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Thread: Sunday Times - FAI hits the prawn eaters.

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    Sunday Times - FAI hits the prawn eaters.

    http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/new...cle4641743.ece

    FAI hits the prawn eaters

    Soccer chiefs target corporate hospitality in €185m ticket sale at new stadium Paul Rowan

    WE weren’t good enough to qualify for the European championships. Stephen Ireland and Andy Reid don’t want to play for us. But the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) is planning to charge supporters through the nose to watch the national team play at the redeveloped Lansdowne Road.

    The FAI is set to announce plans to raise ¤185m from the sale of 10-year tickets at the new stadium, charging more than twice as much as the Irish Rugby Football Union for premium seats.

    Documents obtained by The Sunday Times show that the FAI is planning a sliding scale of ticket prices for the scheme, with the most expensive 10-year seats costing €32,000 each, making them one of the most expensive season tickets in the world.

    The ticket scheme is being run by the London-based marketing group ISG, a subsidiary of IMG, the American sports firm founded by Mark McCormack, and is modelled on a scheme to sell tickets at Wembley.

    The FAI’s plan is certainly ambitious. Its 9,700 tickets are divided into four categories with four different pricing levels. The most expensive seats, 2,400 of them on the halfway line, will sell for €32,000. This will comprise an upfront “membership fee” of ¤12,000 followed by an annual fee of €2,000 for 10 years. Should the FAI sell all its seats in this category, it will raise €76m.

    Sideline seating has a membership fee of ¤9,000 and an annual fee of ¤1,000. Corner seats have a once-off cost of €7,000 and annual fee of €750, while the cheapest seating behind the goal will have a membership fee of €7,000 and annual fees of €500. The behind-goal seats are the only ones that work out cheaper than the IRFU’s 10-year scheme, where all seats were the same price of €15,000. These have already sold out.

    The FAI was expected to sell its seats at around €10,000 each. If it had done so, this would have raised the €74m it has committed so far to the redevelopment of Lansdowne Road. If it sells its full consignment at the higher rate, however, it could be left with a surplus of nearly €100m.

    Olivia Mitchell, Fine Gael’s spokeswoman for arts, sport and tourism, said: “It’s a hugely ambitious target in the current climate but we have to assume that the price represents the best advice of ISG, whose job it is to sell these tickets. It is in everybody’s interests that this sales campaign goes well, given that the taxpayer has made an investment of €192m in the stadium.”

    The FAI yesterday refused to comment, saying it would not do so until the launch of the scheme on September 18. However, ISG has already set up a sales office in Ballsbridge and is engaged in what it calls “a soft launch” of the scheme.

    The seats guarantee access to about seven matches a year, made up of friendlies, competitive games and the FAI Cup final. Contacted by The Sunday Times, one of the sales team said: “The top prices are pretty steep but the seats are on the halfway line and you get access to the restaurant and other fringe benefits. It’s all about personal choice. We’ve spent the last year and a half doing extensive research and we have got the pricing right, we feel, to meet the requirements of the private individual or the blue-chip institution.”

    Selling all or nearly all of the tickets would represent an enormous coup for the FAI and raise questions about the IRFU's own marketing. The pricing structure is sure to lead to charges of greed and elitism, but a source close to the project pointed out that charging premium prices at the top end would help keep down prices in the rest of the stadium for ordinary fans and generate a huge windfall for the grass roots of the game.

    But will soccer’s prawn sandwich brigade be prepared to swallow it?

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    And they should have to pay a bonus if we qualify for a Finals tournament.

    But wtf is this
    'WE weren’t good enough to qualify for the European championships. Stephen Ireland and Andy Reid don’t want to play for us'
    If Paul Rowan uses the word "We" then he should get his Andy's in proper order.

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    Quote Originally Posted by ruben_sosa View Post
    Stephen Ireland and Andy Reid don’t want to play for us.
    There's some credibility established right there
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    "The most expensive seats, 2,400 of them on the halfway line, will sell for €32,000. This will comprise an upfront “membership fee” of €12,000 followed by an annual fee of €2,000 for 10 years."

    "The seats guarantee access to about seven matches a year, made up of friendlies, competitive games and the FAI Cup final"

    If I am reading this correctly, this means each individual game will cost over €450.00 per seat. That's a lot of money for a friendly vs e.g. Norway, or an FAI Cup Final.

