Double that attendance needed to achieve the reduced/ amended 750,000 target for RWC 20101....Cook Islands v USA will need 20k based on England averaging 50k all the way through to the final......they just got 22k average for 3 games v #2 ranked NZ.
Marketing games is all well and good....... But nothing less than a 20k capacity is to be considered this time.....profit is achieved through stadiums/towns bidding to host....... Growth is achieved by kids playing/watching the game... Which do the RFL want?

Let's be frank, much of the "marketing" around the 2013 World Cup was based around discount codes and half-price tickets.

I was at that game in Halifax, but would I have paid full price to watch it? Probably not. I also wouldn't have paid full price to watch England walk all over Ireland in Huddersfield.

Don't get me wrong, discounting has a place in marketing, but it also comes with side-effects.

Looking at current rankings the seeded groups could look like this. Compare these fixtures to the group games we had in 2017, I don’t know how anyone can be in favour of this format, it doesn’t work for Rugby League, we don’t have enough strong Nations.

1 Australia
5 Fiji
9 Lebanon
13 Italy

2 New Zealand
6 Samoa
10 PNG
14 USA

3 England
7 Scotland
11 Ireland
15 Jamaica

4 Tonga
8 France
12 Wales
16 Canada

IN
OUT

Likely delivering
Australia v ireland/Scotland
New Zealand v Fiji
England v France Elland Road 38k
Tonga V Samoa

Delivering
Australia v NZ
England v Tonga at Olympic stadium 66k

ANZAC v England at Wembley 90k

Leaving 24 group games, 3 quarters and a semi to deliver 556,000 fans just under 20k a pop.....
.... Anyone here see Wales v Canada or Ireland v Scotland getting half that?

Would have been better as two strong groups of 4, top 2 go through.

England
New Zealand
Fiji
Scotland

Australia
Tonga
Samoa
France

Two weak groups of 4, top teams go through, 2nd place teams playoff again the 3rd place teams from the strong groups.

PNG
Wales
Jamaica
Canada

Lebanon
Ireland
USA
Italy

Downside is the playoffs take another round, and attendance may not be high as teams wont be known til just before.

But from a playing point of view you get closer group games and I reckon an inform group C and D team could give a 3rd place group A and B team a game in a one off playoff. Ireland or Italy may have given a disapointing Samoa a game in the last world cup for example.

Really?
FIFA World cup don't expect Egypt, Australia. Morocco, Costa Rica, Iceland etc to reach any heights or even score a goal in their groups but guess what, they still run a straight forward group stage based on rankings and it doesn't stop people tuning in or turning up.

Staking groups doesn't attract interest....just ridicule. RLWC is a 3 side tournament....there were more Kiwis than Fijians or Tongans in last years Semi-finals yet NZ weren't involved........
4 groups, top 2 in each go to QF's, best team wins 6 games to win the trophy.......works in all other "global" sports!

The Four Nations is better than the World Cup, let's be honest here. The Ashes was the best of the lot, but that was when the seasons didn't run concurrently, so the teams could tour during the home country's league season and play against the clubs. Sadly the tours will never be as good as that again. Either way the World Cup isn't very interesting at all.

I don’t agree, I thought the 2017 and 2013 World Cups were brilliant from start the finish. The unusual group structure made these tournaments. The 2021 tournament won’t get exciting until the semi finals, what a shame.

Jamaica and USA will compete at the weekend after they beat Canada and Chile respectively last night

utter tosh.
2017 was awful and only redeemed by NZ B playing as Tonga..... Poor crowds, little media interest...... 2013 was only a success based on double headers and TICKETS as cheap as a fiver....neither was any better or worse for the format.

The Football World Cup does indeed contain some duff teams, but they built their tournament into a worldwide TV specticle before expanding to incude these duff teams.

Also worth pointing out that World Champions Germany went out in the Group Stages, Argentina and Portugal containing the Worlds Two best players went out second round. Football can get away with the odd duff game in the groups because there are still teams capable of pulling off shocks.

RL has badly needed a 2nd tier of teams to step up for a long time, the likes of Fiji, France, PNG etc, if they got to a level where they could shock the big 3 on a good day we’d be in a much better position. Tonga got to that level in 2017, but yes they have done it by being an NZ Alternative or B-Team.

Union went for the approach of 4 ‘equal’ groups of 5 last time, with top 2 going through. But Union have far stronger and marketable nations, Group A for example contained England, Wales and Australia. They then do a far better job of marketing the other ties, 50k at Olympic Stadium for France - Romania for example, more than we get for England games.

The 2000 World Cup in the UK had a similar format to 2021, it averaged 8514 and nearly bankrupt the sport.

In 2013 we averaged 16,374 in the UK, yes there were promo codes available, but this didn’t double all attendances.

In 2017 we averaged 13,646 without promo codes and with an Australian public reluctant to watch International Rugby League.

Why go back to a format similar to 2000, it was a disaster.