Low ticket sales likely to doom future of Gold Coast 7s

The future of the Rugby Sevens carnival on the Gold Coast could be decided by the International Rugby Board today.

The IRB meeting will consider which countries make it to the next international calendar.

And even if Australia gets the nod, the Gold Coast 7s event looks shaky after the low number of tickets being sold for this weekend’s competition and disappointing crowds in the past three years.

An Australian Rugby Union spokesman confirmed a total crowd of 25,000 was expected and a large number are still to get their tickets for Saturday and Sunday.

The figure is a fraction of the 120,000 plus crowds that turn up for the Hong Kong Sevens.

Former Queensland premier Rob Borbidge said major changes to transport needed to be made to boost crowd numbers for events like Gold Coast IRB Sevens carnival and Titans matches.

The Gold Coast Sevens will kick off this Saturday with Fiji playing Scotland at 2.02pm in their first pool game.

We will then face Portugal at 5.23pm before taking on Australia at 9.01pm Saturday.

The quarterfinals will be at 12.48pm Sunday, the semifinals will kick off at 4.53pm while the final will be held at 7.49pm.

[Source: goldcoastbulletin.com.au]