Rugby Union 2010

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

say travelling from cork or similar... ticket €100, train €60, food €30. other bits and pieces would add up to a bit. ok, maybe not €250 but not far from it excluding an overnight

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More likely to be €100 diesel in the Range Rover and two nights in the Westbury based on my (admittedly amateur) profiling of many of those who sit beside me at the rugby!

Lets not lose sight of the issue, the IRFU are bogging the arm in, because they can. They have built up a huge potential international fanbase which is now, as a result of the success of the team (that old Irish chesnut as Macy pointed out) and the larger size of Croker, too large to be accomodated at Lansdowne.

What do you do when demand outstrips supply? You increase prices.

Ireland are currently in the bizarre situation that they can't cater for the demand to attend at either international or provincial level. Yet outside of tag rugby, adult playing population has fallen quite a lot. If generating more revenue allows the IRFU to keep the international teams and provinces competitive, pays back the debt AND allows grassroots investment to grow the playing base, then its a no brainer IMO.

And as Macy said, if you can only afford one or two games, share. I know lots of people who informally do this (and do it for FAI block bookings also).

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Originally Posted by OneRedArmy

Lets not lose sight of the issue, the IRFU are bogging the arm in, because they can. They have built up a huge potential international fanbase which is now, as a result of the success of the team (that old Irish chesnut as Macy pointed out) and the larger size of Croker, too large to be accomodated at Lansdowne.

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even in the 90's when we hardly won a match there was massive demand. demand has increased further but we could always sell far more tickets than capacity allowed even when we were not successful, in fact pretty awful

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Originally Posted by OneRedArmy

More likely to be €100 diesel in the Range Rover and two nights in the Westbury based on my (admittedly amateur) profiling of many of those who sit beside me at the rugby!

Lets not lose sight of the issue, the IRFU are bogging the arm in, because they can. They have built up a huge potential international fanbase which is now, as a result of the success of the team (that old Irish chesnut as Macy pointed out) and the larger size of Croker, too large to be accomodated at Lansdowne.

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Are you sure they can afford to chance their arm? As well-off as rugby supporters usually are, 340 squid is taking the ****.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Are you sure they can afford to chance their arm? As well-off as rugby supporters usually are, 340 squid is taking the ****.

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I reckon there'll get away with it this season anyway.

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Originally Posted by jbyrne

even in the 90's when we hardly won a match there was massive demand. demand has increased further but we could always sell far more tickets than capacity allowed even when we were not successful, in fact pretty awful

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Only for the Championship, due to the number of away fans. Well into the "golden generation" era you could get Autumn Internationals very easy up to close to the match from official sources.

World Cup warm ups announced

http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/rug...277879892.html

Home v France, England
Away to Scotland, France

Already hearing a lot of people say they have cancelled the bookings they usually take for international tickets because of the price. Also a lot of people cancelling memberships they had with clubs that they used for international tickets. I for one will not be attending any more international games unless i come across a freebie. I hope the Aviva is half empty when the Autumn internationals come around. Don't you know though there will be plenty of people willing to cough up the dosh though. How long that lasts is anybodies guess.

The FAI have already priced people out of the Man U game and the Argentina one. They had to give out thousands of free tickets for the United match and that game was priced at €65. The general Irish public just can't afford these prices anymore or should i say the people from outside of Dublin who have the added costs of travel etc....

Why would you cancel your club membership over the IRFU's pricing policy?

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Why would you cancel your club membership over the IRFU's pricing policy?

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Because you're a golry hunting half fan who has no interest in the grass roots game and only joined the club to get international tickets?

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Why would you cancel your club membership over the IRFU's pricing policy?

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I wouldn't cancel for this reason but a lot of people are. While these people are glory hunters it is their money the clubs need. At the end of the day most the clubs don't care who pays membership once they get it and losing people for any reason is not good for them.

Watching the Leinster game.. they're shockingly bad!

Really looking forward to Connacht-Ulster tomorrow night, both teams in good form and should be a cracker.

Really don't know how we managed to win that game but I'll take it.

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Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Really don't know how we managed to win that game

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Sexton came on!

Seriously, the fluency in the backline after he came on was miles above anything Leinster have had all year.

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Originally Posted by Schumi

Sexton came on!

Seriously, the fluency in the backline after he came on was miles above anything Leinster have had all year.

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I didn't notice him doing much when he came on. The biggest cheer he got was when the stadium announcer said he scored the conversion, when it was clearly Nacewa!

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Originally Posted by tetsujin1979

I didn't notice him doing much when he came on.

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Are you serious? He got the backline moving much more quickly than Nacewa had.

You can't have failed to notice the wraparounds that began almost as soon as he took to the pitch. Nacewa is a great back three player and has great individual skill but he can't bring his backline into the game like Sexton. I have high hopes for young Madigan though.

Very interesting to see the fall-out from the over-priced Autumn internationals.

The First climb down from the IRFU was the splitting of tickets into NZ / Arg and then SA / Samoa.

Then they became available to clubs and supporters clubs as individual tickets and they tried to double up the argentina and samoa games with the France and England 6 nations games.

The IRFU are forcing clubs to buy these tickets and if clubs send tickets back they are told they will have reduced allocations for the 6 nations.

Clubs struggling to sell the tickets now and there are 1,000's of tickets left unsold for all the matches, apart from the AB's game which apparently has had a good take up since the single tickets became available.

Perhaps the Diesel in the Range Rover is becoming too expensive !

A total shambles.

A bit about this on Morning Ireland this morning, with Donal Lenihan, about clubs selling for below cost to recoup money. I wonder how many NZ tickets they're sending back or selling below cost? Of course, Des "GAA" Cahill didn't even ask...

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Originally Posted by Macy

A bit about this on Morning Ireland this morning, with Donal Lenihan, about clubs selling for below cost to recoup money. I wonder how many NZ tickets they're sending back or selling below cost? Of course, Des "GAA" Cahill didn't even ask...

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The prices are too high, there's no doubt, but as you say, there's no shortage of demand for the All Blacks. If thats what people want, bang up the prices for the AB's and drop the prices for the other ones. I'd bet the same people will still whinge. In an article in the Times the IRFU CEO basically admitted they were making hay whilst the sun shone as there are no Autumn Internationals next year due to the World Cup (and given the time of the WC warm up matches in the summer, unlikely to be anywhere near the demand as for Autumn series).

And part of the issue the clubs appear to have is that they'll loose tickets for the championship if they don't take autumn international tickets - pretty much like FAI block booking. I'm not sure I have a problem with it - people want guaranteed tickets, but to pick and choose games - the pricing appears to be a secondary issue imo. If they put them on open sale with guaranteed England and France tickets they'd sell imo.