Menu
Events and Attractions

World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper Calls 2015 RWC Biggest, Best Ever

Ask rugby's "most powerful figure" where the 2015 World Cup will rank and "he sees no reason to be diplomatic," according to Dan Roan of the BBC. World Rugby CEO Brett Gosper said that the event was "the biggest and the best of all time." Commercially, rugby's eighth World Cup has "taken the sport to new heights; never before have as many as 2.4 million tickets been sold for the event, (97% of all those available), with a world-record attendance of 89,000 at Wembley for Ireland's match against Romania." With "half a million overseas fans, 1.5 million visitors to fan zones, and unprecedented global TV audiences, the event has generated a profit" of £160M ($247M). Gosper: "That is great news for the game, globally. The World Cup is our financial engine, responsible for 85 percent of our revenues. That money will be spent on grass-roots rugby and on training, helping the sport to become more competitive." With the governing body already committed to investing £350M ($541M) between '09-16, the hope will be that the main legacy of England 2015 "will be to continue rugby's unprecedented recent growth in popularity, with 7.2 million players now worldwide." And yet, "it could have been even bigger." This World Cup "will also be remembered for perhaps one of English sport's greatest ever calamities; the national team becoming the first hosts ever to be eliminated at the group stage of the competition." None of the home nations made the semifinals, and collectively, "this failure will have affected domestic TV audiences, pub sales, advertising revenue, and the return on investment for sponsors." Some experts "suggested England's departure could cost" the economy £3.5B ($5.4B) "thanks to negative investor sentiment." Gosper: "Here of course, a little bit of the froth at the top of the beer may have been a bit calmer, and when the hosts do well you always get that added bit of excitement, but generally, the juggernaut rolled on." The last six weeks seem "to have been a game-changer in new markets." In the Netherlands, for instance, the World Cup was shown live on TV "for the first time and reports suggest club membership has increased 16% this autumn." There were "concerns over accessibility and inclusion." With more than half of all official tickets for the World Cup costing more than £100 ($154.58), the third-biggest sports event in the world "was also the most expensive in history." Estimates "suggest the the tournament generated" £1B ($1.55B) for the U.K. economy. The World Cup is expected to mean a profit of £15M ($23.2M) for the Rugby Football Union, enabling it to "continue investing in a grassroots legacy" program that began in '12 (BBC, 10/30). The BELFAST TELEGRAPH reported England 2015 Managing Dir Stephen Brown said that the event had "exceeded the revenue target" of £250M ($386.5M) which covers the surplus it must pay to World Rugby of £80M ($123.7) -- leaving an extra £15M for the RFU. Brown: "This was a tournament of record attendances and sell-out matches. Wembley Stadium twice broke the record for the biggest ever Rugby World Cup attendances. ... We have had over one million people through 15 official fanzones." Some 2.47 million tickets were sold, achieving 98% "of the capacity of the venues" (BELFAST TELEGRAPH, 11/1).

BIGGEST AND BEST: In London, Gavin Mairs reported World Rugby Chair Bernard Lapasset has revealed that "the tournament is already poised to beat all records" since it started in '87. There has been a £1B direct cash injection into the U.K. economy, a boost of £2.5B ($3.9B) "when taking into the account knock-on effects and the retail sales rise of 1.9 percent last month." Lapasset said, "Rugby World Cup 2015 will be remembered as the biggest tournament to date, but I also believe that it will also be remembered as the best." The tournament "has also attracted the biggest social media traffic of any sporting event this year." Lapasset added, "It really has been an inclusive tournament that has reached and inspired record audiences. This has been the social Rugby World Cup, the most discussed sporting event of the year on social media, with more than 250 million views of official video content and a total social reach of around one billion." One West Country club indicated that England's early exit cost it £5,000 ($7,729) "in bar takings alone," while another RFU source said that at one constituent body meeting, the official tasked with overseeing legacy in the region simply said, "Nothing to report." The tournament has "not been without its controversy either, including the fallout from the decision by referee Craig Joubert wrongly to award a penalty to Australia that cost Scotland a place in the semi-finals, criticism of the television match officials and complaints from the tier-two sides that they did not receive equality in disciplinary hearings over foul play" (TELEGRAPH, 10/29). In London, Matthew Engel wrote New Zealand is the global center of rugby union, "a position it reinforced at Twickenham on Saturday by beating Australia 34-17 to win the eighth Rugby World Cup, becoming the first team to retain the trophy and the first to win it three times." The men in black "always looked likely to fulfill its their historic role as the bosses of world rugby." This was "typified by the big bloke with the Nashvillesque name, Sonny Bill Williams, giving his winners' medal to a 14-year-old who ran on" during the lap of honor and was "felled by a security guard." Williams said, "I felt sorry for the little fella" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 11/1).

