SA’s RWC bid to bring back Bill
South Africa’s 2023 Rugby World Cup bid meets and exceeds every one of World Rugby’s primary seven bid objectives.
The South African Rugby Union president Mark Alexander and CE Jurie Roux, along with South Africa’s Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, will lead South Africa’s bid presentation to World Rugby’s General Council in London on Monday, September 25.
France, Ireland and South Africa’s bid leadership teams get one ‘in person’ opportunity to impress those whose vote will determine who gets to host the 2023 World Cup.
There are 37 votes among the World Rugby Council members and a majority 19 is needed to win the vote.
The World Council members will vote on November 15.
South Africa hosted the event in 1995 and France was the primary host in a shared hosting agreement in 2007. Ireland has never hosted the World Cup.
World Rugby’s seven bid objectives, which are at the heart of all assessments of the respective contenders, include:
- Venues and infrastructure commensurate with a top-tier major event
- Comprehensive and enforceable public and private sector guarantees
- A commercially successful event with a fully funded, robust financial model
- Operational excellence through an integrated and experienced delivery team
- A vision that engages and inspires domestic and international audiences and contributes to the growth of rugby at all levels
- An enabling environment of political and financial stability that respects the diversity of Rugby World Cup’s global stakeholders
- An environment and climate suited to top-level sport in a geography that allows maximum fan mobility
South Africa’s bid leadership is adamant that its bid speaks favourably to every one of the objectives and also reinforces and advances World Rugby’s vision and mission of creating a global sport for all in a world class tournament that remains true to the sport’s core values of integrity, respect, solidarity, passion and discipline.
South Africa’s bid underlines World Rugby’s mission that rugby be a truly global mass participation sport and that the event in South Africa in 2023 would support the world governing body’s primary goals to protect, grow and inspire the game.
South Africa’s bid answers every necessary standard set in terms of venues and infrastructure, as it does the financial guarantees and the operational excellence that would make South Africa 2023 commercially successful and the most profitable in the history of the World Cup.
South Africa’s leadership has also trumpeted the country’s passion for the game, as well as the superb playing conditions, the fantastic stadia and a spring climate that that makes for a fantastic tourism experience.
‘Our nation has done big events many times before. We don’t need to build new stadiums or upgrade old ones. We don’t need to worry about guarantees and we don’t need to pass new legislation. Every last detail of the required specifications is already in place,’ will be (Mark) Alexander’s message to World Rugby’s General Council.
South Africa will present a bid that focuses on high quality at low cost. It will be a bid that speaks to World Rugby’s financial reality as much as it does the raw emotion of rugby in a traditional stronghold.
The tournament fee guarantee is 120million GBP and while France has gone public to state it will pay 150million GBP to ensure greater net returns for World Rugby, the South African Government, in the official bid book delivered to World Rugby at the end of May, committed a financial guarantee of 160million GBP. It is the highest guarantee among the three bidding countries.
South Africa’s bid promotes player welfare and a unprecedented player comforts, which can be made possible because of a tournament budget worth 360 million GBP.
South Africa also has the required major event security expertise and a proven track record of hosting incident free major international events, the biggest of them being the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
South Africa’s projected 2.9 million ticket sales will be 400 000 more than the RWC2015 in England, and this will make it the best attended Rugby World Cup.
Rugby commands a loyal following in South Africa and 60 percent of the South Africa’s population older than 16 shows an interest in rugby.
South Africa’s bid also focuses on the introduction of one million school children to Rugby via World Rugby’s ‘Get into Rugby’ initiative.
The Springboks have won the William Webb Ellis trophy, also known as ‘Bill’ in 1995 and 2007. South Africa and New Zealand are the only two countries to have won the trophy home and away.
