Spotless Sevens: Rugby Australia's big gamble

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Spotless Sevens: Rugby Australia's big gamble

Post by Beaussie »

Be interesting to see how Rugby’s moves west works out. 20,000 free tickets snapped up quickly sounds promising in light of sluggish ticket sales.
Spotless Sevens: Rugby Australia's big gamble
By Georgina Robinson
24 January 2019 — 8:00pm

A foam party, free tickets all day Friday and enough festival-worthy music acts the Sydney Sevens could warrant a spot on a pill-testing pilot program.

Rugby Australia are going all out to make the three-day World Series event a success at its temporary new home, Spotless Stadium.

Australian Sevens star Ben O'Donnell at the 2018 Sydney Sevens.

But there are more than a few nervous heads at Moore Park, sweating on whether the organisation's alternative rugby product, a wild hit at Allianz Stadium for the past three years, will translate to the 20,000-seat venue at Olympic Park.

"We've been out there as staff and admin, but it's going to be new for [the players]," the Australian men's coach Tim Walsh said of the new venue.

"For the home town advantage, you'd want to be a little more familiar, but again that's what sevens is about, being adaptable and agile to all different situations. It's a great venue and it's at home so we're very excited to go out there and play."

It's a gamble, although Australia were left with little choice when World Rugby and World Series naming rights sponsor HSBC denied RA's early request to consider a move to Newcastle while Allianz was rebuilt.

Now, with the new Western Sydney Stadium about to open, it appears Sydney will retain its host city status for another four years from next year. RA would not be drawn on speculation but the Herald understands Parramatta could be the tournament's new home until 2023.

The big questions: Will Avo Man make the trip out to Spotless Stadium?

World Rugby said it was important to keep the "Sydney Sevens" brand alive after two sellout years and one affected by the Australia Day long weekend, which basically halved numbers on the Saturday and Sunday sessions last year.

"Since being appointed as a host venue on the HSBC World Rugby Sevens series in 2015, Sydney Sevens has continued to build and establish a strong sevens audience base over the last three years," a spokeswoman said.

"With Allianz Stadium unavailable in 2019, different options were put forward and considered as alternative host venues, however it was agreed by all stakeholders to be in the tournaments best interests to remain in Sydney."

Sales for Spotless have been sluggish for the Saturday and Sunday sessions, which feature most of the men's action and the women's knock-out rounds. But organisers are hopeful of a spike next week and crowds of about 15,000 each day over the weekend.

History-making: The Australian women did not have a point scored against them at last year's Sydney Sevens.

The good news is 'freebie Friday' was such a hit all 20,000 available tickets were snapped up and RA had to shut off sales this week. How many of those will translate to bums on seats on a regular work and school day is hard to say, but it's a smart move that has paid off for other sports, such as the AFLW and the WBBL in its first few seasons.

The venue change has been a success in New Zealand, where a move to Hamilton revived the once-iconic Wellington Sevens. The men's-only tournament kicks off there on Saturday and is again expected to draw capacity crowds and pump a similar NZ$2 million boost into the local economy.

For the Aussie men's and women's team, who stormed through their pools to claim both titles on an extraordinary day for Australian rugby last year, the move breaks that connection.

Not that you'll find Tim Walsh complaining. He has spent the tournament build-up playing down the "defending champions" tag.

"We don't want to be defending, we want to be attacking," Walsh said.

"Defending a title is just a psychology around mindset. But I love Allianz and last year was a tremendous day for Rugby Australia, for men's and women's, but the men's team played exceptionally well and dominated.

"That kind of energy and experience that came from that is only going to filter on into this season. We don't get a choice about where we play, we're really looking forward to it and it is what it is."

https://www.smh.com.au/sport/rugby-unio ... 50tf5.html
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Re: Spotless Sevens: Rugby Australia's big gamble

Post by leeroy*NRL* »

surprised they are playing this at Spotless stadium>>

funny how they did not play it at ANZ Stadium> "cough" Souless Stadium

There has been a decline year on year for Rugby 7's at Moore Park.
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Re: Spotless Sevens: Rugby Australia's big gamble

Post by leeroy*NRL* »

couldnt find anything for crowds on the friday, was pretty empty
Women played on the Friday.

crowds for the Mens 7's Event
Saturday 19k
Sunday 21k
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Re: Spotless Sevens: Rugby Australia's big gamble

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Lol
Yawnion is on the nose in Aust .
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Re: Spotless Sevens: Rugby Australia's big gamble

Post by Terry »

Saturday and Sunday were good crowds. I heard Sunday was actually a sell out. Funny how Beatup throws up his usual negative articles and then hides in the jungle when the event is a relative success. Have any of his predictions ever actually come true??

I wonder how many games GWS will get that are sold out or 19k.
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Re: Spotless Sevens: Rugby Australia's big gamble

Post by leeroy*NRL* »

will be close to the biggest crowd in Sydney for union event outside of Wallabies.

yeah they were good crowds, close to capacity for both days.

(GWS need to rely on other teams to help fill the joint out)

AKA Western BullDOGS out numbering GWS in the PRE LIM
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