Have the opening ceremony and England's first game at the Olympic stadium, have England's 2nd and 3rd games at Huddersfield and Hull?
Quarter finals at DW, Ricoh Arena, Etihad, St James Park
Semi finals double header at Wembley
Final at old Trafford

Make sure that USA and Canada can both qualify, given the inevitable rise of Toronto Wolfpack into Super League, and the probable followup of Montreal into the system.


Best selection of teams (not actual pool membership):

England
Scotland
Ireland
Wales

France
USA
Canada
Lebanon

Australia
New Zealand
Fiji
PNG

Samoa
Tonga
Russia
Serbia


Cook Islands and Niue are too tiny and lacking domestic competition to be worthy of participation.

I don't think there was much wrong with the format and choice of grounds last time to be honest. The only one that could have been better was Cardiff looked a bit empty for one of the tournaments biggest games in England-Australia.

Play the big games such as England fixtures, Semi's and Finals in big grounds. I'd stage Englands games in London, Manchester Liverpool and Newcastle.

then i'd do a Semi's double header in London again and final at Old Trafford. Think it works better that way round as fans may be reluctant to book London until they know if England will make it whereas Old Trafford is a day-trip for most.

Then for the smaller games see who puts a good bid in, Bristol for example did a decent job promoting a USA game that wasn't ever going to set box office records alight wherever you staged it. Having Fiji at Rochdale worked well due a Fijian population there etc whilst grounds like Craven Park & Workington aren't glam but guarantee a decent midweek crowd for a 'C-list' game.

It also makes sense for France and Wales to stage at least some fixtures at home, as they will draw better crowds than in England.

As others have already commented, they need to get the tickets on sale early, RU get the World Cup on sale 2 years before. Also getting the BBC to commit to more games is crucial, we need to be getting the 'B-list' games like games involving Australia & New Zealand, and a few Samoa/Fiji/France/Scotland/Wales/PNG games on TV.

Quarter final involving France must be in Toulouse

One pool game at least in Toronto and another in USA.

If you go on their desire to have 1million people in then they will have to use a lot of big grounds cos that would make the average attendance 32,000 so to use just 12 grounds pretty much most of the biggest football grounds will be needed.

Wouldn't have any games or in France personally! England have won the bid for the World Cup not France.

All games should be played in England in my opinion.

Logistically that's a ridiculous idea.

Agreed. the actual WC was a big success. What happened afterwards was the problem. Great crowd at Bristol and absolutely nothing afterwards.
St James Park has to stage a big game. We've some foundations there with the Magic weekend and the Newcastle Thunder.

Good to see the government putting in £15 million into the WC and £10 million into improving facilities. Lets hope it is spend wisely.

Last time I checked Toronto wasn't in England

Why on earth do they use Workington for the Scotland games? The ground is an absolute dump. Try a Tyneside venue, maybe Newcastle's RU groundshare stadium.

I would also suggest Halifax over Bradford for a Cat C game. The East Stand facilities are outstanding and spectators are more comfortable with a roof over them.

Again, if England are hosts, then no Welsh, Scottish, Irish, Canadian or French Stadia, Thank you. ENGLAND are the hosts.

IIRC that is the way it is being organised and when the bid was announced it was stated that all games were to be held in England. There was a list of venues given along with the bid announcement (or very soon after it) from which it was stated that the 12 venues would be chosen. All of those on that list were in England and Bristol and Workington were not among them.