The shock of Super 14 ticket prices
Columnist
By Brett McKay, 22 Mar 2010 Brett McKay is a Roar Expert
- Tagged:
- ANZ stadium, Rugby Union, Super Rugby, ticket prices in sport, Waratahs
Despite playing a role in bringing together a gathering of Roarers, to happen at the Waratahs-Brumbies blockbuster (ANZ Stadium, 24 April for those interested), I’ve only just organised my own tickets to the game in this week just gone. And didn’t I get a shock.
Since when have tickets to the Super 14 – and remember, this is essentially the rugby equivalent in Australia of the AFL and the NRL – been so expensive?
I’ll qualify that a little bit. Because I’ve been a season ticket holder for several years now, I buy my tickets annually for a one-off fee. And what’s more, the price has only gone up maybe ten dollars in the time I’ve had them. I’ve just not had to buy tickets individually as a result, and thus, it’s been easy to lose track of prices.
Hence my surprise to find that the better seats at ANZ Stadium for this big match are $58 for adults. Even in the next category down, closer to ground level (or up in the rafters, holding up the stadium lights), you get next to no change from $45.
As my mate and I discussed, amidst our shock and surprise at the ticket prices, it’s little wonder the crowds for Super rugby have been on their way down for the last few seasons.
Why would mum and dad take the kids to a night at the rugby, watching the best players in Australia taking each other on, when just getting in the gate is more expensive than pay-TV for a month?
And of course, that’s just getting into the ground for one game! And they haven’t eaten yet.
But then, I thought, maybe this is just the price for the ANZ Stadium game? Maybe the games at the SFS aren’t that dear?
Wrong. Same across the board.
So maybe it’s just a Sydney thing? Surely the prices in Canberra, Perth, and Brisbane aren’t this steep?
Wrong, wrong, and wrong again.
Across the country, prices are unbelievably high. The best seats in Perth and Brisbane will set you back $65. Canberra seems positively cheap at $51 for a grandstand seat.
The picture gets worse when you start looking at the other codes, too.
The same seat in Canberra will be nearly $18 less if you’re watching the Raiders instead of the Brumbies. The Broncos are $15 cheaper than the Reds in Brisbane (though strangely, the comparison falls in favour of the Reds as you go down the seat categories).
The same $58 seats in Sydney are around $40 for the handful of NRL clubs in action at ANZ and the SFS. For Souths’ ANZ Stadium games, the same seat is nearly half-price, at only $30.
Even the AFL games at ANZ Stadium come out cheaper, though it should be said that they run to three seat categories (with the best seats more expensive) compared to the two in operation for the NRL and Super 14.
(I’ve not done a comparison in Perth due to the completed A-League being the only other code played at ME Bank Stadium, the Western Force’s home ground. Likewise, I’ve not looked at what A-League prices were like in Brisbane or Sydney, now that the season is done.)
So at the risk of asking an obvious question, why are regular season rugby tickets so expensive? These sorts of prices might be expected at finals time in May, but in March, really?
Is it not obvious to the Australian Rugby Union that ticket prices – before we even start thinking about performance of the Australian teams – would have to be a major contributing factor in dwindling crowd numbers?
This all brought me to a conclusion (obvious in hindsight, I admit): accountants should be kept well away from marketing rugby in Australia.
Much has been written and said about the ARU’s ever-dwindling ‘war chest’ since the successful staging of the 2003 Rugby World Cup. It seems, on the surface, that the accountants have decided that the only way to recoup these losses is through the hip pocket of punters.
How else can we explain such prices in times of multiple entertainment choices for the viewing public? Do the ARU accountants seriously believe people will keep paying through the nose when there are so many cheaper options around?
The Australia A program and the much-needed Australian Rugby Championship were all done away with due to financial constraints. High ticket prices aren’t going to suddenly bring these essential rugby development streams back.
With the accountants involved, we get rugby development and growth by bottom line; what is affordable (or worse, what is cheapest) rather than what the game needs, or what the supporter can afford.
It’s incomprehensible to me that watching rugby should be so much more expensive in Australia.
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anon said | March 22nd 2010 @ 6:18am | Report comment
Professional sports were in kind of a bubble throughout the 90′s and 00′s. That has popped. Attending a sporting event just doesn’t mean as much anymore. The whole experience leaves you feeling as though someone has shook you down. People are only going to continue to turn away. Everyone now has high definition television at home, high speed internet to follow other games, every convenience imaginable, food can be delivered to your door and if you want a beer – ask the wife or the kids to get you one.
Times have changed. Entertainment options have grown exponentially. Sports have to adapt. Apart from big events like grand finals and so forth,
Brett McKay said | March 22nd 2010 @ 7:25am | Report comment
good points Anon, and a lot of that “doesn’t mean as much anymore” you speak of probably has as much to do with the fact there’s so much pro sport to see now too. In pretty much all the state capitals around the country, and plenty of major regional cities too, you can see some form of professional sport every, or every other weekend.
The public’s dollar only goes so far, and this is yet another reason why tickets to the rugby shouldn’t be so much more expensive than every other spot on offer…
mtngry said | March 22nd 2010 @ 6:30am | Report comment
I have often wondered why the Union tickets are so expensive compared to RL. I know there is more travelling involved but if I have to pay $50 for a ticket in the corner why would I?
I usually look for more interesting and cheaper alternatives, like the Australia A matches, or the Australian Rugby Shield, Which was cut for no good reason other than the ARUs obsession with ignoring anyone outside cities.
