Is the Six Nations value for money?
- 28 Jan 07, 03:38 PM
Glasgow - The cost of rugby matches is a constant source of debate - I've certainly done my share of moaning at the price of a ticket - but does it really cost too much to see your country?
In the interests of science, and after shaking my head in disbelief that people paid £61 to watch Arsenal v Tottenham last week, I thought a little comparison between different sports would show up whether the Six Nations represents value for money or a rip-off.
Alright, there may be no representation from the Southern Hemisphere powers, but the Six Nations is still one of the top sporting events in the world calendar. So let's see how prices compare with some other top events.
The SRU have adult tickets for the upcoming match with Wales at £30, and the Italy game at £20. Not cheap, but not bad either.
If you fancy taking in the upcoming football international between Scotland and Georgia you can look to fork out £24 for the cheapest adult tickets - and that's for a team without a manager.
For cricket fans, tickets for England's one-day internationals against the West Indies - not even the Tests - weigh in at about £50
Like watching cars go round in circles? A trip to the British Grand Prix will cost you £110 - and that's the cheapest ones you can buy!
Wimbledon? Only £27 for a match played on No.2 Court.
And if you fancy something a bit more exotic, the Superbowl will set you back about £300, that's if your name's drawn out of the hat to get one.
All this makes a wee Six Nations match seem a bit of a snip.
Of course, another way of looking at this is that it only costs buttons to see a club match.
Wales 27-18 England
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You haven't got what I think is the best value of the lot - the Open Championship. It's £50 a ticket, but that's for about 12 hours of golf, rather than an hour and a half at football or rugby. And it's the premier competition in it's sport, equivalent to the Wimbeldon or World Cup finals.
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Possibly - bear in mind most English premiership rugby games cost circa £20 a ticket these days. A ticket for an adult to see Coventry in Division 1 is currently £15 (although children under 8 are free) so rugby (like all sports these days) isn't the cheapest entertainment in the world.
I do think the SRU are very clever though, Murrayfield is a phenomenal stadium and deserves to be full for every game.
I considered joining the SRU just for the tickets so I could see Ireland and England play there once every 2 years :)
'Squish
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£20 is a bargain, but sadly for us English, we're priced out at twickenham nowadays, with more and more tickets going to corporate hospitality.
they upped the prices when the south stand was being rebuilt, and surprise surprise, haven't lowered them again now theres an extra 10,000 seats.
along with the £3.20 for a plastic bottle of cr*p lager (that you've queued for 20 minutes to get), and £5.50 for a mediocre pasty, you don't get much change out of £100 for the afternoon, and that's without travel costs (rail fare increases vs driving to london? frying pan or fire?)
As a friend said after an autumn international - it's a nice day out, but not as nice as enjoying it from the comfort of the pub, and having £150 in your back pocket at the end of the game.
After attending regularly for around the last 10 years, i've now had enough of paying over the odds compared to other grounds - it's cheaper to fly to paris and pay £24 to watch than a train to london and £60. The RFU used to be about letting the real rugby fans watch the matches, but are now simply in for as much corporate cash as they can get their grubby hands on.
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If the six nations wasn’t value for money, then tickets would be available aplenty. You try getting at ticket for any of the games this weekend, or for that matter, ANY of the international weekends. When a full international is promised, there is always a full house at the Millennium Stadium and the public support answers your debate. (Incidentally, I was able to get 4 tickets for the British Open Golf with one click of a key-board.)
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The SRU had to reduce prices for matches as they were not attracting the numbers due to the run of poor results and lack of management and marketing. I will travelling to London for game on Saturday morning, £75 for the travel.My ticket is costing £65.00!!. I am staying with friends, but will require food and a few beers. All in all I will be looking at £200 minimun.
It will be all worth it to see Scotland win at HQ.
The RFU will need to seriously look at ticket prices and availability of them for the future.
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It depends on the game. I don't know anyone who has paid for a ticket to see Italy visit Murrayfield, there's so many freebies floating around by match day.