    I must admit, I have absolutely no idea whether the market will bear these prices, but if it does, then the promoters will have done a Hell of a selling job, not least since any canny corporate purchaser will calculate whether it is worth buying as many as 35(?) tickets for games he doesn't really want (in order to secure seats at the games he does), as opposed to waiting and going into the open market (touts, agencies, returns etc) to buy tickets as-and-when, for the other 35-odd(?) games in which he and his clients are interested.

    To some extent, it must be a confidence thing i.e. if ISG can persuade Big Business that tickets must sell out, then demand will rise, which means tickets will sell out ("virtuous circle").
    Whereas, if Big Business is not confident that tickets will sell out, then they won't, in which case their prediction will be vindicated ("vicious circle").

    These are seriously big stakes...

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    But the Football Association of Ireland (FAI) is planning to charge supporters through the nose to watch the national team play at the redeveloped Lansdowne Road.

    From the FAI today

    The FAI has already announced that it will freeze the price of all general admission seats at the new stadium until at least 2012 (lowest price €40 for a friendly match and lowest price €50 for a competitive match).

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    its nothing.

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    This corporate sale (rip off) was always about 10k+ tickets only.
    Most fans have already been well aware that this a necessary evil to finance the stadium and it has been accepted. In fact the fear was that the FAI were in some water over the whole deal.
    This ISG is the group which the FAI were in negotiation with but the plans were supposed to have been scuttled after ISG were supposed to have walked out.
    The lesson is we will just have to trust the FAI

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    One sec, why doesn't Andy Reid want to play for us? When did this happen?
    There is no such thing as a miracle cure, a free lunch or a humble opinion.

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    I am staggered by the prices too. I hope it is a great success. Selling even half the tickets at those prices would a great achievement.

    If it is successful then it should keep the prices down for the rest of us.

    One problem I forsee is that a lot of the corporates already have significant block bookings. Anecdotally I'm aware of both major banks having quite a few block bookings. These are all legit and held for quite a few years but they may not be as keen on corporate tickets then.

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    Now I see why Delaney was so confident of being able to pay for the stadium.

    Even the "cheap" seats behind the goal will be around E200-250 a game & they will possibly be sitting next to people paying E50.
    http://www.forastrust.ie/

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    Quote Originally Posted by pete View Post
    Now I see why Delaney was so confident of being able to pay for the stadium.

    Even the "cheap" seats behind the goal will be around E200-250 a game & they will possibly be sitting next to people paying E50.
    I think there is a separate corporate area in the stadium so they don't need to sit with the great unwashed aka Emirates or Croke Park.

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    e40 is a ridiculous price for a friendly.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gspain View Post
    I think there is a separate corporate area in the stadium so they don't need to sit with the great unwashed aka Emirates or Croke Park.
    Probably not next to the plebs but maybe 10 feet higher or lower.
    http://www.forastrust.ie/

    Bring back Rocketman!

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    Crazy prices - particularly given the current economic situation.

    I´ll put my neck out and be the first to say that the FAI will definitely struggle in making this go to plan. I strongly suspect there´ll be discounted deals done.

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    What happens if they only sell, say, half? Would they have to reduce the price of all seats?

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    Quote Originally Posted by eirebhoy View Post
    What happens if they only sell, say, half? Would they have to reduce the price of all seats?
    All depends on how far off sales target they find themselves.

    At the very least, I expect lots of hush-hush under-the-table discounted deals will be done.

    By a few seast at full price, and get a few more at a discounted price etc.

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    what will happen to the block bookers when the new stadium is complete. Will the people that were on the BB say 2 years ago and got their increase in allocation of tickets keep them and the people on the BB list more recently loose their allocation.
    Just a question on what people think they will do in their wisdom

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    Quote Originally Posted by marley View Post
    what will happen to the block bookers when the new stadium is complete. Will the people that were on the BB say 2 years ago and got their increase in allocation of tickets keep them and the people on the BB list more recently loose their allocation.
    Just a question on what people think they will do in their wisdom
    Nobody knows.

    I think the increases for the current bbers were croke park only and designated as such. I would think new entrants should get priority over increases for the current bbers. However there are no guarantees even for longstanding bbers that this will continue in the new Lansdowne. i know the clubs and leagues are constantly harping on regarding increased ticket allocations.

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