Rwc 2007 Slammed Over Ticket Allocation

An investigation into the ticket allocation structure for this year’s Rugby
World Cup has seen the event organisers slammed for giving too many seats to the
corporate sector.

An investigation for BBC Wales’ ‘Scrum V’ programme has discovered that 30%
of the two million tickets for the tournament in September have been given over
to the corporate market – some 10% higher than the average allocation for
comparable sports events.

Derek Wyatt MP, Parliamentary Rugby Group chairman, commented: ‘To go higher
than 20% takes the real fans away. To allocate 30% is 10% too much and Rugby
World Cup should be ashamed. It’s not as if they need the money.’

A number of companies have been given the licenses to sell corporate tickets
with prices for some pool stage matches starting at £700 to £800.

Of the 70% of tickets intended for genuine fans, some pool stage match
tickets have been priced at almost four times the amount normally charged for
the same fixture.

When Wales hosted Australia last November, the most expensive ticket at the
Millennium Stadium was £45. A ticket for the same seat in the same stadium to
see the same fixture at the 2007 World Cup is £164.

RWC 2007 managing director Etienne Thobois defended both the tournament
prices and the allocation to the corporate sector.

‘We built the pricing strategy by having a few games that are priced quite
high, but these are paying for the tournament and they allow 80% of the tickets
to be priced quite reasonably. We also think a 70-30 split with regard to the
commercial packages is the right thing to do.’