Canada Sevens to make pitch for another four years

Vancouver-hosted event aims to keep growing in third year of original commitment

It seems amazing, but time is already up for the Canada Sevens. That’s not a bad thing, either. When organizers won the right in 2015 to host a stop on the World Rugby Sevens Series — beginning in the 2015-16 season — the deal was for four years.

That window is now halfway done. World Rugby is already looking at how the next four-year cycle will look, beginning with the 2019-20 season. And Thursday, Canada Sevens launches its new bid to be part of that cycle.

Just as when Rugby Canada’s bid to host a stop on the series was successful in 2015, the renewed bid to World Rugby is being co-chaired by former player and current Rugby Canada director Gareth Rees and former Vancouver 2010 Olympic boss John Furlong.

“We’re conscious that we need to innovate,” Rees told Postmedia News.

“We’ve impressed World Rugby so far, we’re not taking anything for granted. It’s a much more competitive space; we’ve created some of that ourselves.”

One of the unique aspects of the Canada Sevens has been the number of fans who attend the tournament practically from dawn to dusk : even in the first year, organizers have said the crowd in the stands for the first game of the first day was around 10,000. That’s not seen elsewhere in the series.

The enthusiasm of the fans has been noted by players.

“Un stade magnifique,” France star Julien Candelon said in 2016. “You don’t think you are in a foreign country because everybody supports you.”

Rees said he expects the quality of bids will be better than ever and his message to fans who either already have tickets or are still thinking of buying tickets is bring that energy for a third year in a row.

“Our fans can help us by showing World Rugby we’re growing still,” he said.

A new feature this year is “Sevens House,” an Olympics-style event house just outside B.C. Place Stadium. There will be pre- and post-tournament parties at the house, which will take over the Boston Pizza that sits near B.C. Place’s Beatty Street gates, just like the various provincial and country houses that were dotted around Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Games.

“So many people had great vibes from 2010. We’ve found a way to tap that,” Rees said.

When they first won the right to host the event, the organizing team, led by former Canucks and Whitecaps game operations boss Jamie Levchuk and Vancouver 2010 executive Bill Cooper, focused on making the in-stadium experience as fun as possible. They’ve achieved that.

Adding things like the Sevens House shows how the focus has been expanded to building the tournament’s footprint in the city.

Rees said they continue to look at the Hong Kong Sevens, still the standard for rugby sevens tournaments, as one source of inspiration. That means adding things like conferences and trade shows, which have long been tied to the Hong Kong event.

It also means finding more connections with local rugby partners like B.C. Rugby’s Vancouver Rugby Festival. There’s also a clear need to connect with young fans to teach them about a game that’s clearly grabbed a large segment of the sports-viewing public.

According to statistics supplied by Canada Sevens, the annual 10-stop series pulls in about 600,000 spectators to venues.