The first Sydney Sevens tournament has been confirmed for the dates of 6th-7th February 2016, as announced by World Rugby and the Australian Rugby Union earlier today.
After flipping around between Brisbane, Adelaide and the Gold Coast with mixed success, it looks like the Australian leg of the Sevens World Series may finally have found its home.
Set to be staged at Allianz Stadium in Moore Park, there’s a lot of optimism around that the Sydney tournament will be able to bring in significantly better numbers that were seen at last year’s Gold Coast event.
Gold Coast Sevens last year attracted a crowd of just 20,456 across the two-day event, filling only 36% of Robina’s Cbus Super Stadium. That represented a drop of more than 10,000 spectators from the 2012 event.
The Gold Coast sporting market has always been a fickle one with a history of unsuccessful franchises and events across all codes, and it became apparent not long after last year’s Sevens that it had claimed another victim.
Australia’s leg of the Sevens World Series has also previously been held in Brisbane, where it failed to hang on to the bid, resulting in no Australian section being played at all from 2004-2006.
However, Sevens then returned to Australia for five years with its home being Adelaide Oval – now the home of AFL clubs Adelaide Crows and Port Adelaide. While the sport didn’t necessarily struggle there, it always lacked the grandeur it could gain from being hosted in Australia’s rugby heartland.
With the event now set to be hosted in Sydney for the first time, it looks set to be Australia’s biggest and best Sevens event yet, with organisers hoping it can rival the series biggest tournaments such as those at Wellington, Twickenham, Hong Kong and Las Vegas.
The event will also provide a boost heading into the first appearance of Rugby Sevens as an Olympic sport, at the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics in August.
Australian Rugby Union CEO Bill Pulver said: “There will be no better way to kick off a new season of Rugby in this country than the Sydney 7s in February.
“2016 will be a bumper year for Australian Rugby fans – we have the re-vamped Super Rugby competition that will feature teams from Argentina and Japan; England touring here in June; and Rugby Sevens will make its debut at the Olympics in Rio in August.
“The global appeal of the game has never been stronger and we are looking forward to welcoming fans and players from 16 countries to the Sydney Sevens in the first weekend of February.”
Minister for Trade, Tourism and Major Events and Minister for Sport Stuart Ayres said that the Sydney 7s will be a major highlight of the Sydney Summer Events Calendar.
“The Sydney 7s will attract rugby fans from around Australia and the world to our State, and promises to be a fantastic experience both on and off the field. The NSW Government is proud to have secured this event for Sydney through our tourism and major events agency Destination NSW, and it will be one of the most anticipated events of the summer,” Mr Ayres said.
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