Happy Hooker said | March 22nd 2010 @ 8:16am | Report comment
Spot on Brett. One only has to look at the buzz surrounding the KFC 20/20 Big Bash as evidence of your point. Most of the tickets to those matches were given away by the state associations. I’m not suggesting throwing the gates open, but the principal is the same. Rugby will wither and die if it doesn’t make itself more accessible to “working families” (to coin a phrase that’s never been used before).
Brett McKay said | March 22nd 2010 @ 8:24am | Report comment
Happy Hooker, you should copyright that phrase before it gets picked up by some kind of sinister organisation….
Your mention of the Big Bash is another good one, and at the time, I recall a Roarer (and my apologies, I can’t recall which Roarer) telling us of the great night he had taking his young boys to ANZ Stadium, and all of them getting in for something like $40 total. So even the tickets that weren’t given away were reasonably priced, and crowds came in droves.
And you’re right, there’s no point throwing gates open either, but there’s also no need to be so over-priced..
AndyRoo said | March 22nd 2010 @ 4:00pm | Report comment
I think that was Michael C and it was in Melbourne (assume the MCG) and he wrote an article on it.
I think it’s a great way of getting a buzz around your sport. Unfortuantely for the A league the team with the best ticket prices were the Fury but I doubt they will stay at that level next season….. if their still around
Rugby1 said | March 22nd 2010 @ 8:31am | Report comment
As much as I love super 14, travelling from Gold Coast to Brisbane to watch the Reds, parking $10, corner seat $45, three beers $15, snack $5, including my partners ticket, not including what my partner wants…..$120 for me to enjoy my rugby!
Yikes said | March 22nd 2010 @ 8:35am | Report comment
Brett – you’re right – but remember your own comment that the prices haven’t gone up much in the last little while. If anything they’ve come down slightly. It’s not like this happened this year.
Keep in mind also that rugby franchises only gets 6 games a year to make money, and they don’t get any cut from the food or parking sales at the ground, ticket sales is all. This is very much unlike the other codes who get a much fuller season and have more teams playing more games (or in the case of A-League, substantially less travel).
So unless you can tell “the accountants” that reducing the ticket prices will lead to a substantially larger crowd to make up for the shortfall – and I don’t think you can claim this the way rugby is generally supported – then we’re stuck with what we’ve got. The best initiative in NSW this year is free junior players with a paying adult – and that paying adult isn’t going to be buying the best seat in the house which is what you’re comparing I think, it’s a lot cheaper.
Brett McKay said | March 22nd 2010 @ 9:31am | Report comment
Yikes, what I actually said was that my season tickets haven’t gone up much, and there’s no doubt they represent the best value for money, providing you can go to all (or almost all) games in a season.
Also, while the Tahs have 6 home games this year, the Brumbies have 7 (last year was the opposite – and sorry, don’t know the mix for Reds and Force), so yes, there is limited opportunity to make gate money each year. Does that make it OK to overcharge though?
It will be interesting to see how much game and season tickets change (if any) when all the Australian sides go to 8 home games…
Rugby1 said | March 22nd 2010 @ 8:36am | Report comment
It’s the reason why I go once a year.
PM said | March 22nd 2010 @ 8:59am | Report comment
Price is one big reason why I’ve gone to almost every Sydney FC home game over the last 2 years, and the only reason why I’ve not gone to one Waratahs game. Ever. I’m much better off saving my very few pennies for a Bledisloe Cup game.
Brett McKay said | March 22nd 2010 @ 10:00am | Report comment
PM, you’re probably best placed to comment on the A-L ticket prices then. How do the SFC prices at the SFS complare to those I’ve listed above for the Waratahs and the NRL sides?
CK said | March 22nd 2010 @ 9:04am | Report comment
two tickets to sit behind the posts at the SFS $70
Parking at the ground $20 (assuming only 2 in the car and you didn’t car pool to save $5)
4 beers $20
2 cold pies and 2 sausage rolls $30
Total night out $140
OR
foxtel for 1 week $25
dinner and drinks at the local restaurants $100
hmmm, i wonder why the crowds are fading?
Maybe 1.5 rounds (like the NRL) so they get more home games, and play the tests in between, as they do with Origin matches?
CK said | March 22nd 2010 @ 9:07am | Report comment
19,000 people at an average of say conservatively $40 per ticket. why don’t they halve the ticket prices and try for 38,000 people to raise the same revenue?
And why is it we never see the S14 teams giving free tickets away when they know the game is not a sell out? the league does it because it’s a better than having empty seats when the TV cameras pan over them.
Brett McKay said | March 22nd 2010 @ 9:47am | Report comment
CK, unfortnately it’s a simple case of maths, and on that regard, the accountants are just doing their job I guess.
If 20,000 people go to a game for $20 each, that’s a gate of $400,000.
But if only 10,000 go at $50 a head, then that’s half a million dollars.
As my mate said to me this morning, “Accountants may be cold-hearted, but they’re not dumb”
KF said | March 22nd 2010 @ 4:27pm | Report comment
Hi
You are giving accountants too much credit – 20,000 people a game for $30 each is $600,000. Or, half way between 20 and 50 – $35 – $700,000.
Cheers
KF
Hammer said | March 22nd 2010 @ 9:18am | Report comment
.. and you forgot to mention the other part of the equation … you mostly end up with a game the “quality” of the force / tahs game