I live and work in Hammersmith!!

I forgot Huddersfield and Donaster. Which others do you reckon? Will Hull KR be sorted by 2013? And the Cas/Wakey debacle, who knows? Bradfords a dump at the minute.

So you know there arn't that many antipods there anymore, plenty of eastern europeans though.

Fewer stadia with more games on the same day is the way forward, I reckon.

If there are 12 teams in it, then use just two grounds - three games at each, one after the other. It's cheaper to stage, cheaper to broadcast, and gives the fans an experience.

Similarly, why just have the final on World Cup Final day? Why not have a third place playoff as the curtain raiser?

Hammersmith has never really had many antips from what I've gathered, I used to live in a place called Dollis Hill though and that was full of them.

A lot of my friends live in Willesden... another antip 'hotspot'. Same as Acton. Chockers with Aussies and Kiwis. Shepherds Bush is quite popular too.

London on the whole has thousands of Aussies and Kiwis living here. There was a good turn out for the international at the Stoop last year between Australia and NZ.

Group 1 Wigan, leigh and wire
Group 2 st helens,widnes and wrexham
Group 3 huddersfield, headlingley (if north/stand are rebuilt) and darlington

Semi - final double header villa park
final - old trafford

lets miss out the city with the most rugby league fans shall we? hull!



nothing like lancashire bias there

To show the game in it's best light the venues should be !!!!

Limoux or Pia

Swinton

Oldham

Keighley

Hunslet

Whitehaven

Then for the semi's Leigh and Doncaster

Final at Rochdale.

The gounds will all look full with enthusiastic interested people with 1000's nay 10s of 1000's baying at the turnstiles to be let in!!!!

Whoops sorry was in a trance there.

Let's take it to dull no atmosphere stadia where having fun as a spectator is banned by jobsworths.

Joking aside some of the games will not even fill some of the stadia mentioned unless!!!!!!!!!!!!

THE BIG MEDIA MARKETING MACHINE STARTS NOW and keeps hammering at the door of the media constantly.

For the naysayers saying theres all this "sport" being played first, so what, just keep plugging away promoting our game, the technology is there so use it!!!

Barry McKenzie went to a game at the KC and despite it being a bit of a P in the A to get to (park and ride from somewhere just past the Humber bridge I think) it was a great stadium.

Great idea! Can't fault that at al.... Woaaaah!!! [iKeighley!?[/i

Replace Hunslet with Batley and I think you're spot on

It all depends on the actual draw but I hope they play the games at proper Rugby League venues.

Saints (new stadium), Warrington, Leigh, Wrexham, Twickenham Stoop, Widnes, Catalans, Huddersfield, Hull & Wigan's home grounds provide more than enough decent venues in the heartlands.

Probably a bit Lancashire biased their but at the present time on this side of the pennines the clubs are way ahead of the Yorkshire clubs for modern stadia.

Kick Off times are key as well. I hope they play the games in the afternoon rather than the evening. And if they play midweek then kick off at 7:30pm rather than 8pm. Bit more friendly for train travellers.

I'll be honest international rugby has lost it's appeal for me in recent years. I prefer three match test series than four/tri nations tournaments every year (bit repetitive in my view) but a world cup is something different to look forward to. One of the best international matches I've attended recently was Tonga v Samoa at Headingley the other year so I've no doubt it'll be a successful tournament if they run it properly. That means not taking games to Gateshead, Gloucester, Reading, Llanelli, Belfast, Glasgow, Dublin and Watford like the 2000 effort.

You say that but Keighley hosted Fiji v South Africa in 1995 with almost 5,000 on.

True, but that was back in the day when Larkholme Lane was a pretty decent little ground and their side was really quality and attracting good crowds before the RFL decided they were not glamerous enough.

It's up there with the last few days of the Barley Mow these days!

Yeah... it was a leg pull with regard to Leaguefan's true love.
Always awkward when you have to explain a joke.

Don't dismiss the mighty Cougars

There are PLANS!!!!!

Aiming for Super League for 2014 according to the new chairman.

Comes across as a really good honest bloke who's in it for all the right reasons and is really approachable from a fan's point of view but this idea is a little bit

For a World Cup we should really be looking for Olympic Stadium and Wembley as opener and closer imo. However this is Rugby League, and for whatever reason we aren't there yet, unless there is a big shift in how the UK views the sport, if at all.

I thought the World Cup was being held in England and Wales only. An obvious problem with Huddersfield, Hull and Wigan could be the football teams that share the grounds.
The RFL could do a lot worse than have a double header at somewhere like City of Manchester (obviously depending on Manchester City) to open the tournament. To ensure good crowds the fixture list and venues need to be confirmed as early as possible and tickets should be on sale at every club game, professional and amateur for at least a year before kick off.


Great idea and one full of common sense. Will the RFL think along the same lines?

I love international rugby.

A few people have suggested Leigh as a venue for games. I know it's a modern stadium and of a good size for group matches but I think the lack of a rail link would make it too inaccessible for a World Cup game. Fans that will have travelled over here to watch games could find it a struggle to get there.

I agree with mike that leigh has to sort something out for fans travelling from far away, me my old man and brother took an hour to get a quarter of a mile at the widnes game. The eng-france game
is going to be an eye opener with a bit of luck.

Why do people always say double header asif it is some kind of magic word?
double headers are terrible ideas
they basically say only one of these games is worth watching, oh please come to see the other crappy game
every world cup game will be worth watching and should be sold as such
make the tickets affordable like they did in Aus too

all you suggesting lancashire venues, the aim is to get a good crowd and lancashire fans do not turn up, the results are always better in Yorkshire too!

I didn't know you had two accounts Damo.

Until we actually know the format of the World Cup, there's no point in booking stadiums.

Are there going to be quarter finals? There weren't last year. Super group? What's happening, people?

Surely, with the RFL now confirming it will be 14 teams, we should know what the actual format of the cup is now. Unless they've just thought "f*ck it, we'll have this many teams and work out a system for it later..."

The Final most certainly at Wembley. The fact that it's Wembley that is so important. Some people seem to have the logic that if 60k people will go to Wembley, then the same 60k people would happily go to Emirates. It doesn't work like that.