Seventeen grounds shortlisted for the 2015 IRB World Cup
A list of seventeen potential venues has been released to host the 2015 IRB Rugby World Cup in England. Of the seventeen grounds, only three are predominately Rugby Venues. They are Twickenham (London), the Millennium Stadium (Cardiff) and Kingsholm (Gloucester).
The Olympic Stadium in London was reportedly a late inclusion on the long list of potential stadium as successfully hosting the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Rugby stronghold such as Welford Road and Franklins Gardens had been excluded from the list, the exclusion has left, rugby lovers and media alike disappointed. The reasoning behind the exclusion was the organisers are opting to generate more feet at the game rather that use the iconic English Rugby grounds which have lesser capacities.
The Leicester Tigers home ground, Welford Road has a capacity of just 24 000, whereas the Leicester City Stadium, which a predominantly football stadium, hosts up to 32 200.
An England Rugby 2015 statement said:
“The selection procedure for the long list of venues took into account a geographical spread across the country, sporting and facilities criteria, levels of support from candidate host cities and capacity requirements for the successful delivery of a Rugby World Cup that will see approximately 2.9 million tickets being made available to fans, and upwards of 400,000 international fans visiting England from over 100 countries.”
The list of seventeen stadiums will be narrowed down to twelve next year as the England Rugby 2015 gear up to the pool draws and allocations which will be done on December 3rd, 2012.
The following Stadiums have been shortlisted to host the 2015 IRB Rugby World Cup:
• Villa Park, Birmingham
• Brighton Community Stadium, Brighton
• Ashton Gate, Bristol
• Millennium Stadium, Cardiff
• Coventry Stadium, Coventry
• Pride Park, Derby
• Kingsholm, Gloucester
• Elland Road, Leeds
• Leicester City Stadium, Leicester
• Olympic Stadium, London
• Twickenham Stadium, London
• Wembley Stadium, London
• Old Trafford, Manchester
• StadiumMK, Milton Keynes
• St James’ Park, Newcastle
• St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton
• Stadium of Light, Sunderland.
Source: www.worldrugby.com
Related Posts
« The Rugby Championship 2012 Log Three finals to be played at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth »
