park even if Rovers aren't playing. Rovers only average 8000 for their own games and RL fans from other cities have always been reluctant to come down the A63 to Hull as 'Its a long way'. Should have been one game at Craven Park, one at the KC and the other should have been played at Doncaster IMO.