By Mitch Phillips
LONDON, Sept 17 (Reuters) – Organisers of the 2015 rugby World Cup are hoping to stage matches at London’s Olympic stadium as part of their bid to attract record audiences and generate 100 million pounds ($163 million) in profits.
On Monday, a day before the the “three years to go” landmark, organisers said they were looking at east London as well as at major soccer grounds in the north. The tournament kicks off on Sept. 18 with the final scheduled for Twickenham on Oct. 31.
The future of the Olympic stadium is still unclear but officials said earlier on Monday the likely outcome would involve Premier League soccer club West Ham United moving in .
Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium will also host some matches, although how many Wales play there is still to be decided, and it could turn out that no club rugby venues are used at all.
Only Gloucester and Leicester have expressed an interest in hosting and their limited capacities could rule them out as organisers seek to reach a target of 2.9 million ticket sales as part of their bid to make at least a 100 million pound profit.
“There is some doubt about who will be the landlords of the stadium but we have engaged with the Olympic Park legacy company and are talking about the venue for the tournament. You would be mad not to include it as part of your thinking,” Ross Young, the tournament’s chief operating officer told reporters.
“Our ticketing strategy means we will also need to use football grounds and there are some great venues out there, from the big 60,000, 70,000s capacities to the 35,000-40,000 capacity ones and it’s picking them in conjunction with the match schedule and getting a strategy that enable us to sell the 2.9 million tickets we are looking to move”
The organisers have also brought in Debbie Jevans, one of the key people behind the organisation of the 2012 Olympics, to replace Paul Vaughan as the tournament’s CEO.
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