Russia to bid for 2023 world cup

profitius

The Rugby World Cup’s newest competitor, Russia, have announced they will bid to host the rugby bonanza in 2023.

Russia qualified for their first World Cup last year and made their debut a few weeks ago and despite losing all four group games the sport is fast growing in the country.

“During our board meeting RRU president Vyacheslav Kopyev stated that Russia would lodge a formal bid to host the World Cup in 2023,” the union said on its website.

“The Russian team had a respectable showing in New Zealand, scoring eight tries – a great achievement for the World Cup debutants. Still, we fell short of our main objective – we could not win against the United States.

“One of our objectives is to win the rugby sevens World Cup in 2013 and also compete in a (15-a-side) World Cup on a regular basis.”

It’s quite a remarkable revelation and with the Soccer World Cup heading to countries such as Qatar then will the IRB head in the same direction of selecting lesser known Rugby playing countries.

Since the establishment of the RWC back in 1987, the event has been held in just six different countries. New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, France, England and Wales have all hosted the event with Ireland and Scotland aiding other nations in hosting it.

The IRB shocked most people when selected Japan as the host for the 2019 edition of the tournament but will Russia be a step too far.

Established rugby playing countries such as the Pacific Islands and Argentina have a better chance. England will host the 2015 World Cup but who knows where the 2023 tournament will be held.

http://www.sportsnewsireland.com/rugby_irish/56987/

Would be great for the game if they managed to bring the RWC to Russia.

Brendan97

profitius wrote: »

Would be great for the game if they managed to bring the RWC to Russia.

it would promote the game in russia and would be great for rugby in general but not sure if the players would be keen playing on all-weather pitches. Got a few nasty burns on my legs from playing on all-weather pitches myself.

[Jackass]

Fair play to them. The game should definitely be held outside of the 5 / 3 nations for a number of tournaments if not every second tournament.

Japan is a great decision to host the world cup and hopefully it will have a big knock on affect for nations in Asia. Italy and Argentina would be very obvious destinations to host also.

A Pacific Islands world cup would be superb. Split between Fiji, Tonga & Samoa.

A Russia / Georgia / Romania region hosting would be very beneficial also.

Certainly the major nations should not host it for a while and look to grow the sport more, move out of the elite nations as there is a major amount of scope to grow the game.

tolosenc

Italy has to get something soon, though. Heineken Cup final or a World Cup.

ambid

At the risk of being the boring pragmatic bean counter guy...

The NZ 2011 world cup is apparently losing lots of money, or was certainly expected to at the start. England 2015 is expected to make a large profit, but I wonder how much revenue Japan 2019 will generate. Japan seems to have lots of players, but I wonder how big ticket sales and media interest will be.

If Japan 2019 might be a risk in revenue generating, then another developing market in 2023 might compound that risk. I wonder if the IRB might prefer to take a safe option in 2023 to protect income and return to developing markets in 2027?

Would definitely love to see a rugby world cup in Italy soon though. I imagine that could help rugby develop there, and Italy already has an excellent infrastructure.

Podge_irl

The IRB receive guaranteed income from the RWC in terms of the deposit the hosting country has to lay down. It's a not inconsiderable sum (the RFU is paying something like £120m upfront).

[Jackass]

It would be hoped that in the interest of developing the game, nations such as Japan, or even some of the other "smaller" nations (in terms of rugby) could be given exeptions from the fee or agreed percentage payment to IRB in order to gain in the long run for all involved.

The amount of money is outrageous though, you'd wonder what IRB do with that kind of money, but the NZ crowd numbers were disappointing, if not surprising.

World cup final still not sold out...

PhatPiggins

ambid wrote: »

At the risk of being the boring pragmatic bean counter guy...

The NZ 2011 world cup is apparently losing lots of money, or was certainly expected to at the start. England 2015 is expected to make a large profit, but I wonder how much revenue Japan 2019 will generate. Japan seems to have lots of players, but I wonder how big ticket sales and media interest will be.

If Japan 2019 might be a risk in revenue generating, then another developing market in 2023 might compound that risk. I wonder if the IRB might prefer to take a safe option in 2023 to protect income and return to developing markets in 2027?

