Welford Road misses out as rugby World Cup venue
Welford Road, the biggest club rugby ground in England, has been axed as a potential venue for the 2015 World Cup.
The ground, which has been Leicester Tigers' home for 120 years, has been left off the long list of 17 stadia published by tournament organisers England Rugby 2015.
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Leicester Tigers ground in Welford Road, Leicester
However, Leicester City's home ground, the King Power Stadium, has made it on to the list.
Tournament organisers believe the 32,000-seater King Power Stadium has more suitable off-field facilities than Welford Road.
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Gloucester's Kingsholm is the only Aviva Premiership rugby ground on a list that includes Twickenham, the Olympic Stadium, Wembley, the Millennium Stadium and some of the biggest club football stadia in the country.
The home grounds of Manchester United, Newcastle, Sunderland, Aston Villa and Southampton have all been included after expressing an interest in staging World Cup matches.
Outside of the Premier League, ER2015 have included the Amex Stadium in Brighton, Bristol City's Ashton Gate, Pride Park in Derby, Coventry's Ricoh Arena, Elland Road in Leeds and Stadium MK in Milton Keynes.
Critics argue the World Cup should be utilising more rugby grounds but ER2015 have to sell 2.9million tickets in order to cover the £80million guarantee owed to the International Rugby Board.
ER2015 will confirm the final list of 10-12 venues early in the new year, once the tournament match schedule has been formulated. The pool draw is being held on December 3 in London.
Arsenal's Emirates Stadium was in the original bid document but it does not feature on the shortlist, replaced by the Olympic Stadium.
ER2015 are in talks with the Olympic Park Legacy Company over the future use of the stadium, which has obvious attractions following the success of London 2012.
Andy Cosslett, England Rugby 2015 chairman, said: "Our vision for Rugby World Cup 2015 is to ensure that we take this prestigious tournament to as many parts of the country as possible and we believe that the geographical spread of venues selected will enable us to maximise the reach of the tournament.
"In addition, we will be selecting further venues for training and team base camps that will ensure that the rugby community is at the very heart of Rugby World Cup 2015.
"We will now continue to work extremely closely with the venues, cities and stakeholders, including the Premier League and Football League, to plan the scheduling of matches and city hosting programmes to select a final list of up to 12 venues, which will be agreed by the early part of next year.
"We are confident that with the venues selected we will be able to reach our target of having up to 2.9 million tickets available.
"The process of choosing the long list of venues was very competitive and we would like to thank the venues and cities who we have met for their full co-operation, including the venues not selected, all of whom provided us with their fulsome assistance and information required to make our selection.''
Comments
by kazoo92
Tuesday, October 09 2012, 11:10PM
“The Kp is such a bad choice. Horrible place. Jokes on the RFU really. Opting for a wussball stadium with no atmosphere over Welford road. Wrong decision and an insult to Tigers!”
by Noony56
Tuesday, October 09 2012, 12:12PM
“we'll call a truce there, I think we agree”
by wigono
Tuesday, October 09 2012, 12:01PM
“noony 56. well keep your silly comments to your own forum then, & you think rugby supporters think they are superior beings that's a laugh.... but yes you are right hopefully it is the kick up the backside they need to develop the standard of:- facilities, car parking, pitch length & width, i've heard all of these comments from many away supporters also heard they "built a good stand which shows poor areas" (i assume they mean the club house)”
by Noony56
Tuesday, October 09 2012, 9:43AM
“Wigono - your comment sums up the supercilious attiude of a number (but not all) of Tigers fans towards their football counterparts,you think you are superior beings.
For the record I think it is a ridiculous decision by ER2015, to snub the best club stadium in the country does nothing to encourage clubs to develop better facilities.
From you 'soccer moron'”
by wigono
Tuesday, October 09 2012, 12:36AM
“how surprising another moronic soccer fan, with a stupid childish comment.”
by Noony56
Monday, October 08 2012, 11:17AM
“that will go down well with the egg chasers!”