Peter Jackson: A couple of England-Wales tickets, sir? That’ll be £630

The last England–Wales match at Twickenham grossed around £5m in ticket money. The next one will top £20m. For the World Cup showdown between the old rivals at HQ next year, the fans are being asked to stump up to £315 per ticket, almost four times more than they paid at the same venue for the same fixture two months ago.
The issue is not why the World Cup should be deemed four times more expensive than the Six Nations but what happens to the ordinary fan. While £315 is a lot of money for the well-heeled in the affluent South-east, it is a veritable fortune in the more depressed areas of the south Wales rugby belt.
Nobody, of course, made any mention of such concerns when the great and the good gathered last week to remind the world that there were 500 days to kick-off. On the contrary, Brett Gosper, the IRB’s chief executive, acclaimed Rugby World Cup 2015 as “a fantastic opportunity for fans around the world to experience what promises to be a very special World Cup”.
There were, he said, “affordable and accessible options to suit every need”. Debbie Jevans, chief executive of England 2015, reinforced the point: “We have a range of ticket prices for every budget.”
Well, try telling them that at rugby clubs in the more impoverished parts of the Welsh valleys or Gloucester or Warrington.
A pair of tickets for the England match at Twickers on September 26 next year, a Saturday night with an 8pm kick-off? That will be £630 thank you very much. Category A tickets, of course, unless sir would like Category B instead, a snip at £430-a-pair. Even the cheapest, Category C, are virtually twice as much as for the Six Nations match at £160.
From that it is not difficult to see the message hidden behind the party tub-thumping about England 2015 promising to be the best World Cup of the lot. Those running it could just as easily have warned the less well-off: “You’ve got 500 days to save up. Start scrimping now.”
For the benefit of those rolling in it, forking out £315 for a ‘Category A’ seat would be doing Twickenham on the cheap. Anyone wanting to see the match in some style can do so for £1,695.
That buys you a place in one of the Webb Ellis suites, “the ultimate, private hospitality environment”, according to the brochure. They are “located in the iconic West car park at Twickenham, available for a minimum of 30 guests and tailored to your requirements”.
Presumably anyone wondering whether it offers value for money can always find some consolation in the iconic location. Car parks have been called many things but “iconic” stretches the imagination beyond its elastic boundaries.
Never mind. If the Webb Ellis suite is a little too severe on the pocket, there are cheaper alternatives like the Pavilion Platinum (£1,375 per person), the Twickenham Pavilion (£1,295), the Prestige 2015 (£1,195) or the Premier (£1,095).
Everything, as the blurb points out, is “subject to availability”. Marketing experts are in no doubt that Twickenham on September 26, 2015, will be packed to the rafters despite the inflated admission charges.
They also predict that demand will ensure that more Category A tickets at £315 are sold than Category C at £160. “There is a strong demand for tickets, especially for the England-Wales game,” one expert said. “People will pay and there’s already a black market which indicates they will pay over the odds.
“There is no limit to the number of Category A tickets. They could provide as much as 50 per cent of the overall capacity for a match like England versus Wales.”
Ticket prices have been calculated on the basis that the RFU has guaranteed the IRB £80m to host the event. The reduction in overall capacity caused by the abortive attempt to hire Old Trafford with its 76,000 seats will have done nothing to bring admission charges down.
England-Wales, therefore, will smash all box-office records for a rugby match in these islands but not for long. The £20m from ticket revenue will be just about doubled a few weeks later when Twickenham hosts the final.
Category A seats for the occasion will have a face value of £715, compared to £660 for the football World Cup final in Brazil this summer. The cheapest seats for the final are listed at £150 and there are unlikely to be many of those should one of the home nations be involved.
The ten most expensive pool matches are:
Twickenham – England v Oceania 1 (almost certainly Fiji): £315, £215, £160, £75.
Twickenham – England v Wales: £315, £215, £160, £75.
Twickenham – England v Australia: £315, £215, £160, £75.
Twickenham – France v Italy: £250, £175, £125, £50.
Twickenham – Australia v Wales: £250, £175, £125, £50.
Manchester City FC – England v Play-off winner: £250, £175, £125, £50.
Millennium Stadium – France v Ireland: £250, £175, £125, £50.
Millennium Stadium – Ireland v Canada: £175, £125, £85, £50.
Millennium Stadium – Wales v Play-off winner: £175, £125, £85, £50.
Wembley Stadium – New Zealand v Argentina: £175, £125, £85, £50.
Tickets go on sale in September. At Twickenham, half the 82,000 seats have already been allocated, ‘commercial ticketing’ for hospitality packages and sponsors.
Those struggling to make ends meet will yearn for the good old days before they were priced out of the rugby market.