World Rugby Sevens Caravan coming to Sydney

[Hugh Jarse]

Kicking the failed Gold Coast 7's experiment into touch, the ARU today announced Sydney will be the home of the Australian leg of the Sevens World Series for the next four years from the 2015-16 season.


The Sydney Sevens will take place at Allianz Stadium in Moore Park, with dates of the event to be confirmed by World Rugby at the end of the month.

Personally I would have liked to see this go the Melbourne, but the Gold Coast event was a dismal flop spectator wise and something desperately needed to be done. Hopefully this move will revitalise the Australian leg of the Circuit. If Sydney and the pubs, clubs, restaurants, and hotels really gets behind this, then Moore Park and Paddington will really rock.


Sign up for Sydney Sevens ticket alerts via www.Sydney7s.com.au. Public on-sale dates will be announced in due course.

Apparently this bloke knows something about it:
Hugh Cavill, Ministerial and Corporate Communications Advisor, Destination New South Wales.

Well done that man, and the rest of the team at Destination NSW.

More info here:
http://www.rugby.com.au/News/NewsAr...-multi-year-deal-for-Sevens-World-Series.aspx
https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-AK (Andrew Kellaway)-xap1/v/t1.0-9/11043239_10153086230010731_6249186176565770137_n.jpg?oh=9485b666dbbef5630a227e220490b79a&oe=558279D7&__gda__=1434012546_5a9537343c28f1ed4e1d46bdc248b8e3

 

[p.Tah]

Very happy it's in Sydney and I believe it's the right venue choice.

 

[qwerty51]

How good. Finally some common sense.

 

[Omar Comin']

Excellent, I shall be there.

Hope they create a theme and promote it early. That has worked really well for the London 7's in the past few years. Last year the theme was monsters and this year it's going to be galactic. This sort of stuff is fun and works really well to create a carnival like atmosphere. Now they sell out Twickenham on the Saturday and get another 40k or so on the Sunday. A few years ago hardly anyone went to it.

Also, after watching the world cup cricket last night at the SCG, can we possibly invite the Sri Lankans to participate in this event!?

 

[barbarian]

Haha thanks HJ, was a good announcement this morning.

Can't wait to get along, Paddington is perfectly suited to the sevens!!

 

[RugbyFuture]

Think they could have built some connection between the west and rugby by putting this out at parra but will still be alot easier to get to than the gold coast!

 

[Hugh Jarse]

Any idea if there will be a Women's tournament as well? If not the World Women's circuit tournament, then perhaps move the Nationals forward to coincide with this event.

Be great if there were age group or schoolboys/schoolgirls events running in parallel with the finals and SF of those being played at the SFS.

A great opportunity to create a real sevens festival across all age groups and levels.

 

[barbarian]

Yeah I imagine that will be on the table, the date for 2016 hasn't even been confirmed yet so there is still a fair bit that needs to be sorted.

I think the bidding process for womens events is different, I hope they are gunning for one of them as well.

 

[Omar Comin']

Yeah I imagine that will be on the table, the date for 2016 hasn't even been confirmed yet so there is still a fair bit that needs to be sorted.

I think the bidding process for womens events is different, I hope they are gunning for one of them as well.

So it will be early 2016 rather than in October this year?

 

[barbarian]

Hasn't been confirmed yet, but that seems to be the likely outcome.

 

[p.Tah]

My preference would be late 2015 when everyone is in footy mode rather than cricket mode, but happy it's coming to Sydney.

 

[waiopehu oldboy]

Sanity prevails. Now just gotta get the timing right, pointless having it as the opening Round in October if Round 2 ain't til December: either a week before or after Wellington (or Dunners if Wellywood doesn't get its shit together next year), IMO.

 

[TOCC]

2015-2016 will see a big shake up of the IRB 7's circuit, and i actually think Australia was lucky to retain a 7's circuit in the face of growing demand internationally for hosts.

Reportedly Glasgow, Tokyo and Las Vegas will be replaced as hosts by Paris, Vancouver and Singapore...

 

[Strewthcobber]

2015-2016 will see a big shake up of the IRB 7's circuit, and i actually think Australia was lucky to retain a 7's circuit in the face of growing demand internationally for hosts.

Reportedly Glasgow, Tokyo and Las Vegas will be replaced as hosts by Paris, Vancouver and Singapore.

There's talk that USA will lose an event? Surely not?

 

[TOCC]

There's talk that USA will lose an event? Surely not?

Vancouver has been confirmed as a leg of 2015-2016, initially it was thought it was replacing the USA but not all the legs have been confirmed so its possible Vancouver and Las Vegas may both host legs. World Rugby/IRB typically try to limit the number of circuits in the one region so it would be a bit surprising so see North America host two.

I agree it would be disappointing to lose the Las Vegas 7's though.

 

[Tiger]

Happy to see Van getting an event though - cracking city and I reckon they'll get a surprising level of support

 

[WorkingClassRugger]

Vancouver has been confirmed as a leg of 2015-2016, initially it was thought it was replacing the USA but not all the legs have been confirmed so its possible Vancouver and Las Vegas may both host legs. World Rugby/IRB typically try to limit the number of circuits in the one region so it would be a bit surprising so see North America host two.

I agree it would be disappointing to lose the Las Vegas 7's though.

Both Vancouver and Las Vegas will follow one another.

 

[Omar Comin']

Vancouver has been confirmed as a leg of 2015-2016, initially it was thought it was replacing the USA but not all the legs have been confirmed so its possible Vancouver and Las Vegas may both host legs. World Rugby/IRB typically try to limit the number of circuits in the one region so it would be a bit surprising so see North America host two.

I agree it would be disappointing to lose the Las Vegas 7's though.

I heard the Vegas event got saved at the last minute a few months ago. It will be paired with Vancouver and moved to March as far as I've read.

It would be a bad decision to get rid of it IMO. The pitch there is a little narrow and the stadium is a bit of a drive from the strip, but it's become quite popular. Had a great time when I went to it a couple of years ago. And along with Hong Kong it must be one of the only events that a significant portion of the crowd travel for, so there's definite benefits to the host city.

 

[kiap]

Yep, reckon Vegas will be safe. I think they might be actually looking at pairing-up tournaments in regions/timezones, to reduce miles travelled - e.g.

UAE/RSA
AUS/NZL
USA/CAN
SNG/HKG
FRA/ENG

And Vancouver (the non-circuit version) already has a great atmosphere and attendance - probably what got them the nod.

 

[Omar Comin']

One thing going for this first Sydney tournament will be the fact it's in the Olympic year. Surely that will mean there'll be some reasonably big names involved. Maybe even the likes of SBW and Folau.