'Very good, with room for improvement': RLWC2021 chiefs assess week one of Rugby League World Cup

According to RLWC2021 chief executive Jon Dutton, the first week of the tournament was “very good, with room for improvement”.

England’s 66-6 win over Samoa in the opening game has sparked a surge of demand for Saturday’s fixture against France at Bolton - which is close to a full house - and 35,000 tickets have been sold for the semi-final at Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium.

Reviewing the first round, Dutton revealed: “The total cumulative broadcast match audience so far is 3.8m.

“That will grow, because it doesn’t include the digital figures yet. The audience on Saturday [for England against Samoa] peaked at 1.8m and perhaps the key statistic is the audience share for the opening game was 22 per cent, which is incredibly high. We are off to an absolutely flying start.”

Dutton added: “Just under 100,000 spectators have come through the turnstiles in the first week.

“The stat that really stands out for me is 55 per cent of those inside St James’s Park were from the north east.

“That is quite staggering. On Saturday night after the England game there were more tickets sold than at any point over the last two years and the top buying postcode was for London.”

There have been complaints about ticket prices being too high, but Dutton insisted: “When we started this journey, all 61 games had tickets available at £25 or less.

“When we started the tournament, 57 out of 61 had tickets available at £25 or less. Doncaster, where we had our lowest attendance so far [for France v Greece] was our cheapest game, with children being able to enter the venue for £2.21.”

Mick Hogan, the tournament’s revenue director, revealed the final at Old Trafford on November 19 will be the most lucrative match ever played in the northern hemisphere.

And in terms of admission prices, he added: “In the eight games so far, there’s not been a single one where we’ve run out of the lowest category tickets.”