World Rugby has announced the appointment of Heathrow as an official Tournament Provider to Rugby World Cup 2015.
With excitement and anticipation building ahead of what promises to be a record-breaking Tournament, the appointment of another globally-renowned brand further underscores the enormous appeal of the Rugby World Cup brand in the sporting marketplace.
With Heathrow preparing to welcome the majority of the 500,000 anticipated overseas fans as well as the participating teams, the deal very much has fans and team experience at its heart.
World Rugby Chief Executive Brett Gosper said: "We are delighted to welcome another brand sector leader to the international family of Rugby World Cup 2015 commercial partners. Heathrow is a globally renowned brand and its appointment underscores the enormous brand appeal of Rugby World Cup.”
"With just over a month to go, we are confident that England 2015 will be a wonderful and truly global celebration of rugby and friendship and we look forward to welcoming the world to Rugby World Cup 2015."
John Holland-Kaye, Chief Executive of Heathrow said; “As the UK’s front door, Heathrow is proud to welcome rugby fans and players from across the globe to Rugby World Cup 2015. We are delighted to be part of the team working to make this a fantastic tournament for everyone involved.”
Rugby World Cup 2015 is on track to be the best-attended, most-viewed, most-socially engaged and most competitive Rugby World Cup to date and the commercial success of the 2015 edition, coupled with New Zealand 2011 is enabling World Rugby to invest more than £340 million in the development of rugby from the playground to the podium across 120 nations in all continents.
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Notes to editors
About Rugby World Cup: Rugby World Cup is the financial engine behind unprecedented investment and growth in rugby worldwide. The net Rugby World Cup surplus from the commercial success of France 2007 and New Zealand 2011 has enabled World Rugby to invest more than £150 million in the game between 2009 and 2012 and commit an anticipated injection of more than £180 million between 2013 and 2016 to underwrite a large range of major funding initiatives including annual national union grants and strategic investments focusing on growing participation and increasing competition across all 120 national member unions affiliated to World Rugby.
About England 2015: Rugby World Cup 2015, hosted in England between 18 September and 31 October, will be a celebration of rugby and its unique character-building values, exciting and inspiring the nation and the world to play and support the game. England Rugby 2015 are the organising committee for Rugby World Cup 2015 and will deliver the six-week tournament, hosted in 10 English cities and in Cardiff, Wales. Thirteen match venues will play host to the 48 games that will celebrate and engage more than two million spectators, including more than 400,000 international travelling fans.
About Heathrow: Heathrow is the UK’s hub airport, home to more than 80 airlines connecting to more than 180 destinations. Every year Heathrow welcomes over 70 million passengers with a commitment to ‘making every journey better’. Following an investment of more than £11 billion over the past 10 years, passengers have voted Heathrow the ‘Best Airport in Western Europe’, ‘Best Airport Terminal’ for Terminal 5 and ‘Best Airport for Shopping’ 7 years in a row.
