More than one million tickets for next year’s Rugby World Cup go on sale to Australians next month, but their chances of attending the high demand matches are slim.
If fans are to have a chance of attending what’s been described by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) as the ”prime games”, fans must purchase a ticket to a preliminary pool game.
The tickets range from 2,50 Australian dollars (1,38 US) concession for some pool games to 535 Australian dollars (294 US) for the final at the Sydney Olympic stadium.
However, less than five percent of tickets to the November 22 final will be on sale to the general Australian public.
”We’ve tried to scour the world to learn as many lessons as possible about this most sensitive of issues, namely ticketing,” ARU managing director John O’Neill said here on Tuesday.
”We’re not pretending that everyone out there will be doing handstands, there will be some aggrieved parties but I think the quality aspect of this policy across all Australia is something we’ve really tried to concentrate on.
”We believe we have arrived at a very fair and practical solution.” The International Rugby Board (IRB) will announce its ticket process for overseas sales next month.
An Olympic Games-style ballot system will be implemented for the high demand games – the opening match between the Wallabies and Argentina, the quarter-finals, semi-finals and final – to avoid a repeat of the ticketing scandals that have plagued major international sporting events in recent years.
Organisers of the 2000 Sydney Olympics were condemned after they secretly siphoned off the best tickets, while the ARU has come under fire in recent years for the lack of tickets on offer to the public at the biggest matches.
There will be two ballots – one for the 250 000-strong ”rugby community” which includes registered players, referees, coaches, parents of juniors and rugby club employees, and one for the public.
Members of the rugby community have the best chance of winning tickets because they can double-dip and enter both ballots.
The ARU estimated the probability of winning one of the 120 000 prime match tickets in the ballot next February was ”one in 25 or 30”.
The ARU defended the public allocation, saying it had to look after the people who supported the game at the grassroots level.
”It’s a difficult balance … but it was felt it was reasonable to reward the rugby community by giving them that particular dedicated ballot,” RWC head of marketing and strategy Geoff Parmenter said at the ticket launch on Tuesday.
”And as members of the Australian public they couldn’t be excluded from the second ballot.”
Of the 79 542 capacity of the Olympic stadium for the final, only 3 559 will be available in the general public ballot. In a deal struck after New Zealand lost sub-hosting rights earlier this year, more than 3 000 tickets will be available to Kiwi fans.
The remainder go to the IRB, which owns the tournament and demands 50% of all tickets. Groups such as Wallaby First and Olympic stadium members, the rugby community ballot-winners, and participating teams take the rest.
O’Neill rejected accusations of an IRB ”gravy-train”, and said of its 50% ticket allocation at the final, which is roughly 39 000, over 20 000 would go to overseas travellers, while corporate hospitality, sponsors and the media took up the rest.
”The gravy-train notion doesn’t stack up,” he said.
The ticket offer period to the rugby community runs from October 14 to November 24, and the public from October 20 to November 24.
The ballot will be drawn on February 12.
To prevent scalping ticket purchases to all 48 games throughout Australia will be limited, with only four per person for the opening game and quarter-finals, and two for the semi-finals and final.
The World Cup kicks off on October 10 next year. – Sapa-AFP