The start gun has been fired on Ireland’s bid to host the Rugby World Cup in 2023. The great and the good gathered at the Aviva Stadium yesterday to formally launch the campaign which will culminate in glorious success or noble failure on November 15th 2017.
As will all sporting efforts though there is a mountain of work and preparation that has gone into getting to this stage.
Reports have been undertaken on a range of venues which has narrowed the potential list of stadia down to 12, including two from each province that are being made available by the GAA, The Aviva Stadium, the RDS, Thomond Park and Kingspan Stadium in Belfast.
Read more about the twelve potential stadia
Deloitte has been working hand in glove with the bid team to provide the necessary back up in terms of structure, funding streams and economic value.
Their projection is that the tournament will be worth €800 million to the Irish economy. That is being more than doubled by estimates from the Dublin Chamber of Commerce.
Read more about the value to Ireland of hosting the Rugby World Cup.
The bid process itself is simple with a total of (at present) 37 votes up for grabs.
None of the competing nations gets to vote which leaves the remaining ‘foundation’ members of England, Wales, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand and Italy with three votes each (18); Argentina and each of the Regional Councils of Africa, Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania get two votes each (14); while Canada, Georgia, Japan, Romania and the USA make up the current balance with five votes between them.
It may be that Argentina and Japan will each get one additional vote in time but whether this comes in time for the meeting of the World Rugby Council that will decide the outcome is not yet clear.
How many ‘in the bag’?
At the time of the Bid Group coming together nearly eighteen months ago Chairman Dick Spring suggested that 40 per cent of the votes were ‘in the bag’ though commentary since then and up to yesterday has been much more circumspect with IRFU Chief Executive Philip Browne suggesting that while initial conversations had taken place that there was a long year of discussion and persuasion ahead.
They had taken place with representatives of the USA and Canada in Chicago and last weekend while New Zealand and Australia will be visitors to Dublin in the coming days and weeks.
The IRFU and the Bid team were well represented at the World Rugby Conference in London on Monday and the timing of the bid launch while the Rugby World is gathered in the Northern Hemisphere is a smart one.
Ireland’s strengths and rivals weaknesses
It will be a case of pitching Ireland’s strengths to each voting member and those strengths are many.
The strong political presence at yesterday’s launch was very much for impact in confirmation that the fee payable to World Rugby of €120 million is underwritten and guaranteed.
In contrast the South African Government and the South Africa Rugby Union remain at odds over questions of speed of integration of diversity policies and that risks undermining one of the key criteria for strong Government support.
France will likely present the strongest financial case having run a successful Rugby World Cup as recently as 2007, and the UEFA European Championships earlier this year. It will though likely come under pressure from the competing allure of bidding for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
Tomorrow: Read more about the challenge of Sponsorship riches facing the IRFU
World Rugby has the World’s fourth largest single sports event behind those two and the FIFA World Cup. It would not like the idea of being ‘next on the agenda’ for a Government whose likely focus will be on persuading the IOC.
The bookmakers share our view that ireland is in the driving seat. Ladbrokes yesterday made the Ireland bid 4/5 favourite with South Africa at 9/4 and France at 3/1. Paddy Power, with more of an Irish flag wrapped around them go even shorter at odds of 4/9 suggesting a near 70 per cent chance of success. We would take that.
There are challenges to be overcome as we look at elsewhere today but the bid is live, the race to persuade is now formally underway and the team of people entrusted with delivering Ireland’s biggest ever sporting event is a good mix of competent professionalism and stirring emotion.
Here is the bid video launched yesterday. It’s powerful stuff…
