British and Irish Lions’ fans fury over Australian ticket hike

A massive levy on Test match tickets is causing fury among Lions fans wanting to travel to Australia this summer.
Face price for Test tickets is £61 (AU$95) but British and Irish fans are being charged up to £300 for a ticket due to levies imposed by the Australian Rugby Union (ARU) and Lions Ltd, the umbrella company for the British and Irish Lions.
The ARU are heavily implicated in ramping up the prices by charging Lions Ltd £200 per ticket for the bulk of their 8,000 allocation.
The addition of a further £100 royalty by the Lions to meet the burgeoning insurance, playing, coaching and compensation costs of running a modern tour – estimated at an unprecedented £14m for the six week 2013 trip – has resulted in the ticket prices for UK and Irish fans rising to record levels.
John Feehan, the Lions chief executive, told The Rugby Paper that the Lions have no control over Australian ticket pricing.
“Most of the tickets we are getting from the ARU are costing us £200 each — there are some as low as £70, but not very many. We have no say in the ticket pricing, none whatsoever. We are passing on the cost as it is, effectively.”
When the Lions last toured Australia in 2001 the royalty on test match tickets was c.£50 per Test, and the sevenfold increase is seen by growing Mr Zaffiro, a veteran prop and coach at Bristol club Frampton Cottrell, said: “I have spoken to a lot of people at a lot of clubs and all of them are dismayed at the hike.
“We’ll probably all still go and help the Australian economy, but you would have thought the Lions could have struck a better deal for their fans.”
Mr Zaffiro, 55, a surveyor, is taking his wife Ann and daughter Victoria on a 23-day tour Down Under but will travel without tickets, hoping to buy some when he arrives.
The main hurdle faced by Lions fans who decide to go as independent travellers is that they will require an Australian address to apply for £61 tickets when the Australian Test allocation goes on sale this Monday (February 18th)
However, given the close ties between Australia and the UK and Ireland, there should be no shortage of friends and family with local addresses.
The 2013 ticket hike raises awkward issues for the Lions. Foremost is the failure of the Lions administrators to hold the Australian Rugby Union to account. The 30,000 or more supporters the Lions bring into the host country, with all the attendant economic benefits, should give the touring side huge bargaining power in Australia in terms of negotiating good rates for travel,accommodation and tickets.
Instead, Lions fans who have been saving for years to travel to the other side of the world with official travel agents, feel they are being subjected to a Test ticket rip-off.
NICK CAIN