An analysis by Inside Sport of the key elements used to measure the impact of a sporting event revealed that the Rugby World Cup, which "is only six days old," is already "bigger than any previous edition was after a full six weeks," according to Ben Rumsby of the London TELEGRAPH. From ticket sales, to commercial revenue, to TV audiences, to social media activity, England 2015 "has broken virtually all records less than a week after the tournament got under way." The first two "were broken before the World Cup even began, with more tickets sold prior to the event than the previous best at France 2007." That included 89,019 for New Zealand vs. Argentina at Wembley, "which set a World Cup attendance record on Sunday." As of Wednesday night, ticket sales were still climbing, "with 2.35 million having been bought -- 100,000 more than eight years ago." Some of those "come as part of corporate hospitality packages, purchases of which the Telegraph revealed had exceeded those for the Olympics and Paralympics by 50 percent and are on the brink of beating the record set at France 2007." Commercial revenues have witnessed a 60% surge from the 2011 World Cup, with World Rugby expecting them to top £240M ($366M) "by the end of the tournament." More than £150M ($228M) of that "will come from television contracts covering 205 territories," 15% more than four years ago. While global audience figures are still being analyzed, "those provided by ITV for its coverage in one of rugby’s biggest markets point to further records." An average of 3.2 million people "have watched the opening eight matches, up from one million at the same stage in 2011 and 2.4 million in 2007." The figure "is already identical to the average from the entire 2003 World Cup -- which included seven England games en route to them winning the tournament -- and only a whisker short of the 3.5 million average from 2007, in which England also reached the final." However, "it is social media which has registered the most dramatic surges." According to social media monitoring firm Brandwatch, "there have been almost two million Rugby World Cup-related mentions on Twitter since Friday, nearly 10 times as many as the 236,000 tweets about the last tournament four years ago." The hashtag #RWC2015 alone "has been tweeted 726,600 times" (TELEGRAPH, 9/23). In London, Oliver Todd wrote ITV's coverage push "has seen ratings-leader the X Factor moved to accommodate rugby's Saturday night game," with audiences of 10-15 million expected, and more records will be broken when int'l figures are analyzed. Just 14 of the remaining matches have tickets left available, and only one of those "is ranked as having more than 'limited availability' in the higher price categories by tournament organisers." Corporate packages for the final next month, priced from £2,495 ($3,800) per person, "remain on sale but will certainly sell out to boost the tournament's overall turnover" to more than £100M ($152M) after corporate sales exceeded those for the London Olympics by 50% (DAILY MAIL, 9/24).
NO FAITH: In London, Gordon Rayner wrote rugby fans have petitioned ITV to replace Paloma Faith's "truly awful" World Cup theme music. The 34-year-old has been accused of "murdering" the World In Union song, which "is recorded by a different singer for every Rugby World Cup tournament." A letter to ITV Sport that accompanies the petition said, "We, the undersigned, request that you, ITV, remove Paloma Faith from the Rugby World Cup in order to make it a more enjoyable experience for all spectators." Faith shrugged off the criticism and said, "Some people are slating it, I feel like they don't like change, but I don't mind. I mean I'm quite pleased with it, so that's all that matters really" (TELEGRAPH, 9/24).