Would definitely love to see a rugby world cup in Italy soon though. I imagine that could help rugby develop there, and Italy already has an excellent infrastructure.

I guarantee you that the Japanese will jam pack out every single stadium for the WC. Look what they did for the soccer WC last time around. Very patriotic nation can seem them having a national campaign of adopting a second team and supporting that team passionately.

Most of all the Japanese are a very proud lot and won't want to be seen to losing 'face' to the outside world. Should have been in Japan this time but will a roaring success when it is.

Podge_irl

[Jackass] wrote: »

It would be hoped that in the interest of developing the game, nations such as Japan, or even some of the other "smaller" nations (in terms of rugby) could be given exeptions from the fee or agreed percentage payment to IRB in order to gain in the long run for all involved

I doubt that will happen. The only hope minnows have to host the RWC is to stump up the cash ahead of time as that will ensure the IRB get the appropriate amount of money out of it regardless of the success of the world cup.

Blisterman

As long as it's a time zone somewhere near ours, I'll be happy.


So tired....

tolosenc

Blisterman wrote: »

As long as it's a time zone somewhere near ours, I'll be happy.


So tired....

Even Japan would be better. The 6am kickoffs would be more like 10am, and pubs would be open for the later kickoffs!

Gamb!t

tolosenc wrote: »

Italy has to get something soon, though. Heineken Cup final or a World Cup.

Good shout.

ambid

PhatPiggins wrote: »

I guarantee you that the Japanese will jam pack out every single stadium for the WC. Look what they did for the soccer WC last time around. Very patriotic nation can seem them having a national campaign of adopting a second team and supporting that team passionately.

Most of all the Japanese are a very proud lot and won't want to be seen to losing 'face' to the outside world. Should have been in Japan this time but will a roaring success when it is.

Hope you're right. Soccer has a much bigger following globally, but it would be great to see more countries actively involved.

I don't think anybody has mentioned Argentina as a possible host yet. They have the infrastructure and hopefully more interest in the sport when they join the quad () nations.

PhatPiggins

ambid wrote: »

Hope you're right. Soccer has a much bigger following globally, but it would be great to see more countries actively involved.

I don't think anybody has mentioned Argentina as a possible host yet. They have the infrastructure and hopefully more interest in the sport when they join the quad () nations.

From a supporters point of view there's the benefit of the exchange rate, the wine, the beef and the er local scenery

Podge_irl

I'd love if Argentina got it actually. The only downside is that if I went over I'm pretty sure two months of beef, wine and rugby would actually kill me. What a way to go though!

pajunior

Italy and Russia have a much better chance then Argentina. A WC there would be a huge loss of money which the world game needs so badly. France 07 was an amazing success financially and the IRB did use this money very well to invest in developing nations.

chupacabra

How about a continental european world cup? Have venues in established nations like France and Italy and some other games in developing rugby nations like Spain, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium? The stadiums AND the infrastructure is there so why not?

Voodoo_rasher

we're so modest here..What about Ireland hosting it??? It does arguably have the stadia for this.

CIARAN_BOYLE

Voodoo_rasher wrote: »

we're so modest here..What about Ireland hosting it??? It does arguably have the stadia for this.

There was another thread recently about the issue. I don't think it work

Voodoo_rasher

CIARAN_BOYLE wrote: »

There was another thread recently about the issue. I don't think it work

how so?

Iron Hide

Voodoo_rasher wrote: »

how so?

It would involve the IRFU grovelling to the GAA to use Croker, Semple, Pearse Stadium and Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Probably upgrading Musgrave Park and more work on Thomond as well

irishbucsfan

I hope it is sent to Russia. The Aussies and Saffers would hate playing at 3 degrees, would be a good chance for the NH.

ArmaniJeanss

PhatPiggins wrote: »

I guarantee you that the Japanese will jam pack out every single stadium for the WC. Look what they did for the soccer WC last time around. Very patriotic nation can seem them having a national campaign of adopting a second team and supporting that team passionately.

Most of all the Japanese are a very proud lot and won't want to be seen to losing 'face' to the outside world. Should have been in Japan this time but will a roaring success when it is.

