The shock of Super 14 ticket prices

 
Brett McKay Columnist

By , 22 Mar 2010 Brett McKay is a Roar Expert

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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.

Follow Brett McKay on Twitter: @BMcSport
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