Man, let me tell you, when you’re chasing tickets for something seven years away, you feel like a lunatic. Most people haven’t even decided what they are eating for dinner next week, and here I am trying to figure out the cash flow requirements for a trip in 2031. But hey, if you don’t plan these things, they just don’t happen.
The whole thing started because of my pal, Rick. Rick is a massive rugby fan, but also the world’s biggest procrastinator. We’ve been talking about going to a World Cup since 2015. We missed Japan, we missed France because he didn’t book leave in time. Now that 2031 is set for the United States, there’s no excuse. This is the big one. I told him straight up: I’m locking this down early. If I have the ticket information, he has to commit. So, the mission was simple: Figure out the earliest possible date I need cash ready to buy RWC 2031 tickets.
The Initial Scramble and Sifting Through Junk
My first move was the obvious one. I threw the exact title of this post into the search box. What did I get? Absolutely nothing useful. I got old articles about the 2027 bid, a load of chatter about the venues (which are still up in the air, mostly), and a bunch of secondary market ticket resellers trying to capture early clicks—the kind of guys who make up prices for events that don’t even exist yet. Total junk pile.
I realized quickly that I wasn’t going to find a press release saying, “Tickets drop at 9 AM on July 14, 2029.” That’s just not how these global spectacles work. They sell them in phases, like peeling an onion, and the first layer comes off years before the games start.
So I changed tack. I had to look backward to predict the future. I immediately went to look at the sales model for the recent tournaments—France 2023 and Japan 2019. That’s where the real clues were hiding.
Modeling the Sale Process Based on Past Tournaments
What I learned by dissecting the last couple of Rugby World Cups is that the ticketing strategy is basically a three-tiered system, and if you aren’t paying attention to Tier 1 and 2, you are only going to be fighting for the nosebleed seats in Tier 3.
I started mapping out the timeline. For 2023, the main ticket launch happened almost three years before the first match. That’s huge! That means for 2031, we are talking about needing to be ready by late 2028 or early 2029. That gave me a much more concrete savings goal.
Here’s the breakdown I pieced together of how the release schedule usually works for a massive event like this. This is the roadmap I’m sticking to:
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Phase 1: Hospitality and Official Travel Packages (The Big Spenders)
This is where the first tickets go, usually about four years out. For 2031, I’m guessing this opens in late 2027 or 2028. These packages bundle tickets with hotels, fancy dinners, and transport. They are ridiculously expensive, and frankly, outside my budget. But if you’re a corporate big shot or just loaded, this is your priority entry. Knowing this tells me nothing is happening right now, which is a relief.
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Phase 2: Priority Access and Lottery Ballots (The Sweet Spot)
This is the critical phase for normal people like me and Rick. Tickets are released in chunks via a lottery system, and usually, you get access to this only if you sign up for the official mailing list years in advance. For the 2023 Cup, this ballot system opened up around 30 months before kickoff. That puts the 2031 equivalent happening around the middle of 2029. This is the window I have to hit. If I miss the ballot, I miss the good seats.
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Phase 3: General Public Sale (The Scraps)
Whatever is left after the travel packages and the lotteries, they throw it out to the public about a year or so before the tournament. This is usually the least desirable inventory—maybe single tickets, or matches that aren’t quite as big. If I have to rely on this, I’ve failed the mission. But it probably happens in late 2030.
The Crucial Next Step: Hunting Down the Registration Link
So, the immediate ticket sale date is likely 2029, but the registration for the chance to buy them needs to happen much, much earlier. The actual practice wasn’t finding the sale date; it was finding the sign-up sheet.
I spent the next hour crawling through the current official governing body websites. They had plenty of stuff about the current men’s and women’s competitions, but almost nothing specific about 2031 yet. The US organizers haven’t fully ramped up their dedicated site for the event yet, since they are still hammering out all the venue details.
What I did find, however, was a general ‘Stay Informed’ section on the main international rugby site. It’s buried deep, but it’s there. It looks like a boring monthly newsletter sign-up, but I’ve been burned before. Often, these big event organizers use their general mailing lists to silently launch the ‘Priority Access’ registrations months before they announce it publicly. If you aren’t on the mailing list already, you miss the email invite to register for the ticket ballot.
I entered my email. Then I entered Rick’s email (without asking him, obviously, because he would never do it himself). Then I entered my spam email, just in case. That was the entire point of this exercise: getting onto the list.
My Takeaway and Final Strategy
So, when do the RWC 2031 tickets go on sale? The earliest major release for normal fans is likely mid-2029 via a ballot system. But the most important discovery is that the countdown clock for priority access registration has already started, even if the formal event site doesn’t exist yet.
I’m treating this general rugby newsletter as my official warning system. My strategy now is:
Step One: Check the inbox every week for any mention of the USA 2031 event, specifically looking for phrases like “Pre-registration,” “Ballot Entry,” or “Priority Access.”
Step Two: Start a dedicated 2031 savings pot now. If the tickets drop in 2029, I need about $5,000 ready to secure a good run of pool matches for me and Rick, plus flights.
Step Three: Wait. This is the hard part. It’s a game of patience now. But at least I know the next concrete action I need to take won’t be for another year or two, and I know exactly where to look when the time comes.
If you’re looking to go, don’t wait for the official venue announcements. Get your name on every mailing list related to international rugby now. That boring email update is your golden ticket, years before the ticket actually goes on sale.