The Rugby World Cup fan zones brought together 1.6 million people in France throughout the competition, the managing director of the organizing committee, Julien Colette, said at a press conference on Tuesday. . The mayor of Saint-Denis, Mathieu Hanotin, president of the “Territories of sporting events” association, which brings together the 10 host cities of the World Cup, praised “a very great success” of these “rugby villages”.
Early elimination of the Blues and “emergency attack”
In total, “between the 2.4 million spectators in the stadiums and the 1.6 million fans who attended the rugby villages, we have reached a record number in the history of Rugby World Cups”, welcomed Julien Collette. During the previous edition, in Japan, fan zones brought together 1.1 million people, according to the association.
Interest waned after France’s quarter-final elimination, dropping from more than 160,000 people to around 30,000 for the next match. “If France and Ireland had gone further, the numbers would have exploded! », commented Julien Collette.
France’s passage into “attack emergency”, after the assassination of a teacher in front of his high school in Arras and the outbreak of war between Israel and Hamas, also caused most of them to close, with the exception of Place of Concorde in Paris and Saint-Denis.
All these fan zones had different features depending on the city, not only intended to broadcast the match but also to offer entertainment for families. “We adapted the concepts according to local contexts,” explained Julien Collette. 1,400 volunteers were mobilized specifically for these rugby villages.
Rehearsal for the 2024 Olympics
The average cost of a rugby village is 2.78 million euros, not counting the city agents mobilized or the maintenance costs before and after, specified Mathieu Hanotin. And the cost linked to security is “the major subject from a financial point of view, security is 40 to 50% of the operating cost”, he said, emphasizing that there is no had “no major difficulties”.
These fan zones were attended by 56% of people who did not have tickets but also by 23% of spectators having a ticket for the same day, including foreign fans, and 21% a ticket for another day.
They were scrutinized by the Paris Olympic organizing committee. Outside the city of Paris or the department of Seine-Saint-Denis, where the celebration sites have already been planned, the organizing committee is banking on celebration sites throughout France during the Paris Olympics (July 26-August 11). 2024).