France 2014 crowds to set new records

England 2010 was a huge success. The game had never seen the like, with sell-out crowds for the pool games, and a world record crowd 13,253 for the final.

In total England 2010 sold around 30,000 tickets - resulting in a totally unexpected (if small) profit for the organisers.

News coming out of France now suggests that this year's edition will dwarf the records set four years ago. Tickets sold for the semi-finals are already close to exceeding those sold for the final four years ago, while it is clear that the crowd for the final could even fill the 20,000 capacity stadium (with a week to go 18,000 tickets have already gone).

In the pool games, which were completed yesterday, day three was a capacity crowd on both pitches (unlike in 2010, France 2014 has sold separate tickets for each field) with fans turning up on the day being sent away. Day two was almost as full (pitch 1 was certainly at its 5000 capacity), and Day 1 was similarly popular. Although official figures have not yet been released, the total crowd for the three pool days must have beenat least17,000 - 50% up on 2010.

With current sales for the semi-finals and finals added France 2014 must have sold at least 48,000 tickets so far, and by the time we reach the final (and especially if France are in it) in a week's time this total is likely to be approaching 60,000.

The audience sitting at home has also been huge. We do not have figures for most countries, but in France each French pool game has beaten the previous TV record for a women's rugby international. France v Australia averaged over two million on France4 and Eurosport combined, with a combined peak of around 2.5 million near the end.

The real question is how is whoever gets the tournament in 2017 going to follow that!