In New Zealand’s first game of the World Cup at Warrington Wolves’ Halliwell Jones Stadium, an attendance that World Cup Chief Executive Jon Dutton himself described as “disappointing.”
After 15,000 flocked to see New Zealand’s first game of the 2013 World Cup at the same venue, only 5,000 attended the Kiwis’ win over Lebanon.
Intriguingly, New Zealand entered the game as the world’s number one ranked team and yet it still didn’t quite attract the attendance expected.
Many blamed ticket prices and marketing for this, but this week organisers defended the ticket prices comparing them to Super League fixtures.
Speaking of Super League, New Zealand again took to the field at a Super League stadium playing at Hull FC’s MKM Stadium last night against Jamaica.
New Zealand ran in 12 tries but came up short of their record score with 68 compared to the 74 they recorded against Tonga in the late 90s.
Meanwhile, Jamaica scored a historic first World Cup try through ex-Leeds Rhinos man Ben Jones-Bishop who scored the try on his 300th career appearance.
But how many fans were there to witness this history making moment?
The official attendance was 6,829 which is a strong attendance and an improvement on last week.
It also is around the average attendance of the World Cup so far though Australia’s two fixtures have drawn five-figure crowds as did Tonga vs Papua New Guinea.
England of course attracted 43,000 last week and 23,000 this week.
