Originally posted by 1984ioc
@Waiboy
Hope you are enjoying the WC anyway,hope u appreciate having it on your doorstep.
It's been awesome. I've been volunteering at Eden Park so I've been/will be at all games there bar the final... only really get time to watch the last 10 mins of each match but it's been a load of fun. Volunteered because I'm pretty sure it's a once in a lifetime opportunity for me to get involved directly.
Few Qs if u don't mind.
Are some of the teams losing money by attending the WC?I know a few of the teams like Russia are budgeting alot but if it's true that some teams are actually losing money then it's an absolute disgrace.I know tv times aren't the best for the NH market but surely they must be high enough to for the IRB to cover teams expenses etc.
They lose the ability to get maximum value from their team sponsors. If teams could promote their sponsors on the biggest stage in the game, that sponsorship would be worth substantially more. The NZRU say that 'lost' additional revenue would be ~$13 million (I assume NZD but could be USD - not clear from the comment I've heard to date).
The IRB take all the sponsorship and television revenue and a portion of the ticket revenue (from memory, but I think that's correct) generated by the RWC. They then use that revenue to fund every aspect of the global game they're involved in for the next four years, as it is their sole source of income. The problem comes where you have the NZRU struggling to run, if you'll excuse the pun, in the black, not being able to maximise their sponsorship dollars and not getting much back from the IRB in terms of funding over the following four years (as they're a tier one nation).
If the game gets bigger, then the IRB can look at distributing more back to unions as their television and sponsorship deals start to become lucrative. At the moment the game is still to small a player on the global stage to really be profitable. The tournament being held in NZ obviously curtails the IRBs ability to get top dollar from TV revenues and ticket sales as well.
How has the atmosphere been in NZ so far.Do ye see it as a success or more of a drain on public money.Surely the long term gains will outstrip the short term expenses etc.I know the knock out stages will define the tournament but from what i have seen so far it seems like a massive success besides some of the smaller nations getting fucked over by little rest time during games but the WC is 6 weeks long as it is and that is long enough.
Atmosphere pre tourney was pretty negative due to media finding trivial stories to beat up. In the week leading up that all turned around as the team support kicked in to high gear - then the media stopped pushing so hard to beat up bad news stories as they could see that the general populous didn't give a stuff about them and had gone totally gaga for the RWC.
There have been attempts to point out the size of the loss, but given the huge upswing in ticket sales (due in no small part to that outstanding opening weekend and more than a few crazy Irish fans selling out their easier games post Aussie bashing) the loss will be substantially lower than that forecast pre tournament. For all involved it should be a win, although there will no doubt be a ton of negative press about it once the loss has been crystallised.
A six week tournament is perfect, the solution to the scheduling comes with the tier two teams becoming competitive. When you don't have to schedule the big teams on the weekend games to guarantee maximum $$$ return the schedule will become fairer. I think Japan in 2019 is the first chance they'll have for this, assuming a further incremental showing from those tier two nations in 2015.
PS see u in the final 
I hope so - that final matchup would easily make this the best RWC ever, if it isn't already. I can easily see the rugby world just going nuts over it and it probably makes rugby Ireland's national sport. 
