Women's Rugby World Cup made a profit... Just!

After a 2006 tournament that practically bankrupted the Canadian RFU, the great news is that the 2010 Women's Rugby World Cup made a profit... of £47. This is one of the most notable facts buried away in the RFUW's Annual Report, issued today.

No, I haven't missed off any zeros. Despite sell-out crowds on pretty much every day, including a world record attendance for the final, the tournament just about broke even. In fact, given that the income included a grant of £50,000 from the RFUW, technically the game in England ended financially poorer by £49,953.

But all those ticket sales, you may say, where did that money go? Well, the total income from all commercial activities connected with the tournament was just shy of £290,000 - most of which was ticket sales. But this was only about a quarter of the total cost of the event (the gap being made up from grants from the RFUW, IRB, and UK Sport).

Where did the money go? Well...

•  £700k (pretty much the entire IRB contribution) went on team costs - that is getting the teams to England, housing and feeding them, and moving them around;
• £250k went on grounds;
• £85,000 went on match officials; 
• "Tournament management" (whatever that includes) cost £77,000; 
• Printing, marketing,VIP entertainment and sundry admin costs were £70k, and 
• A mysterious "closing ceremony" (anyone remember that? I can't) cost nearly £11,000

All this must be something of a worry for the 2014 World Cup, which will be played we know not where (other than not England, and probably not Europe). How many other women's Unions around the world can afford to host the tournament? Even if an RFU managed to get free grounds and had no "closing ceremony" the unavoidable cost will still be at least £1million.

The IRB pay about three-quarters of that (mainly from profits from the men's World Cup), but that will still leave whoever wins the bid for 2014 with a bill somewhere between £250,000 and £750,000. Could Samoa afford that? Or the USA?

Okay, you cannot measure everything by profit and loss accounts - the benefit to the game of having the best players in the world in the country for the better part of a month can be immense, if handled well and if the local media buy in. But someone still has to pay the bills...