Rugby league officials in Papua New Guinea will ask the country’s government to expand the 17,000-capacity National Stadium, which is located in the capital city of Port Moresby.
The decision comes after it was announced the city would stage three games during next year’s Rugby League World Cup national team tournament, which Papua New Guinea will co-host alongside Australia and New Zealand.
No venue for the three games – which will be Papua New Guinea’s three pool-stage matches – has been confirmed yet. The National Stadium and the 15,000-capacity Sir John Guise Stadium, which is also located in Port Moresby, are the two potential venues.
Michael Marum, coach of Papua New Guinea-based club side the PNG Hunters, feels an expansion of the National Stadium would be required to deal with the demand. “We've had a lot of people turn up for (PNG Hunters) games without tickets due to tickets being all sold out,” he told NRL.com.
“There might be a lot of people hanging around outside waiting to get in so that is something that our board and president will probably have to look at. They're going to be big games. Everyone is going to be looking forward to coming along from all over PNG to watch those three games in the city.”
Papua New Guinea’s first World Cup game will take place in Port Moresby against a to-be-determined European qualifier on October 28. It will play another European qualifier on November 5 before facing USA on November 12.
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