One of the biggest K-pop bands in the world, along with Robbie Williams and Foo Fighters, forced the NRL to abandon plans of shifting Sunday night’s World Cup epic between Samoa and Tonga to Accor Stadium where a crowd of 60,000 was expected.
The two popular Pacific league powerhouses will play at a sold-out CommBank Stadium.
Capacity at the Parramatta venue is 30,000 – but Cup organisers were confident they could have doubled that number by moving to nearby Sydney Olympic Park.
The NRL had the option to shift the game to Allianz Stadium, where an extra 10,000 fans could have been accommodated, but did not want the Samoan and Tongan fan bases to have to leave their western Sydney base.
ARL Commission executive chairman Peter V’landys confirmed there had been discussions about moving the one-off game to Accor Stadium, where the Samoans and Tongans would have been joined by neutral fans eager to enjoy the singing and respective pre-game Siva Tau and Sipi Tau performances.
But V’landys and Cup organisers were told Accor Stadium had begun “concert season”, with K-pop sensation BigBang set to perform this weekend.
The three-piece boy band are expected to draw more than 70,000 fans, and there was no way the playing surface could have been prepared in time for a rugby league game just 24 hours later. Once BigBang perform, the ground staff will then be busy preparing for UK sensation Robbie Williams and US rockers Foo Fighters, who both perform in the coming weeks.
The fact V’landys was prepared to entertain playing a Cup game at Sydney’s biggest venue, which did not feature host nation Australia, is proof of how much hype there is in the star-studded Pasifika teams.
Tickets being priced as low as $19, and families of five paying just $90, is a key reason decent crowds have supported the Cup.
“We were keen to go to Accor, but we quickly found out it was not available because of concert season,” V’landys said on Sunday.
“I was also mindful of inconveniencing fans who had already bought tickets to CommBank.
“I’m confident we would have got around 60,000 fans at Accor had we gone there.
“It just goes to show you how popular future Pacific Championships will be. We’ve established the international game again. That’s the beauty in all this.”
Tonga have beaten England and Lebanon, while Samoa thumped France 78-4, then Papua New Guinea 64-6, on the weekend.
Tonga are already assured a semi-final berth, while if Samoa triumph on Sunday night, at 8pm – or 10pm for those tuning in on the islands – they will also qualify. Even if Samoa lose, they would still require England to beat Papua New Guinea by a big scoreline.
Woolf confirmed halfback Isaiya Katoa would return after he missed the Lebanon clash to help nurse an ankle injury.
As for the interest in the Samoan showdown, Woolf said: “I think back to that first night in Penrith when the NRL put on the first mid-season Pacific Test, the crowd was about 10,000, they were certainly not any less enthusiastic, it was a great crowd; it’s definitely grown since then.
“You only have to look at the 45,000 people we had last year at Suncorp Stadium … we’re now in a World Cup, which is a bigger event, and both teams are travelling really well at the moment.
“It’s a huge occasion and I’ve got no doubts it would have brought in a really big crowd if it was able to [relocate to Accor Stadium].”