“How we prepare for the Rugby World Cup”

The leading tournament in the rugby calendar will soon be here (08 Sep-28 Oct) – are you ready? We speak to Ash Dilks from Nottingham sports pub The Trent Navigation to find out how they celebrate the Rugby World Cup

The venue

The pub used to have a car park at the back but we converted it into an outdoor venue, The Big Shed, which is dedicated to live sport and music. We installed the biggest screen in the Midlands, plus a stage, stand-alone bar, bench seating and BBQ area. Nobody seems to miss the car park!

The Big Shed at The Trent Navigation in Nottingham

Fish and chips from The Trent Navigation in Nottingham

What's on the menu?

Customers love hearty food on the big matchdays. Our famous homemade steak and ale pies and traditional fish and chips go down very well. If the weather is good, we also fire up the BBQ and cook up a range of options.

Drinks deals

We offer a loyalty scheme where you get your card stamped with every pint. After you’ve collected six stamps, your seventh pint is free. It’s a great way to get customers back for each game. Rugby fans love their ale, we see a big uptick in sales for the games. And Guinness is always popular whenever rugby is on! Stock up!

Outside The Trent Navigation in Nottingham

Get the word out

We market the games on our website and do paid advertising on our social media channels. We target local rugby fans, sports fans and a ‘look-alike’ audience created from previously successful campaigns. We’ve also built up a good email database. If customers are on that, they’re the first to know about big sports events coming up. We also use the sports fixtures website, Fanzo, for listing the games we show.

Respect the game

We treat the Rugby World Cup with the same respect and importance as the football World Cup. This is THE big event for rugby fans. Do this and the customers will come. The rugby crowd is always brilliant, with a decent range of ages and several local, amateur rugby clubs come down to enjoy all the action. We get a lot of people from the local area but people do travel from further afield because our reputation precedes us!

Customer paying at The Trent Navigation in Nottingham

Key facts

The Rugby World Cup promises to be a busy seven weeks for on-trade, based on the sales uplift seen for the Six Nations earlier this year. Heineken’s research with Toluna shows that rugby is one of the top three most popular sports to watch at the pub.
Live sports fans choose to go out to watch the games for a better atmosphere and more sociable environment so ensure you tick off these boxes for customers. Audible commentary and large screens are top requirements for sports fans too.
Over half of customers drink lager on live sport occasions. Stock up on your big sellers and definitely don’t forget stout. During the Six Nations, it benefited from a huge 85% uplift in sales in sports venues.
Across all Six Nations matchdays, venues showing games generated 28% more sales than on the average equivalent day.