World Cup warm-up may be played in Newcastle
ENGLAND are considering heading up to the North East again as part of their preparations for the World Cup.
Four years ago, Eddie Jones’ side defeated Italy 37-0 at St James Park before flying off to Japan. And chief executive Bill Sweeney says one of the warm-up games prior to France 2023 will also be held away from their Twickenham HQ.
A crowd of over 50,000 watched the one-sided contest at Newcastle United’s football stadium and it is again favoured to host the 2023 clash, possibly against Fiji. Sweeney insists: "We have four warm-up games planned against Ireland, Wales and a Southern Hemisphere team as well. We will have one home and away against one team, an additional one at Twickenham and we might do an additional one at somewhere like Newcastle and take it around the country.”
But Sweeney is quick to defend the RFU over its determination to keep playing Tests at Twickenham and refusing to take the national side on the road more often. Critics insist that playing more internationals in different parts of the country rather than stick to one base, as the All Blacks and Wallabies do, would give more fans the opportunity to see the team up close and help boost the sport’s popularity.
But Sweeney says: “You have a totally different business model here in England than say New Zealand. We’ve just invested £85 million in this place (Twickenham) and 51 per cent of our revenue comes from ticketing and hospitality.
“That money gets pumped back into the community game and on to some of the programmes we’ve been talking about. In New Zealand’s case they’ve chosen not to own a ground. That’s why they move around and go to places like Dunedin and Christchurch.
“If you look at the Northern Hemisphere Wales, Scotland and Ireland have invested in their stadiums too. It’s a very different model. If you talk to the Kiwis they will say ‘I wish we owned Eden Park, I wish we had the same ticketing and hospitality revenues that you have’.
"On the other hand it gives them the freedom to move somewhere else. If we move and play a match away from Twickenham, in Newcastle for instance, there is a very significant financial cost to doing that. That’s what we do. We weigh it up. We go ‘Okay, we’ll forego that financial contribution for one match but we’re taking a game to the north and broadening awareness somewhere else’.”