Rugby World Cup 2015
World Cup organisers set to announce ticket prices
Graham Jenkins
September 17, 2013
RFU chief executive Ian Ritchie, ambassador Lawrence Dallaglio and England Rugby 2015 chief executive Debbie Jevans mark two years until the start of the World Cup © Seconds Left Images
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Rugby World Cup organisers have confirmed that ticket prices for the sport's showpiece event in England in 2015 will be announced in November - but will not go on general sale until the end of next year.

Rugby World Cup 2015 Update

  • Kick-off Times? Organisers hope to be able to confirm 'by the end of the year'
  • Tickets? Pricing strategy to be announced in November with general sale set to begin a year before tournament begins. Travel and hospitality package on sale in January/February 2014
  • Volunteers? England Rugby 2015 plan to recruit 6,000 with the application process that is expected to result in 10,000+ interviews set to be launched in February 2014.
  • Team Bases? There were 84 applications to become a team base for the tournament from which approximately 50 will be selected and subsequently be used by the 20 competing teams.
  • Trophy tour? The Webb Ellis Cup will begin a promotional tour of the globe 500 days before the start of the tournament with a domestic tour scheduled to begin 100 days before the big kick off.
  • Remaining qualifiers? The final teams will be confirmed as follows: Europe 1 & 2 (March 2014), Americas 2 (April 2014), Asia 1 (May 2014), Africa 1 (June 2014), Oceania 1 (July 2014), Repechage winner (November 2014)
  • Numbers Game? Rugby World Cup 2015 will welcome 920 players & team officials, 60+ citing, judicial & match officials, 2,000 media (written press & photographers), 1,000 broadcasters

Speaking at an event to mark two years until the tournament kicks off, England Rugby 2015 chief executive Debbie Jevans also revealed that kick off times will be confirmed before the end of the year and unveiled plans to take Webb Ellis trophy on tour in the build-up to the tournament.

Tickets will range from as little as £7 for concessions during the pool stages to £715 for the most expensive ticket for the final at Twickenham. "Within that there will be a whole range of prices," said Jevans. "We have looked carefully at what fans pay to go and watch at the stadiums we've got and we've worked really hard to make those prices accessible.

"They will be going on sale with about a year to go and we're finalising that date now," she said. "Prior to that at the beginning of next year, Rugby Travel & Hospitality will be launching its packages and they will go on sale in January/February next year."

Jevans is confident that demand for tickets will be strong having struck a 'balance between accessibility and also hitting our targets' and the sell-out organisers are targeting will bring in an estimated £300m - the only revenue stream available to the Rugby Football Union who have already paid an £80m hosting fee to the International Rugby Board.

With the schedule and venues already confirmed, the kick-off times remain one of two key parts of the schedule still outstanding along with the seven qualifiers still to be confirmed in the coming year.

"We are currently finalising the kick off times," said Jevans, who is currently juggling the interests of the fans, the host broadcasters ITV, the venues and a busy sporting calendar with the Premier League football season set to run alongside the tournament.

"We are very close to dotting the i's and crossing the t's," she added. "When we look at that there are many things we have to consider. We have to look at spectators as everyone knows spectator experience is key to what we want to deliver, but we also need to take into account TV. Television pay a lot of money for those rights and we need to marry that up with what is right for the players and spectators. We are very close to finalising that and hopefully we will be able to announce that by the end of this year."

The promotional campaign for the tournament is set to be stepped up next year with the start of a trophy tour designed to raise awareness across the globe. "We anticipate the international trophy tour will begin with about 500 days to go, and go to 10 different markets throughout the world" said Jevans."Then the domestic tour will take place in 2015 and we will launch that with 100 days to go."

Fans looking to play a role in the tournament beyond that of spectator will also get their chance to join the event staff. "We'll also launch our volunteering programme next year," said Jevans, who will spearhead a campaign to recruit 6,000 tournament extras. "What is really important to us is to embrace the rugby family that already exists," she explained. "Week in, week out we have people volunteering to coach, make tea & coffee and we want to reward those people so 75% of those volunteers are going to come from rugby clubs. Our aim is for every single club to have at least one volunteer."

Jevans is delighted with how far plans have come since she took the England Rugby 2015 reins a year ago but is not getting carried away. "We are in great shape, a year from now the last team will have just qualified so we will know out 20 teams," she said. "The building blocks are in place and I am confident but absolutely not complacent, the devil is in the detail, that we will go on to deliver a fantastic World Cup in 2015."

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd
Graham Jenkins is the Senior Editor of ESPNscrum and you can also follow him on Twitter.

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