Wallabies get set to cash in on the Lions

The Australians have drawn up plans to cash in on the Lions by charging £200 a ticket for the three-Test series.
As proof that there is still no business like Lions business, the organisers expect the Wallabies to make a profit of £40m from the six-week tour. A quarter of that money will come from ticket sales boosted by a substantial hike in prices for what the hosts are already acclaiming as the biggest sporting event in Australia next year.
Tickets for the three Tests will go on public sale in February with the best seats priced at more than twice as much as the most expensive anywhere in the Six Nations. The Australian Rugby Union‘s admission charges are based on four categories – bronze, silver, gold and platinum.
At current exchange rates, they work at roughly £65 (bronze), £115 (silver), £160 (gold) and £200 (platinum).
“The Test ticket prices we are announcing reflect not just the scarcity of the tour but also its magnitude,” ARU chief executive John O’Neill says.   “They are comparable prices to the prices we set ten years ago for the 2003 Rugby World Cup quarter-finals in Australia.
“We believe these Tests are certainly deserving of equal status. This will be the biggest rugby event on Australian soil since that Rugby World Cup. At the same time there is some wonderful value around the prices for the non-Test tour matches.”
The Lions calculate that their enduring mystique will generate a tour turn-over of “well over 100m Australian dollars”.   In marked contrast to the fortune guaranteed for the Wallabies, the Four Home Unions have been advised to expect a much smaller dividend.
The tour will cost the Lions the best part of £14m. Despite the global economic recession, more than half of that comes from a list of elite sponsors headed by HSBC and including Adidas, Microsoft, Land Rover and First Cape wines.
“We have a great clutch of sponsors,” Lions chief executive John Feehan said. “We have long-term partners who have seen the benefit the Lions bring to their businesses.
“The Lions is a precious brand and delivering to our sponsors has been a consistent story. That makes it a little easier to go back to the well and ask for a little more.”
This time the Lions will pay their players more than during their last expedition, to South Africa three years ago.   Feehan refuses to discuss figures but contracts hammered out over months of negotiation are understood to be worth a basic £45,000 to each of the chosen 35 or 36.
The Rugby Paper also understands that the bonus for winning the series means the tour could be potentially worth as much as £60,000-a-man, or £10,000-a-week. And this time many fans will expect the Lions to be paying out.
Unless the Wallabies pull  out of their current dip, head coach Warren Gatland will be expected to succeed where the last Lions failed under their first Kiwi coach, Graham Henry, eleven years ago.
Under Martin Johnson’s captaincy, arguably the most powerful Lions team of the last 20 years contrived to lose the series 2-1 after routing the Australians during the opening Test in Brisbane.
The Wallabies, who are using legendary figures like John Eales, George Gregan and Matt Burke to promote the tour, have not been slow to make capital out of what happened in 2001 when a gripping series went down to the last lineout in the last minute of the last Test.
“The British and Irish Lions are steeped in history and when they come to Australia  hey will do so keen to reverse the result of their last outing,” O’Neill says. “Lions tours are synonymous for creating history and the 2001 series was full of ‘were you there when it happened’ moments.
“The stage is set for the biggest sporting contest to be played in Australia next year.”
PETER JACKSON