On Tuesday, England 2015 did a volley of the trumpets to mark the 500th day out from the Rugby World Cup taking place in the fall of 2015. To make sure everybody was listening, London used special lighting to turn its City Hall into a giant rugby ball. The 48 matches that comprise the World Cup will take place in such host cities as Gloucester, Brighton, Leeds, and London. These matches give England yet another big event to follow in their steady drum beat of event-driven destination marketing. The Olympics, the Para-Olympics, NFL and NBA games hosted in London constitute a branch of the marketing that put sport at the center of the promotions.
[BLURB]"Rugby World Cup 2015... will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase the very best the country has to offer to an international audience." - Helen Grant, minister for sport and tourism. [/BLURB]
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"Rugby World Cup 2015 is another massive sporting event being hosted in the UK and will be a fantastic opportunity to showcase the very best the country has to offer to an international audience and inspire greater sports participation," said Helen Grant MP, minister for sport and tourism. VisitBritain research on the impact of the 2012 Olympics on visitor perceptions shows that 73 percent of those surveyed agreed that Britain offered outstanding venues for watching live sport.
Thanks to a March 29 victory by the United States national rugby union team, the Eagles over Uruguay at Kennesaw State University in Georgia, the U.S.A. has skin in the game for this World Cup and so savvy agents will mark Sept. 12 as the day tickets for all 48 matches will go on general sale. The sales window closes on Sept. 29, a year before the tournament kicks off. Eight matches will be held in London's Millennium Stadium.
According to Rugby Union the sport is growing by leaps and bounds in the U.S. where there are more than 2,500 clubs on many different levels and in a variety of age groups. Rugby Union estimates that there are 450,000 American players.
The preliminary international Rugby World Cup Trophy Tour will take the Webb Ellis Cup to 15 countries in the build-up to the Tournament, beginning in Japan on May 20. The tour will also visit Sydney (June 2014), Fiji (June 2014), Madagascar (July 2014), Nairobi (August 2014), Johannesburg and Cape Town (August 2014), Buenos Aires (October 2014), Uruguay (October 2014), Hong Kong and Shanghai (October 2014), New York (November 2014), Dubai (November 2014), Milan and Rome (January 2015), Bonn and Frankfurt (February 2015), Bucharest (March 2015) and Paris (May 2015) before returning to England on 100 days to go (June 10, 2015) for a tour of the UK and Ireland.
"We are very excited to announce the Rugby World Cup Trophy Tour plans," said Debbie Jevans, England Rugby 2015 CEO. "This gives us a unique opportunity to celebrate rugby around the world in the lead up to 2015, engaging and exciting rugby fans and potential new audiences ahead of the Tournament. Visiting 15 countries, including nations qualified for RWC 2015 and emerging rugby markets, gives us an opportunity to showcase the global game and its shared values."
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