World Rugby Hails Rwc Commercial Success
World Rugby chief executive Brett Gosper has hailed the commercial success of the Rugby World Cup 2015, which will see £150m reinvested into the game.
In order to continue global growth and reach new audiences, Gosper said that World Rugby will look to ensure that the competition will be broadcast free-to-air in certain territories.
Gosper believes that the tournament, hosted in England, benefitted from having its business partners and sponsors, such as Jaguar Land Rover, SSE and Mastercard, a year in advance of the games.
Speaking to BBC News at Beyond Rugby, Brett Gosper said: “The commercial value is up by 50% on 2011. That includes money from sponsors, broadcast revenue – of which the main part is TV rights – and hospitality. All of these areas have done fantastically well. That is all revenue that we reinvest in the game.”
“Without our commercial partners the Rugby World Cup would not exist,” he added. “We are grateful for the time and money they put in. (Meanwhile) the sponsors like to be associated with a brand like rugby that is all about character.”
“We will make some adjustments to allow more local brands to take part (as sponsors). We will find a way to generate the involvement of Japanese brands, ones that will sit well with our global partners. That is critical for us.”
The competition enters into the semi-finals over the weekend at Twickenham as New Zealand face South Africa and Australia take on Argentina with the next World Cup hosted by Japan in 2019.
