Quote: Willzay "The only two places World Cup fixtures should take place up North are at Newcastle and Liverpool (although do we really need to go that neck of the woods). The rest of the fixtures including quarter finals, semi finals and the final, should take place down south.'"
If you want a tournament that nearly bankrupts the game then this is a great plan
We saw in 2000 what happens when you just plonk games slaphazardly in towns that dont care about RL.
I'm all for taking games to new places but they require a much bigger marketing spend and are a gamble. Games involving the small nations aren't very attractive, so the policy of having them midweek in the heartlands is the only way of making money.
RU also copied this policy in 2015 with small games played midweek (some even with afternoon kickoffs while people were at work) at places like Gloucester and Exeter. The only games they risked outside their heartlands were an England game at the Etihad, Scotland games at Newcastle and Leeds due to closer for Scotland fans to travel, and the All Blacks (biggest brand in ether code of rugby) at Newcastle.
2013 worked so why break a winning formula? We just need to try and build and get those 10k crowds to 20k the 20k crowds to 30k+ that 60k for the Wembley Semis to a 90k sellout and so on and so forth.