What’s the Buzz: Gigantic Rugby League World Cup snub for Sydney
THE home and heartland of rugby league has been handed a gigantic snub for next year’s World Cup, writes PHIL ROTHFIELD.
NRL
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THE home and heartland of rugby league has been handed a gigantic snub for next year’s World Cup.
Sydney has been allocated just two pool games — both featuring international minnows Lebanon.
One is against England and the other against the Kangaroos — both at Allianz Stadium. We get nothing else.
This comes on top of the NRL’s decision to take State of Origin to Perth in 2019 to leave Sydney with only one Origin game.
For the World Cup, Sydney has been rejected for quarter-finals, semis and the final which will be played at Suncorp Stadium in Brisbane. Unbelievably, a quarter-final has been allocated to Darwin ahead of Sydney.
Brisbane not only gets the final but also a semi-final and a pool game.
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Tournament organisers are blaming the state government and Destination NSW for the fact Sydney has missed out on major games. Destination NSW spends $175 million bringing content into NSW but was not prepared to pay anything for World Cup games.
“It’s disappointing we don’t have more content in NSW but we still think this is going to be a massive event,” said tournament director Michael Brown.
“We’re excited the tournament is spread across Australia, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea.
“We’ll reach new audiences outside of the eastern seaboard and we had to make commercial decisions.
“It will be a great tournament and I think it will be even bigger than the Asian Cup.”
While the state government refused to bid for games, Queensland has spent more than $3 million to ensure it gets premium content at Suncorp Stadium.
Even the Northern Territory government paid for their quarter-final while NSW refused to.
Games will be played in 12 cities — Perth, Darwin, Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Canberra, Townsville, Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington, Christchurch and Port Moresby.
Only Adelaide and Hobart miss out on hosting games in Australia.
Melbourne will host the opening game of the tournament — Mal Meninga’s Australians against Wayne Bennett’s England side in a blockbuster at Etihad Stadium on the first weekend of November.
The full World Cup schedule will be revealed on Tuesday.
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