New rugby venue a success

The move to a new venue paid off for last year's Emirates Airline Dubai Rugby Sevens, which was 50% larger than the 2007 tournament.

Event organiser Promoseven Sports Marketing CEO Donal Kilalea said: “When Emirates Airline decided to build a facility on the Al Ain Road, the long-term view point was that it was going to be a real development area for Dubai next to Dubailand.

“Some people before said it was a long way out, but  it only took 20 or 25 minutes for a lot of people to get to the event,” he said.

“We found it extremely beneficial especially in terms of transportation. I haven’t had any complaints of people being delayed in the traffic and I think people now see it’s not in the middle of nowhere,” added Kilalea.

He revealed that the last two days of the tournament each attracted 50,000 spectators to The Sevens stadium.

“It was 50% larger than last year, so it certainly was a challenge in terms of running an event that large, but it’s a challenge that was successful,” said Kilalea.

“Like everything there’s always things you can look at and make better, and we will do that, and at the end of the day it was a brand new site, which was only completed two days before and it worked,” he concluded.

Preparations are now well underway for the Rugby World Cup Sevens 2009, to be held from March 5 to 7.