Grounds shortlisted for RWC 2015
Welford Road has been left off the long list of potential venues for the 2015 Rugby World Cup.
Despite being the biggest club rugby stadium in the country, Welford Road, the home of Aviva Premiership side Leicester, has been omitted from the list of venues published by England Rugby 2015, the organisers of the next World Cup.
The decision to leave Welford Road off the long list means that Gloucester's Kingsholm is the only traditional rugby ground to be in the running for the tournament in three years time.
Premier League grounds Old Trafford, Villa Park, the Sports Direct Arena, St Mary's Stadium and the Stadium of Light have been shortlisted despite doubts over their availability due to the dates for the tournament.
The Olympic Stadium has also been included on the long list along with Amex Stadium in Brighton, Bristol City's Ashton Gate, Pride Park in Derby, Coventry's Ricoh Arena, Elland Road in Leeds and Stadium MK in Milton Keynes.
"Our vision for Rugby World Cup 2015 is to ensure that we take this prestigious tournament to as many parts of the country as possible and we believe that the geographical spread of venues selected will enable us to maximise the reach of the tournament," said ER2015 chairman Andy Cosslett.
"In addition, we will be selecting further venues for training and team base camps that will ensure that the rugby community is at the very heart of Rugby World Cup 2015.
"We will now continue to work extremely closely with the venues, cities and stakeholders, including the Premier League and Football League, to plan the scheduling of matches and city hosting programmes to select a final list of up to 12 venues, which will be agreed by the early part of next year.
"We are confident that with the venues selected we will be able to reach our target of having up to 2.9 million tickets available, opening up the tournament to more people than ever before and in turn delivering the biggest and best Rugby World Cup that there has ever been.
"The process of choosing the long list of venues was very competitive and we would like to thank the venues and cities who we have met for their full co-operation, including the venues not selected, all of whom provided us with their fulsome assistance and information required to make our selection."
A final list of 12 venues will be completed in 2013 with the draw for the pool stages of the 2015 Rugby World Cup due to be made on December 3.