FANTASTIC FANS: Also in London, Stephen Jones opined "was it the greatest World Cup? You do not need me to tell you." It is the "heavenly intangibles and unmeasurables that sent England 2015 towards the stratosphere." The English "turned out in sensational numbers, sometimes to pay high prices and sometimes to be let down by the transport system (but not always, in either case) and to throw themselves into every aspect of what it means to love rugby." There "was not a crowd that did not exceed official predictions, not an out-ground that did not serve the tournament quite beautifully." One has to "wonder how big it all may have become had England stayed on past the drinks and nibbles stage" of its own tournament. Almost "everybody won." England 2015, "the offshoot of the RFU, did a sensational job" (SUNDAY TIMES, 11/1). 

MORE TRUST: MARKETING MAGAZINE's Hugh Robertson wrote prior to this week's announcement from suspended FIFA President Sepp Blatter, "brand equity surveys had indicated that the Rugby World Cup is trusted three times more than its footballing cousin." Sadly for FIFA, "this gap will likely widen even further." Beats by Dre's #TheGameStartsHere campaign (featuring England Captain Chris Robshaw, Richie McCaw and Wesley Fofana) "had potential social media audience" of about 9.6 million, but its content only reached 4.9 million. Land Rover's #Wedealinreal takes this further, "and as a result has delivered extremely high levels of social engagement." Samsung "leapfrogged bigger spending rivals becoming the most mentioned brand during the group stages and one of the most engaged with via its #SamsungRugby campaign by working in partnership with ITV to deliver real-time in tweet content that is topical and highly shareable." One clip during the England vs. Wales match "reached over" 2.1 million people (MARKETING MAGAZINE, 10/30). 

FUNDING COACHES: In London, Owen Gibson wrote World Rugby promised "to do more to further close the gap between the tier-one and tier-two nations before the next World Cup in Japan." Gosper said, "We've had comebacks, we've had ranking upsets. Looking ahead we're committed to closing that performance gap even further and we will work hard in partnership with the unions to make sure our investment in competition, administrative structures, coaching and technical support reflects our desire to create very competitive tournaments in future World Cups." The average winning margin between tier-one and tier-two sides "was 30 points, compared with 36" in '11. Gosper: "One of World Rugby's objectives is to increase the competitiveness and sustainability of the international game." Gosper also said that the strategy of screening matches free-to-air in non-traditional rugby markets "was paying off," with viewing figures of more than 2 million in Germany and "encouraging numbers" in Latin America. He also said that the "strategy of mainly using football stadiums, in the face of criticism from some who wanted more traditional rugby grounds to feature," to maximize attendance "had been justified" (GUARDIAN, 11/1). 

SBJ Morning Buzzcast: March 25, 2024

NFL meeting preview; MLB's opening week ad effort and remembering Peter Angelos.

Big Get Jay Wright, March Madness is upon us and ESPN locks up CFP

On this week’s pod, our Big Get is CBS Sports college basketball analyst Jay Wright. The NCAA Championship-winning coach shares his insight with SBJ’s Austin Karp on key hoops issues and why being well dressed is an important part of his success. Also on the show, Poynter Institute senior writer Tom Jones shares who he has up and who is down in sports media. Later, SBJ’s Ben Portnoy talks the latest on ESPN’s CFP extension and who CBS, TNT Sports and ESPN need to make deep runs in the men’s and women's NCAA basketball tournaments.

SBJ I Factor: Nana-Yaw Asamoah

SBJ I Factor features an interview with AMB Sports and Entertainment Chief Commercial Office Nana-Yaw Asamoah. Asamoah, who moved over to AMBSE last year after 14 years at the NFL, talks with SBJ’s Ben Fischer about how his role model parents and older sisters pushed him to shrive, how the power of lifelong learning fuels successful people, and why AMBSE was an opportunity he could not pass up. Asamoah is 2021 SBJ Forty Under 40 honoree. SBJ I Factor is a monthly podcast offering interviews with sports executives who have been recipients of one of the magazine’s awards.

Shareable URL copied to clipboard!

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2015/11/02/Events-and-Attractions/RWC.aspx

Sorry, something went wrong with the copy but here is the link for you.

https://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/Global/Issues/2015/11/02/Events-and-Attractions/RWC.aspx

CLOSE