High ticket prices for All Blacks cast dark shadow

PETER JACKSON

THE MAN TRULY IN THE KNOW

WHEN the RFU finished doing their sums for the autumn series of Twickenham‘s centenary season, the revenue from ticket sales added up to a few quid short of £13,000,000.

There would have been high-fives all round at the figures generated by the November Tests against New Zealand, South Africa and Argentina, resounding proof of the Old Cabbage Patch’s capacity for generating cash by the shedload.

Fifteen years on, Twickenham’s commercial value is in the process of soaring higher still into the stratosphere. England versus New Zealand early next month will guarantee the RFU substantially more than the three Tests put together during the same month in 2009.

Ticket revenue from a sold-out 82,000 works out at £16,000,000 give or take a pound or two, roughly a 25 per cent increase on the three-match total confirmed in the RFU’s annual report of 2010. No matter how steep the admission charge, the fans still pack Twickenham to the rafters.

Charges have never been steeper for an autumn Test than this one, from £99 for the cheapest seats (Category 4 in the top rows and the highest corners of the four stands) to an all-time high of £229 for Premium seats, positioned either side of halfway in the multi-tiered East and West stands.

They account for roughly 15 per cent of capacity, marginally more than 12,000, enough to bring in as close to £6m as makes no difference. Those seats cost £50 more than when the All Blacks were last at HQ two years ago and £35 more than during last season’s Six Nations.

The prices are the highest at Twickenham since World Rugby charged £715 for a posh seat at the 2015 World Cup final when the average face-value of a ticket topped £400. The well-heeled and those a bit down-at-aheel packed it out.

When England captain Jamie George spoke recently of ‘discussions about how we can engage with the fans more’, hitting them in the pocket harder still would not have been what he had in mind.

The RFU say that ‘increasing prices is not a decision we take lightly but it is essential we keep pace with cost increases.’ Not a flicker of recognition there that the Red Rose masses, tens of thousands of them, are in the throes of shouldering the same burden. The vast majority of the revalued seats against New Zealand are located in Categories 1, 2 and 3 where prices have been raised to £189, £159 and £129 respectively. They have been reduced for the Australia match on November 9 with the best seats at £159, a £70 drop on the previous week.

“Only Twickenham could jack up prices so much and still sell out”

Only Twickenham, in the heart of the affluent south-east, could get away with jacking the prices up to £229 and still find a bottom for every seat. The WRU has already alienated many of its former customers by imposing a top price of £130 for the home Six Nations matches against England and Ireland.

Raising it higher still would be to invite a wider disconnect with more fans, not that the supposed custodians of the Welsh game are in a position to consider doing so given their team’s run of nine straight defeats.

A survey of the highest average Premier League admission charges based on season tickets puts a trio of London clubs as the most expensive: Fulham (£157), Tottenham (£124), Arsenal (£107). Manchester City’s is quoted at £59, United’s at £55, Liverpool’s at £47.

That the RFU can sell-out seats costing five times more than those at Anfield bears testament to the All Blacks’ enduring mystique despite recent defeats.

Watching international sport has become an increasingly costly business, all the more so in London, a fact which provoked a rant from David Lloyd, the former England batsman, umpire and coach, over Lord’s charging up to £175 against India next summer. “The warning signs are flashing ever more,” Lloyd wrote in a newspaper column. “Test cricket is in danger of becoming an elite showpiece. I am the voice of the everyday fan, the kind who likes to be behind the goal at a football match with a pie and Bovril.”

Bovril? At Twickenham? Some of those coughing up £229 to watch England against the All Blacks may be hard pushed to spend a penny let alone fork out more for a mug of the beverage renowned in some quarters as ‘beef tea’…