Rugby World Cup Managing Director Chris Stanley has used last week's first ever NFL game in Australia as a learning opportunity for the code's showpiece as they prepare to bring the tournament Down Under next year, while defending the decision not to host any games at the famous MCG.
Over 100,000 people packed the stands of one of Australia's most famous sporting venues for the San Francisco 49ers' trouncing of the LA Rams, while tens of millions more watched around the world -- many of them in the U.S. -- putting the MCG front and centre of sports fans. Despite the massive size and infrastructure around the venue, it won't feature at all in next year's tournament.
The stadium's availability through October 2027 couldn't be guaranteed due to an exclusive clause between the Victorian Government and the NFL.
Instead, Melbourne's Marvel Stadium will host eight matches in total -- six pool games, including three of the top four nations France, New Zealand and Ireland, and two Round of 16 matches to follow. Meanwhile, Sydney's Accor Stadium will host the World Cup final.
"We're incredibly excited to be at Dockland [Marvel] Stadium," Stanley told ESPN. "At the time, the MCG wasn't available to us, so we moved on and we're very happy with where we've ended up and the content that we've put in there and there's eight games, including two Round of 16 games.
"It's going to be a fantastic opportunity, and a lot of people will have never visited Dockland Stadium. It's the only one that has a roof, so the experience they'll get there is going to be equally exciting, so we're very happy with where we've ended up."
Stanley and his team travelled to Melbourne to witness the historic NFL game, gathering research on fan and non-fan engagement and innovations around, not just on game day experience, but also pre-game day and post-matchday.
"I always look at any major event, whether it's the NFL, the AFL, rugby league," Stanley said. "Those major events and just seeing what they do, what innovations they're bringing in, are there things that we could go 'that's pretty cool, I've never seen that before'?
"It was more understanding what it looks like in the size and scale, but also seeing how Melbourne, the city, came to life for a big event.
"That was one event and we're going to have eight matches in Melbourne, so it was understanding the size and scale of what the city can look like."
Of particular focus was working with the Victorian Government to turn the AFL-mad city into a rugby city across the six-week tournament, engaging fans throughout the city, from streets, to pubs, to the stadium.
"I think for us, it's just really understanding that the fans, they come into the cities, so the opportunity for us is working with the Victorian Government around how the city comes to life, whether that's digital advertising around the city, where our fan festival locations will be, what the final walk looks like to the stadium and how we dress it, making sure that bars are open early enough and stay open later.
"That's all part of the experience."
The event came at the perfect time for the organising committee with the tournament closing in on the one-year mark from kick off and celebrating the signing of VISA as principal partner for the tournament and official payment technology tournament for both 2027 and 2029 Rugby World Cups in Australia.
The tournament had previously been aligned with Mastercard through the 2019 and 2023 tournaments but have chosen to partner themselves with the rival payment group who just recently sponsored the FIFA World Cup in the USA.
"We're incredibly excited," Stanley said. "Visa is a huge global brand.
"They're a good partner. Obviously, they were associated with the FIFA World Cup in the U.S. and when they participate in a major event, they activate really well, so I'm sure we'll see the same sort of thing across our tournament, lots of activations across the country."
All remaining Rugby World Cup 2027 will go on sale during Visa Priority Ticket Sale on 28 September from 12pm through to 30 September with expectations tickets will sell out before public ticket sales on October 1.