Feb. 23, 2008

BERKELEY - Newly released figures confirm the 2007 Rugby World Cup, at which Golden Bears Mike McDonald '04 and Louis Stanfill '08 scored tries for the U.S. National Team, was the largest sporting event in the world last year, with 2.25 million people in attendance and an estimated 4.2 billion television viewers.

Numbers crunched by Rugby World Cup Limited also show that an average of 47,000 fans attended each of the 48 matches in France, Scotland and Wales, with 97% capacity at venues throughout France. The economic impact of the Rugby World Cup within France was estimated at over four billion euros.

The data all represent new records for the event, first held in 1987 in New Zealand, where it will return for 2011. The Rugby World Cup bills itself as the world's third-largest sporting event, behind only the FIFA World Cup and the Summer Olympic Games.

Last an Olympic sport at the 1924 Games in Paris, where the United States won the gold medal with California players George Dixon, Ed "Mush" Graff and Colby "Babe" Slater, rugby was also recently voted for inclusion at the 2011 Pan American Games in Guadalajara, Mexico.

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said the addition of rugby to the Pan Am Games makes the return of the sport to the Olympics "closer than ever."