"Rugby World Cup 2019 has certainly been the most groundbreaking," World Rugby Chairman Bill Beaumont said with satisfaction at a Sunday press conference wrapping up the event one day after the final.
According to the Rugby World Cup 2019 Organizing Committee, the number of spectators for all 45 matches (excluding three matches canceled because of Typhoon No. 19) was 1,704,443, while a total of 1.137 million visitors, a Rugby World Cup record, went to fan zones to view matches on big screens.
The Oct. 13 match between Japan and Scotland, in which the Brave Blossoms won to claim a place in the quarterfinals, reached a peak rating of 53.7 percent among TV viewers in the Kanto region, according to Video Research Ltd.
Along with the great performances of the Japan side, information posted on social networking services (SNS) provided the event with great momentum.
The committee set up official Twitter, Instagram and other social media accounts and regularly posted information on players on and off the pitch via SNS. Videos and pictures showing players from teams other than Japan who were bowing and cleaning up their locker room after a match. The images were quickly distributed and became a topic of conversation.
World Rugby said there were 1.7 billion social media views.
"We emphasized material that would be interesting to young people or those who are not interested in rugby," said Eita Kawarai, who is in charge of public relations and communications for the committee. "Newspapers and TV programs covered topics that were much talked about on SNS, bringing further excitement to the event."
While ticket sales were expected to be sluggish, about 1.84 million seats were sold for Cup matches, including the three canceled matches. In the end, 99.3 percent of all tickets were sold, a record in Rugby World Cup history.
The committee sold bundle tickets such as "Stadium Packs" that included tickets for all pool matches at a particular stadium. To boost information dissemination, the committee opened tickets sales to locals in host municipalities of the matches prior the start of general sales on a first-come-first-served basis, which proved to be successful.
For venues where ticket sales were sluggish, cross-departmental project teams enhanced public relations activities. For specific venues, the committee negotiated with the World Rugby to offer group tickets, mainly for companies.
According to a survey conducted in 2015, six years after Japan was selected as the host country, only 51.2 percent knew about the World Cup. Chief Executive Officer of the committee Akira Shimazu proudly said on the day after the final: "We successfully conducted the groundbreaking event, which led to the worldwide spread and development of rugby."
Read more from The Japan News at https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/