But then £30 each to see Ireland and Wales this year doesn't seem that bad for an event which doesn't come round very often. The surroundings aren't exactly unpleasant either.
Just paid £27 for tickets to see Scotland vs Georgia at Hampden, after paying £18 to see France and £22 for Italy last year - which seems like a huge rip-off on the back of some good form.
Then again, paying £130 (face value) to see Scotland vs Brazil in 1998 capped the lot, and was worth every penny!
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Personally I dont think rugby is overpriced. For instance a match ticket for football will cost you at least £35 and that would be for some run off the mill game. Whereas I went to twickenham in november paid exactly the same price but got to see England and South Africa. Also top class club games cost £20. I'd say that it is still value for money.
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I too will be travelling to Twickers this weekend and it's going to cost me a whole heap of cash. £60 total for deisel,£15 for parking, which is reasonable as the money helps to pay for a myriad of projects at the school we're parking, as opposed paying £25 to park in mud, £130 for 2 uncomfortable plastic seats, then theres the pints of Guinness, pie and mash (or something else similarly overpriced), coffee etc... Oh and thats not forgetting the almost guranteed trip to the rugby store... Al in all for 1 day out starting at 7am to beat the traffic and finishing somewhere in the region of midnight it's likely to cost over £250.
I think at these prices most people might be able to save up for a year just to attend one game...
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I also think that corporate hospitality is having an adverse effect. I remember a ticketless afternoon in Cardiff last year listening to two ticket carrying "fans" arguing about how long a rugby match lasts. Who said the atmosphere isn't like it used to be.
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The SRU have got it about right, at last. Every year the prices seemed to go up by £5.00 and I was expecting to pay £50 for my ticket this year. However, it will be back to a half empty stadium when New Zealand visit forthe world cup due to the extremely high ticket prices set by the IRB.
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I manage to acquire Twickenham match tickets through my club and must ask for the top priced tickets in order to ensure an allocation. What does £65 buy you? Not a seat remotely near the halfway line, in fact you are lucky to sit anywhere closer to the centre than the goal line. Seating behind the posts is a good option, but in the South Stand without a roof in the recent weather!? At least there are toilets now but it is still a building site. Of course, tickets are available in more favourable areas for the 'second string' games when true supporters are able to get tickets. Last time in Stade de France I managed to have reasonable seating, at least as good as Twickenham's, for 27 euros. Twickenham is a rip off.
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I think anything above £20 to see ANY of the 6 nations sides is crazy. I was home in New Zealand last year and saw the All Blacks beat the Wallabies at Eden Park in the Tri Nations decider and paid the equivilent of £30 quid a ticket.
This was to see the best team in the history of the game.... and some Australians.
The 6 nations is a 2nd tier competition featuring soft pansy girls who believe their own press and talk themselves up. But when they play a real team, like the All Blacks, we've walked away with 40 point wins against ALL those sides in the past 2 years... and lets not forget, these have all been home games for the Northerner too!!
Roll on RWC 2007 and lets get 'Bill' back where he belongs.
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You could charge over 200 quid a ticket at twickenham and it still be a sell out! However that's not the point.
The point is, £40 - £80 is a heck of a lot of money for a rugby match (When you are allowed access to the tickets). I would love to see England play every home match, but I can't afford it, then when you add travel on top of that, it becomes a very very expensive day out. It's just a joke, because you are not getting the true fans at the home of England rugby, instead you have loads of suites and no atmosphere. Charlie Hodgson is right.
I'm off to the world cup and I'm only paying 20 quid a go.
The RFU like the ECB only have one thing on their mind and that's how much cash can they squeeze out of people. NOT raising the profile of the sport!!!
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murrayfield is an amasing experience and i love going ther for scotland games but i missed out on ireland tickets so its the pub for me
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Getting a ticket is the problem, not the cost of it.
Maybe someday when it's a 100% Corporate attendance and there's no-one at the game to get an atmosphere going, they'll turn around and decide a round of golf or a shopping trip freebie to New York will be a better choice.
Then we can sneak back in.
