Rio Rugby Sevens May Be Staged in Maracana

(ATR) International Rugby Board CEO Mike Miller says that the inaugural Olympic Rugby Sevens tournament will be a large scale event staged in a venue with a capacity of 40-80,000 people, opening up the possibility of the tournament being hosted in Rio de Janeiro’s iconic Maracana Stadium.

Speaking in London Wednesday, Miller said that three or four stadia were under consideration by the IOC and Rio 2016.

He said that his own preference was to err on the side of caution as full stadiums are "better for everyone", but he added that the IRB would be as ambitious as the 2016 organizers deemed fit.

"There’s three or four different places they’re looking at, but it’s down to costs, to legacy and also how it fits in with other events that are taking place," said Miller.

"I think the stadiums they’re looking at are between 40,000 to 80,000 in capacity.

"I would personally be as cautious as possible, but they know the marketplace better than we do. Obviously it’s better for everyone to have a full stadium. If they think a better or bigger stadium [is preferable], then fine."

Maracana, which will host the World Cup Final in 2014, would be the only stadium that could meet the 80,000 criteria. The more likely venue is Estádio Sao Januário, home of Vasco de Gama Football Club, which was originally slated to host the Sevens.

Miller said that on a more general basis planning for Rio had been going well, but emphasized that key decisions, such as the exact format for qualifying tournaments, lay a couple of years down the line.

He said that the IOC had insisted on 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams at the tournament, rather than a formula which would split up the 24 teams allowed by the IOC differently, such as 16 men’s teams and 8 women’s.

"You can still have a good tournament with 12 teams, but obviously we’dlike more than that," he added.

Miller said that the IRB was currently looking at different permutations for how those qualification campaigns might take place. He said that under discussion was whether the HSBC Rugby Sevens would be used, and whether the host nation would qualify automatically. He said that all countries would have "two chances" of qualification.

"We are looking at a two tier qualification," he said.

"In each of the five regions that we have we’ll have a tournament with one qualifying from that.

"And we’ll probably have some sort of world tournament with the rest coming from that to get the other six or seven places. We need to decide if the hosting country has a qualifying place or not.

"We’ll come up with a proposal after May and put it the IOC, but there’s no real rush."

Miller hailed the IOC’s decision last year to make rugby an Olympic sport as a landmark moment. He said the benefits would be shared between Rugby Sevens and the traditional 15-a-side version, and pointed to the decision of NBC to buy TV rights to next year’s World Cup in New Zealand as a case in point.

"That’s probably because rugby is in the Olympics, but it the benefits fifteens as well as sevens. It’s huge for us," he said.

The IRB, he said, is looking at increasing globalization of the game on the back of 2016.

"For many years rugby looked internally," he said. "Now it is looking out."

He said that the United States was being actively considered as a venue for the World Cup when the current hosting cycle ends in 2019, when Japan will stage the tournament.

"It’s a question of when and not if the World Cup finals are staged in the United States," he added.

With reporting from James Corbett in London.