Rugby’s vacant seats, or are they? R254 000 is a snip for a corporate suite for the evening.

On Saturday there were 78,944 people watching the All Black vs Wallabies Bledisloe Cup at the ANZ Stadium in Sydney and the Aussie administration is concerned as they wanted a sell-out 83,500 attendance.

The tickets range in price from R1,188-64 (Aus$164) to R285-55 (Aus$39-50) for kids.

Here is the breathtaking part.

If a couple of us were to take a 20-seater corporate suite, with some parking, food, drinks, a programme and a gift, for 18 clients, we would pay R253,671-00 (Aus$35K) for the evening’s entertainment, which would be quite reasonable if you were an arms dealer, or rented out oil platforms to the Saudis.

ARU chief executive John O’Neill said last night that as SANZAR was shortly “transforming Super rugby and potentially reshaping the international season structure in the not-too-distant future,” feedback “from the rugby community was vital”.

He added: “We want to know, at an operational level, what is and isn’t working with our fans.”

I don’t know about you, but clearly, what isn’t working, is the outrageous price gouging by rugby unions of ticket prices for seats.

Make no mistake, in any one’s terms the ANZ Stadium with 78,944 people for Saturday, can be classified as “full”, but how many times will rugby make this happen? And more importantly, “At what cost to the game of rugby?” in each of the SANZAR countries?

O’Neill said that although there were positive signs, as shown by the Springbok’s Test in Perth attracting the biggest crowd to Subiaco Oval this year, while the Brisbane Test was selling strongly, tomorrow night’s Bledisloe Cup match at ANZ Stadium had not been sold out.

“That is disappointing,” he said. “Even though we will have around 80 000 people there, which is a big crowd by any measure in world sport, we want to find out why there are tickets remaining two days before the Test.”

Despite some believing the game had been sold out, O’Neill added: “I am sure other reasons are also at play and we want our fans to let us know, in an organised fashion, what those factors might be.”

Reasons offered so far are:

1. Overpriced seats where the view of the game is poor.
2. Parking problems.
3. Poor match entertainment.
4. Post-game transport difficulties.
5. Quality of food on offer.

SANZAR’s administrators must learn that the game of rugby is in dire straits and the exorbitant ticket cost is a huge contributor to this situation. They have economically discriminated against the young family, or any family, with a young boy or girl who could quite easily be a part of the game, by sitting in the stands with affordable tickets. These are the people who are the future of the game and the backbone of rugby.

Instead, rugby administrators are hiking their ticket prices into the stratosphere, so much so, the widespread support base for rugby, which comes about as a result of attending a game, is fast dwindling.

Perhaps a measure to keep prices in check would be to have the administrators pay for their own seats, rather than always getting a free ride. It will certainly help put the elasticity of the prices of rugby tickets in sharp focus. A simple rule of thumb would be, “Everybody pays for their seats”, then and only then, would you see competitive pricing, full stadiums and young kids keen to run onto the field that they have just watched their heroes play on.

This ticket pricing is nothing short of a shocking death wish for the game and driving rugby into an elitist sport as it is asphyxiating the support and player base. It must become a game for the masses.

TV wants it that way and the sponsors want it that way.

Why else is SANZAR on a mad scramble to reconfigure the Super 14? The fans are voting with their feet.

Wimbledon, in stark contrast, has impressed by making provision of affordable tickets for the die-hard fans. They might have to camp out for four days and nights, but in the end they get their tickets and a seat on centre court.

So too, must rugby, if it wants to survive, similarly provide affordable tickets to the true rugby fan, who is quite prepared to camp outside the stadium for three to four days.

These “5-hit wonders” of the rugby unions endeavouring to fill the stadiums 5 times a year for their Tests, are no good for the game and it shows.

In South Africa, New Zealand and Australia the average gate attendances for the Super 14 are at an all time low.

A classic example of this, is the Super 14 game this year between the Lions and the Western Force at Ellis Park Johannesburg’s 60,000 seat stadium, attracting a gate attendance of 1,500. This is not a typo – One Thousand Five Hundred people in a Sixty Thousand Seat Stadium.

Yet down the road and up the road in Johannesburg, were two school boy games each attracting a crowd of 20,000 in the morning. This is unacceptable. For one, the two school boy games should have been curtain raisers at the Super 14 game, with the schools participating in the gate and two, complementary tickets, just have to be given to each school and rugby club in the area, that they in turn can sell, to raise some revenue.

Friends and family of the rugby players come first, then schools, universities, rugby clubs and past/retired elite players. These folk are the fabric of the rugby communities and out of these communities come our players of the future.

It all comes down to the ticket price at a rugby game.

Too High a Price is a Deterrent and puts our beloved game of rugby into a downward spiral.