Ireland’s bid to host the Rugby World Cup in 2023 could yet face a significant challenge from emerging markets in the sport.
The IRB’s international conference is underway at present in London and one of yesterday’s sessions covered the approach of sponsors to how the game is developing around the world.
IRFU delegates will have chilled a degree or two when hearing representatives of Heineken and Jaguar talk in glowing and very commercial terms about where they believe future major events should be held.
“The continued growth of rugby into new markets, following the award of Rugby World Cup 2019 hosting rights to Japan, is making the sport even more attractive from a commercial perspective,” said Tim Ellerton of Heineken International.
“I think it’s great for us if the Rugby World Cup continues to go to emerging markets. We’d love to see a World Cup taken to America having seen the figures from Chicago, or places like Brazil and Moscow.”
“That’s where our volume is and that’s where the people who are consuming and engaging with our brand reside. To keep rugby in the traditional rugby markets isn’t going to help us grow our brand.”
As if that wasn’t a tough enough pill Mark Cameron of Jaguar Land Rover added to the developing sense of new world being better than old when he said “to have a tournament in Japan, on the doorstep of the biggest market in the world, which is China, where a third of our business volume is, is strategically very important.”
Such thoughts so openly expressed will be a concern for organisers of the Irish bid though there is still hope that with a decision to be made in advance of the first hosting outside of traditional rugby strongholds there may be one last desire to host ‘in the heartland’.
The warning signs are there though and cannot be ignored.
A report on the feasibility of a bid has been prepared under the stewardship of Hugo MacNeill and is currently with the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport awaiting a decision on proposing a bid to cabinet.