Wat? This is completely wrong.
Japan ran a very well organised World Cup in 2002 but the one thing they fell woefully short on was selling out the grounds. Some of it was caused by agents buying in bulk and not finding a buyer, and some of it was local pricing issues. Visitor numbers were below expectation as its a damn expensive place. There were administrative fcuk-ups at some grounds. And some games weren't attractive enough to the local audience.

But whatever the reason huge sections of grounds were empty for the group games.

Venues.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_FIFA_World_Cup#Japan

Sample games.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2002_FIFA_World_Cup_Group_E

Up to 20,000 short of capacity at Germany/Saudi Arabia, around 10K short of capacity at all grounds in this group.

Podge_irl

ArmaniJeanss wrote: »

Visitor numbers were below expectation as its a damn expensive place.

It really isn't.

ArmaniJeanss

Podge_irl wrote: »

It really isn't.

Maybe I should have phrased it that its 'perceived as being an expensive place', the reality may be that with some research it's probably possible to do it with a reasonable budget.

Though soccer being a quickfire 3 group games in 10/11 days is an easier budget than rugby with 4 group games in 21/22 days.

Either way the overall point remains that saying 'every game in the Japanese RWC will be a sellout because of how well they sold in 2002' is a fallacy. For a multitude of reasons it wasn't close to a sellout.

funky penguin

Certain things in Japan are expensive. Get out of Tokyo and things start to become reasonable in the 'minor' cities. Rural areas can be incredibly cheap. A draught beer is anywhere from 500-800yen (5-8euro), and it isn't a pint. Sometimes you only get half pints for this price. On the other hand, a nagan of Jim Beam is 400 yen in a shop.....

Gigs and sport events tend to be the same or a little more expensive than Ireland (Eric Clapton gig in November for example is 100,000 yen, about 90-100 euro). No idea what a rugby game would be priced at.

Thing is, the Japanese love spending their money. They work ridiculously hard, and spend quite a bit harder. Nobody can tell if the crowds would sell out, but if there's good marketing behind it (get the guy who did Hello Kitty or something), the Japanese will latch onto the World Cup like they did with baseball. Getting the players out and about with the communities would also help, they love celebrity.....and foreigners, they love the　外人　factor.

Not to mention there's a population of around 125-130 million people. GRAB EM OFF THE STREETS.

Podge_irl

funky penguin wrote: »

Certain things in Japan are expensive. Get out of Tokyo and things start to become reasonable in the 'minor' cities. Rural areas can be incredibly cheap. A draught beer is anywhere from 500-800yen (5-8euro), and it isn't a pint. Sometimes you only get half pints for this price. On the other hand, a nagan of Jim Beam is 400 yen in a shop.....

Drink is fairly expensive alright, though that's where 飲み放題 (nomihōdai) is your friend. Eating out is fairly dirt cheap though and exceptionally good. I was surprised as how cheap accommodation was too (though I was staying in hostels). Travel is pricey too.

All in all though I found it a surprisingly cheap place.

chupacabra

Podge_irl wrote: »

All in all though I found it a surprisingly cheap place.

Aye Japan is a far less expensive place than it used to be. Like with any country in the world the more expensive places are the bigger cities. Tokyo was a rather pricey place in general but it really depends from ward to ward and heading north to Ueda and Nagano things became very reasonable. Due to the fact that a world cup would be held all over the country its very easily doable. Hell, if you start putting away a bit of cash here and there now in 8 years time it would be a walk in the park financially.

Im thinking of a camper van trip around the country for the world cup myself. It is an incredibly beautiful country more culturally dense than anywhere else ive been. I only wish it got 2015 so It would come quicker.

funky penguin

Imagine what the squad's going to be like in 2019....also the sport will definitely have grown in popularity in japan by then.

Podge, nomihodai was my friend until I kept taking it as a challenge! All you can drink for 2 hours for 20e? Double whiskey double whiskey double whiskey....etc etc.

If I'm still here in 8 years time, grand....if not, I can see myself coming beck for the world cup. Amazing country, and unbelievably nice people.

Podge_irl

Sounds familiar. I went to a nomihodai karaoke where we were averaging one cocktail every two songs. It did not end well.

I've been twice (even did Japanese for my leaving cert!). Definitely going back for the world cup. Absolutely love Japan.