The first weekend of the Rugby World Cup in France was “marked by serious problems with welcoming spectators," with “hundreds stranded outside stadiums or unable to get to the start of matches” in Marseille and Bordeaux, according to Philippe Le Coeur of LE MONDE. The occurrence did “serve as a wake-up call for the public authorities,” who are stakeholders in the Organizing Committee for the Rugby World Cup -- through the Paris 2023 Public Interest Grouping -- just as they are in the Organizing Committee for the 2024 Paris Games. For months now, the French government has been “emphasizing the ‘enormous amount of work’" that has gone into preparing for the Games, “to ensure that we are perfectly up to scratch in terms of security, transport and hospitality.” But there are "two critical points" that the issues at the Rugby World Cup emphasize: "difficulties in transport (streetcars out of order and overcrowded in Bordeaux, lack of information and signage for spectators in Marseille) and in the management of spectator flows (large queues in front of stadiums)" (LE MONDE, 9/13).
