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It’s around this time of year that Queenslanders are usually kicking themselves for not getting in early enough and purchasing tickets to the biggest event on Queensland’s sporting calendar. But something is different this year.
The Australian Rugby League Commission has effectively robbed sporting fanatics of the chance to support their team in person through nothing more than greed. Over 10,000 tickets remain for State of Origin 1 in Brisbane, with similar figures for Origin 3, and this is because the public has been priced out of the event.
Tickets for this year’s series range in price from $80 to $250, and you might think this sounds pretty reasonable. Closer inspection reveals that it is anything but.
At $80, the Bronze tickets up in the bleachers of Suncorp Stadium are extremely limited in number. Sure, many people will tell you that there isn’t a bad seat in Suncorp, but when you are watching the best of the best go around then you want to be as close as you can to the action as possible. These tickets sold out within a few hours.
General Silver tickets are priced at $180. These seats are allocated on the third levels behind the dead-ball line and again are extremely limited in allocation. Silver tickets this year are $220 and are located behind the posts and in the corners in the lower, middle and top tier.
Gold tickets will set you back $250. These tickets get you as close to the action as you can be but don’t include the aisles between both 40m zones as they are allocated to corporates.
Queensland Origin memberships have also been advertised this year and you will pay the set costs and receive a wig, DVD and access to online team information. This is what the QRL have been advertising heavily as “memberships are in line with the NRL’s corporate objective”.
As an NRL member you had first access to these memberships, but there were no discounts after already outlaying membership fees.
Silver tickets account for most of the seats still available this year, and this can be attributed to the fact that prices have risen by an astonishing 100 per cent over the past two years.
Queensland supporters have been let down with this massive hike, effectively punishing fans of this great team for the success and dominance demonstrated over the past eight years.
In 2006 New South Wales were one win away from dominating with four series in a row, but the Queensland fans continued to turn up over this period in support of their team and in the hope that fortunes might eventually turn around. No matter that loses were becoming more frequent; it didn’t damper the enthusiasm and passion Queenslanders have for their team
Since that decider in 2006 Queensland have gone on to win eight series in a row, and the passion shown by the Queensland fans continues to grow each year with no series, let alone game, being taken for granted. Most Queensland fans understand that each match can go either way, with one mistake or one dodgy call being the difference between success and failure.
Queensland fans attend the games in full voice and athe parochialism and passion they show for their side can help the team lift in order to make that extra tackle or take that tough run to get the team over the line.
How have fans been rewarded for continuing to show up each year in support of their team? With considerably marked up prices.
Is this how you reward fans for staying loyal? Is this how you reward fans for sticking with their team with times were tough? Would ticket prices have increased so substantially if Queensland weren’t experiencing success?
In no way am I suggesting that a ticket pricing increase was avoidable, but I strongly disagree with the ARLC’s decision to jack prices up so drastically over the space of a couple of years in order to put more money in their pockets.
What is the point of the NRL increasing the bank balance if the true fans – the fans that have been there through the bad times –can’t enjoy their team’s success because they are being priced out of attending the biggest matches of the year?
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