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The match prices are a bit expensive at HQ these days. A couple of weeks ago I could get tickets for the Italy match at £65 per ticket!!!!!
The price is the same with The Scotland match which I could get through my club supperters association. I feel it is a bit steep but if the demand is there for it then it will always be value for money untill value outstrips supply or untill the real fans vote with their feet and not go to the games.
This is starting to work in soccer and it will wokr here if people do not go. The sight of a half empty Twickenham will frighten the RFU to dropping their prices.
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I was looking forward to seeing a match live in Dublin for a change this year. However, tickets are still impossible. Where have the extra 30000 gone. ? Rumours abound. Have the home fans snapped them up with the chance to see a home game at last.? Are tickets being distributed through GAA clubs who will not miss the oportunity to sell them on for a huge asking price.? The usual Opportunistic Touts.? The ticket agencies seem to have plenty to sell for a MIN £275.!! Please enlighten a loyal (ENG) supporter. Come what may, I'll still be thereabouts for the great craic. Dublin's a top spot but beware the wounded bulldog !!!!
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Not all tickets have been sold for England matches at Twickenham, hence more tickets for the Scotland game went on sale last week...
I wrote to the RFU complaining at their policy of selling through Ticketmaster who add a £5.20 "service charge" to the ticket price. They also add £2 "post & packing". This means people are having to pay £71.20 for each ticket. I find this outrageous when the RFU make statements about clamping down on ticket touts, at the same time allowing large companies to act as sanctioned touts.
The reply I received from the RFU was completely rubbish and covered none of the points raised. I will be writing again!
As for football - Arsenal were trying to sell their tickets for the Spurs game this week (Carling Cup semi, second leg) at reduced prices, but Spurs complained to the FA. The FA then decided they had to be sold at the usual higher prices...
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no moaning please; I'm working over in Chicago right now and my only option will be to watch the Rugby in my local irish boozer (located only 20 metres away, nice). For this special priviledge I will be charged $20... Yes that's just to sit in a pub and watch it!! Of course the dollar is weak at the moment and so my 'irish' bacon butty will be relatively cheap (as is the beer!). Can't wait for the England / Ireland game will be great in there... come on england!
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no moaning please; I'm working over in Chicago right now and my only option will be to watch the Rugby in my local Irish boozer (located only 20 metres away, nice). For this special privilege I will be charged $20... Yes that's just to sit in a pub and watch it!! Of course the dollar is weak at the moment and so my 'Irish' bacon butty will be relatively cheap (as is the beer!). Can't wait for the England / Ireland game will be great in there... come on England!
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Up north of the Border I can't believe
the Wales game isn't sold out when you can still get a ticket for £30! As long standing RBS6 fans we haven't missed a
home game in the last 6 years, even in the bad old days of MW. Good value definitely!!!! But don't get me started on the 'booking fee' for tickets for the RWC!!!
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2 years ago I met a Welshman in a pub in Edinburgh. It was the year when the Millenium Stadium was hosting the Big Wales Ireland match and i think Ireland Or wales or possibly both had Grandslam hopes.
This guy was telling me the tickets were selling for £800 on Ebay! And his concern? Whether Spain Or Portugal would be showing the rugby if he sold his ticket and went abroad for the weekend!
Its something to tell my grandkids in 50 years anyway.
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I am 67 and my son treats me to the six nations at murrayfield .
I AGREE IT IS EXPENCIVE,but worth the money for all the different emotions you experience.
My
, adrenalin kicks in when i board the train at dundee,and its usually sunday before i settle down again.
When we win it could be two or three days before that happens.
Win or loose i know that MY SCOTLAND TEAM WILL PLAY THERE HEARTS OUT WITH PASSION AS THEY ALWAYS DO.
I wish them all the very best for saturday,Ireland are a good team,but on the day we could be better,(Mr.HADDEN ,gentlemen,please make a senior lady even prouder than she is of all of you)
IS IT VALUE FOR MONEY OH YES YES.
ELIZABETH ANDERSON
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lol england vs ireland twickenham six nations 2008-£500 a ticket now tell me this is a cheap sport to go and watch...
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