Ashton Gate to host Rugby World Cup semi-finals
Ashton Gate is home to Bristol Bears and Bristol City Football Club
- Published
Bristol's Ashton Gate will host both semi-finals at next year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup.
The 27,000-capacity venue will also share the quarter-finals along with Exeter's Sandy Park, which hosted the Premiership Women's Rugby final last week.
Twickenham has already been announced as the venue for the final while the Stadium of Light in Sunderland will host the opening game with England playing.
The tournament starts on Friday, 22 August with the quarter-finals over the weekend of 13-14 September.
The semi-finals will take place a week later with the final and bronze-medal match on 27 September.
The Red Roses will also play in Northampton and Brighton and Hove during the pool stage, with Manchester, York and Exeter also hosting group games.
Sandy Park also hosted matches at the men's Rugby World Cup in 2015 as well as matches for England's women's team
The first tickets will go on sale in September priced from £5 to £95.
The £95 category one adult ticket for the final at Twickenham becomes the highest value non-hospitality ticket for an international women’s team sport event in the UK, while 60% of tickets are priced under £25.
Sarah Massey, managing director for Rugby World Cup 2025, described the tournament as a “generational moment” and expects “unprecedented demand” for tickets.
"We've seen the Red Roses, we've seen the crowds and the new fans that are coming to watch them and we absolutely believe that women's sport and women's rugby will grow over the next 14 months leading up to the tournament," Massey told BBC Radio 5 Live.
"We're absolutely confident that we have the pricing structure that means we are accessible and we are attracting new fans to come and watch."
A record crowd for a women's international in April 2023 saw England seal a Six Nations Grand Slam against France in front of 58,498 fans at Twickenham.
The first round of tickets for the opening RWC 2025 match in Sunderland and the final at Twickenham go on sale on 24 September 2024, with the rest of the tickets going on sale in October.
The tournament, hosted in England, will see more than 400,000 tickets made available, double the number of the previous women’s Rugby World Cup in New Zealand in 2022.