Browne says GAA response huge boost for World Cup bid
The good news for the global reputation of Irish sport comes after a strong hint the GAA will row in to provide several stadia throughout the country to help the bid, which could be worth hundreds of millions of euro to the country.
Ten stadia or more are required to host a competition that involves 40 international matches, and the IRFU have got an encouraging response from the GAA relating to making up to six grounds available.
IRFU chief executive Philip Browne confirmed the GAA’s Central Council agreement to put a motion to Congress next season to make the grounds available was encouraging enough to allow the rugby authority to go ahead with a feasibility study.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Browne said it was too early to consider making a bid but that the GAA’s early response would allow them to investigate whether it was possible to do so.
A delighted Mr Browne said the GAA response was a very important development, saying: “Quite clearly, we couldn’t host a World Cup with three of four stadia, we need about 10 stadia.”
He confirmed that if Ireland succeeded in attracting the competition, the final would be in Croke Park, pointing out that International Rugby Board rules state the stadium for a final must facilitate over 60,000 people. Croke Park has a capacity of 82,500.
“As well as that, part and parcel of it is to have the grounds of the right sort of capacity to generate the revenues that are needed to win the bid and obviously Croke Park, with that capacity, would fit the bill perfectly for that.”
Browne admitted that essentially the bid would have to be funded by gate receipts.
He said: “There is a commercial side to this which has to be met and that’s part and parcel of the feasibility study to see is it possible with the grounds that might be available to us to actually fund the hosting of a Rugby World Cup, which is the third largest sporting event in the world.”
Apart from the obvious assistance of the GAA, Browne said it couldn’t happen either without government support.
“Ideally we wouldn’t need government funding, we would hope that the gate receipts would generate sufficient funds to cover the costs but, in the event that they didn’t, we would need the government to help underwrite any potential loss,” he said.
“That again is part and parcel of the reason why we need to do a feasibility study, because clearly the government aren’t going to get involved if they see this as being something risky.
“Having said that, the tourism potential is vast and in the last two World Cups economic impact studies have been done in France and New Zealand and the economic benefits for the host countries are huge, so there are very definite benefits for the country in hosting a competition like this.”
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