/ 9 September 2008

Aussies snatch up world cup tickets

The Australian Rugby Union (ARU) said on Tuesday it has already sold over 80% — more than one million tickets — of its domestic allocation for this year’s World Cup.

It also said up to 300 000 more tickets could become available within Australia in August for the tournament that begins October 10, ends November 22 and involves 20 teams.

At Tuesday’s unveiling of the World Cup tickets, ARU managing director and chief executive officer John O’Neill said 83% of the ARU ticket allocation had been purchased, representing 1 018 621 tickets.

O’Neill will receive a preliminary idea later this week of how many more tickets will become available from those returned by the International Rugby Board.

He said it was difficult to estimate a total but it would be a ”fairly significant number” possibly in the region of 300 000.

Tickets already purchased through the early ballots would be

sent to Australians from July 28.

The ARU estimated it would sell be between 1,8 and 1,9-million

of the 2, 2-million tickets available. – Sapa-AP