International Rugby Board (IRB) chief executive Mike Miller said Tuesday, “if we were to be re-included in the Olympic Games, our intention would be to stop the Rugby World Cup Sevens so there would be one pinnacle in the four-year cycle of rugby sevens. The pinnacle would be the Olympic Games”.
The Canadian Press reports the Rugby World Cup Sevens in Dubai in March featured 98 games and had a television reach of 760 million viewers, but the IRB is prepared to sacrifice the event in favour of the Olympics.
Rugby was dropped from the Olympics following the 1924 Games and is vying with golf, baseball, softball, squash, karate and roller sports for one of two spots at the 2016 Summer Games.
Although the IRB is still compiling its report on this year’s Rugby World Cup Sevens, the 2005 tournament in Hong Kong reportedly generated between $18-20 million US from commercial programs, ticketing and broadcast revenues. According to The Canadian Press the IRB expects the extra exposure and subsequent revenue that would be generated by Olympic status to at least compensate for that.
The IRB also sees inclusion in the Olympics as a big part of its efforts to spread the sport beyond its traditional strongholds of northern Europe, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.
Miller said, “the Olympics is the biggest sporting stage that there is and also gives us the opportunity to be seen by people who wouldn’t necessarily look at rugby”. He added that rugbyy fans tend to travel in large numbers and would almost certainly stay around to attend other sports at the Olympics.
A group will be making a presentation to the International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) executive board at its meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland June 15-16 and a final decision will be made at the IOC session in Copenhagen in October.
