Rugby League World Cup organisers say choosing 'reach over revenue' has paid off

Rugby League World Cup chief executive Jon Dutton says choosing "reach over revenue" has helped make this year's tournament a "resounding success".

For the first time, the men's, women's and wheelchair competitions have been staged at the same time after a year's delay because of the pandemic.

That affected ticket sales, but all games being shown live on the BBC has resulted in record TV figures.

"We've got a new audience the sport didn't have," said Dutton.

"They've been attracted by how brilliant wheelchair rugby is to consume, for example, and what's happened here in the women's game is transformational.

"Different people will have a different take but, for us, the structure has been a resounding success."

Hosts England face France in the wheelchair final on Friday, live on BBC Two and Radio 5 Sports Extra, before the World Cup concludes with a double-header at Old Trafford on Saturday.

Australia play New Zealand in the women's final before Australia take on Samoa for the men's title, with both of those games live on BBC One and BBC Radio 5 Live.

"We've had limited broadcast revenue and we've chosen reach over revenue in that regard, which was the right decision," Dutton added. "We made it free-to-air rather than going behind a paywall.

"We've got 15 commercial partners who are new to the sport and then there's a balance to make up from ticket revenue. There's no profit.

"I think the business model for the tournament could be improved upon significantly and that's part of our learning."

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Organisers knew they would be struggling to break even after the 12-month postponement, which meant they had to offer refunds for tickets already purchased.

"We refunded 20%, and in the main, that was the new audience we were trying to attract, such as the event-goers in particular from London and the south," said Dutton.

"Some of those people didn't re-purchase and that really hurt us. We think it's somewhere between 5% and 10%. There's a revenue impact but an impact on numbers coming through the turnstiles too."

Highest audience for an international game?

A crowd of around 64,000 is expected for Saturday's double-header, which will take the aggregate for the men's tournament past 400,000.

That tops the 382,080 total from 2017 in Australia and New Zealand but is below the record 453,483 from the last tournament in England in 2013 and some way off Dutton's initial target of 750,000 ticket sales.

"We've got to allow for the fact that the start was in 2015, before we had a global pandemic and geopolitical challenges, so I think at the start the target was feasible," he said.

"We were always bold and brave and set out to achieve something the sport has never achieved before. We got massively blown off-track by the pandemic and postponement and we've had to change the way we deliver some of the things.

"When we take a step back, we will reflect on record viewing audiences. In 2013, 14m people watched on the BBC and this time it will be over 30m.

"The peak for England versus Samoa on the BBC was 2.5m. We believe it's the highest peak audience for any international game of rugby league ever."

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