Jeff Probyn: These ‘hospitality’ packages are just fleecing the fans

It would seem that Nick Cain‘s expose of the Lion’s tour ticket price rigging is just the tip of the ‘rip-off rugby ticket’ ice berg.
The standard price of tickets for international games are high enough to put them almost out
of reach for many of the game’s core
supporters, creating that exclusive feeling of privilege in those who manage to secure a place at the games.
For those who can’t obtain any of the internationals tickets, it’s about looking forward to the other major rugby events that dot the calendar.
Fixtures like the IRB World Sevens, the Premiership Final, the Middlesex Sevens and the Amlin and Heineken Cup Finals are all part of the ‘special days’ that help give fans (that can’t afford to get the international tickets) their big days out.
In terms of costs for all the domestic finals, it is just a matter of ticket price and transport to the venue as you support your team at the home of English rugby, while the still-growing IRB World Sevens is currently a cheap two day extravaganza – but the cross-border competitions are a different matter.
Many of the fans who follow the Heineken Cup won’t want to miss out on the final so must make plans early as the final is moved around the competing
countries.
This has enabled the host Unions to encourage the use of ‘official’ hospitality packages combining flights, hotel and match tickets with an associated hike in prices.
This year’s final is in the Aviva stadium
in Dublin which has a relatively small capacity of 57,700. Given that last year’s final attracted 81,774 at Twickenham, that seems  a little under-sized to me.
Twickenham was sold out despite the fact that there were two Irish teams competing, testament to the popularity of the cup. But that has just fuelled the greed of some of those that organise it.
The price of tickets to watch the game are reasonable but, with only a limited number of ‘tickets only’ for sale, the rest have to be bought as part of an official package which includes flights and accommodation at eye-watering prices.
I would think that anyone negotiating block bookings with airlines and hotels would be able to get them at lower prices than an individual, but it is the fee that ERC charge companies to become ‘official’ that inflates the price.
And it’s not just the official packages that push up prices, every local hotel and airline uses the old ‘supply and demand’ excuse to raise rates and fleece the fans.
Just like the Lions in Australia, there seems to be a failure to see the bigger picture and with around 70,000 fans expected in Dublin for the Amlin and Heineken Cup Finals, all looking for a good time and preparing to spend money in the local economy, you would expect that ERC would be encouraged to keep prices lower.
Instead, by including the tickets in packages, they cost many hundreds of pounds above what you would spend if you were able to buy tickets at face value and pre-book flights and hotel direct.
The advantage that the Lions have over the Heineken Cup is that they play only every four years and thereby have a novelty factor, encouraging fans who would not usually spend that much to follow their team to do so.
In Europe this is not the case and if ERC don’t rethink their attitude towards their fans they may kill the goose that lays the golden egg.
Today’s game between England and Italy will, in all probability, be just another step on England’s road to Grand Slam glory as Stuart Lancaster’s team continue to deliver performances and results that surprise and relieve fans who had thought the progress since last season would grind to a halt or at least falter.
Much of England’s success has been down to the many young players that Lancaster has introduced, including Manu Tuilagi.
Tuilagi’s rise to fame has been both rapid and dramatic having played senior rugby for only a very short time, starting with Leicester in 2010 and the England senior side in 2011.
His physicality has brought a presence to the England midfield that has never been seen before, but it could easily have been quite different.
Manu came to England in 2004 on a
holiday visa and stayed here illegally, attending school and playing rugby and was uncovered in 2010.
At that time he was threatened with deportation but his club, Leicester Tigers, and the RFU, petitioned the immigration services on his behalf so he would be able to stay in the UK and, after an appeal,
Tuilagi was granted leave to stay here indefinitely.
At no time during or since Tuilagi’s
mistaken visa application were Leicester brought before the RFU for fielding an ineligible player, nor have the RFU questioned whether the fact that he had been here illegally should impact on his ability to qualify for England as a player under the IRB residency rules.
The London Welsh/Tyson Keats story has been told in full in this paper and yet, knowing the facts, the RFU have deducted the club five points and imposed a £15,000 fine.
As it was London Welsh that drew the attention of the Union to the fact that a
mistake had been made and, as that mistake has made no material difference to whether or not Keats was eligible to play (he had ancestral rights), natural justice would seem to indicate that at most, a small fine was levied and the Welsh left to fight for survival in the Premiership on equal terms.