170 000 unsold Lions tickets!

There has been a little bit of a dust-up and finger pointing between SA Rugby and the Lions over the question of some unsold tickets and why?

The number of unsold British & Irish Lions Tour tickets after 9 matches is a staggering 170 000.

Take the average round value cost for provincial and mid-week games — R125 a ticket for 166 536 non-Test tickets — and you get a loss of R20 817 000, and for the one Test in Durban, R1 140 per ticket multiplied by 4 187 tickets is R4 773 180 in unsold tickets.

All in, that is a total of about R25 590 180, a not insignificant sum for SA Rugby and the Lions to be worried about as you can be rest assured there were expectations of the “House Full” signs going up at every game the Lions played around the country.

For a breakdown take a look at the turnout across the country:

1. Royal Bafokeng — 42 000 Royal XV Attendance: 12 352 Unsold Tickets: 29 648
2. Ellis Park — 61 000 Lions Attendance: 22 219 Unsold Tickets: 38 781
3. Vodacom Park Bloem — 48 000 Cheetahs Attendance: 23 710 Unsold Tickets: 24 290
4. ABSA Stadium Durban — 52 000 Sharks Attendance: 21 500 Unsold Tickets: 30 500
5. Newlands — 51 000 WP Attendance: 35 412 Unsold Tickets: 15 588
6. Mandela Bay Stadium PE — 50 000 Kings Attendance: 35 853 Unsold Tickets: 14 147
7. ABSA Stadium Durban — 52 000 Test Attendance: 47 813 Unsold Tickets: 4 187
8. Newlands — 51 000 E.Boks Attendance: 37 418 Unsold Tickets: 13 582
9. Loftus — 45 000 Test Attendance: 45 000 Unsold Tickets: None
10. Ellis Park — 61 000 Test Attendance:

Okay, some damage control and spin doctoring was under way at SA Rugby this past week. The acting managing director of SA Rugby said: “If we knew the general economic environment against which the tour was to be played we would have re-examined some of the ticket prices.”

Firstly, the economic meltdown started last year and seasoned economists these past 2 months have said the recession is over and we are in an upturn and secondly there should have been a concerted effort by SA Rugby to allow South Africans to attend one of these games — R50 per ticket would have delivered R8.5 million. Instead SA Rugby got empty seats.

I remember Tests and games were made all the more exciting in the past when the media used to profile the rugby nutters who camped for up to 4 days outside the stadium ticket office with sleeping bags, tents, hot coffee, buns and boerewors rolls just to get tickets. This is what fuels the players and makes rugby a healthy game for the fans and spectators.

Instead, the parent body has made some fatal errors. The high price of the Lions tickets has not only deprived them of R25 million in revenue, which they had counted on, but they have alienated the rugby fans around the country and more so denied South Africa of a Rugby World Cup in 2015 or 2019 by revealing to the IRB that SA Rugby are unable to plan a commercially successful tour.

Which is why the chairperson of the IRB, Bernard Lapasset, said: “The Rugby World Cup’s commercial success would give the IRB a platform to invest up to 150 million pounds (200 million dollars) in 2009-2012 across all 116 Member Unions in the form of annual Union grants and the strategic investment programme that is designed to increase the competitiveness of the game. As the revenue generated from RWC is vital to the IRB’s ongoing development plans, the RWCL Board considered in its review process the preference for RWC to be held in one of the major Rugby markets on a regular basis.”

He explained that a tournament in England would be commercially strong and deliver “a great RWC showcase”.

This statement comes hot off the back of the British & Irish Lions Tour to South Africa in which 170 000 tickets were unsold and this was not entirely a great commercial showcase and you do not have to be an Einstein to deduce that the IRB were given all the leverage and ammunition they needed to build a case for England in 2015 and Japan in 2019 and announce this on July 28 in 3 weeks’ time.

Expect more high drama to unfold and a putsch in rugby. This will all centre on a little-known team otherwise known as the Southern Spears.