Grand Final tickets - exorbitant

[The Mad Hatter]

I do two things every year:

SCG Day 1 of Test Match

NRL Grand Final

Go with the wife and another couple.

Both families, the dollars are tight at the moment. Not complaining, just being honest.

Was thinking of taking a couple of the kids to the GF this year as they are older and will behave.

But when I got the email, I gulped. Always sat behind the goal posts up the back of the stand. Has been pretty cheap.

Now they're silver tickets, and the other couple are evening reconsidering if they can attend or not.

So sure, there's only 80K seats and it will sell out. People will still love it. But I can't see how the NRL and ANZ justify DOUBLING the price this year. Leaves a bitter taste in the mouth.

 

[Cumberland Throw]

Melbourne v Sharks.

Will see these prices reduced

 

[undertaker]

And yet some people will keep pandering out the line that fans don't go to the games because they're lazy. Ticket prices has been one of the main issues for many years now, not just for the marquee matches like GFs and Origin.

 

[DC_fan]

MMM discussed it this arvo

What did they say?

 

[undertaker]

I have no kids or mortgage, I can afford to waste $200 on a football game if I feel like it. But dead set gotta feel sorry for your average family with a couple of kids, no chance.

That's already an issue at regular season NRL matches at many grounds for more than 50% of league fans. The GF/Origin ticket prices are just rubbing salt into the wounds.

The most expensive ticket last year was $200. The most expensive ticket this year is $345. That's an increase of 72.5 percent.

It makes me wonder how much they will go up for 2014.

Well, the money to pay already vastly over-paid players and administrators has gotta come from somewhere:lol:

Oh woooo hoo, you can experience all the joys of capacity crowd public transport without the hassle of entering the stadium :lol: f**king hell.

Just because you can price something as high as possible doesn't mean you should, especially a sport that has prided itself on engaging working class families for a century.

The NRL is NOT strapped for cash. It has already bent over the fans by lumping us with Ch9 and Hadley in return for its $1billion pay day. And we, for the most part, grudgingly accept that as a necessary sacrifice.

How far should they go for a dollar? They could get more money out of gambling? Maybe they should do that. Kill off some Sydney teams for a team in Adelaide? A lot of people would be ok with that too. Hideous advertising plastered all over cherished jerseys? Oh wait, we're already there.

For once show some respect to the game and its fans.

Just another example of the image crisis the NRL has put itself in. Markets itself as the family based game for all people, then prices out all but the most well off families. Classy.

Well said. You're on fire in this thread

Bunniesmans first NRL game :lol:

:lol:

 

[innsaneink]

What did they say?

Tallis thought it was OK
Took calls, general view was it was too steep a rise.
The host, forget his name, was surprised. But theyre media, and Im not surprised when media are surprised when fans inform them just how pricey it can be...they never have to pay

 

[Rosetta]

It's a big jump in one year but the match is moving back to primetime and I suspect the league will spend a hell of a lot more on pre-match (and maybe even half-time) entertainment so it could easily be justified.

If it's just a massive hike because they believe they can still sell it out then that's pretty poor form IMO, should do that over a period of time not in one whack.

 

[Hello, I'm The Doctor]

After reading the comments in this thread i realised that alot of you just think the NRL owes you something.

Maybe its because you were still a loyal fan through the darkest days of the super league and the years after that, so you think the NRL should reward the loyalty.

But just because you got to go to a Grand final for $50 bucks, doesnt mean you have earned the right to cheap tickets now. The NRL doesnt owes you anything just because, while the game was in a bad position, you were there to take advantage of cheap tickets.

 

[cleary89]

Yeh, they should give tickets away for free! Who wants to make money

 

[beave]

I dont think anyone expects to go to a game for $50 but a gradual rise over time would be better recieved by the fans.

It's not like the NRL are short on cash these days. If they want to charge those sorts of prices, then f**king fine, but don't cry poor when expansion into Perth is mentioned. The extra money raised from that one game alone would go a long way to paying Perth's first annual grant. I would rather see the cash go there than to some pre match entertainment bullshit by some prima donna artists that no one gives a flying f**k about.

 

[beave]

Doing rough maths, say on average every seat has gone up $100 (which is reasonable with the changing of zones and so forth)that is an extra $8.3mil they will get on top of last years GF $$$$. You would think the corporates would get stung for a lot more than that but the extra cash they put in may off set the stadium members not having to pay a cent to attend the game (im just being a little hypothetical and trying to put it into perspective).

Whats the NRL grant to each club? 5mil??? Add in a little rise in cost from the stadium to host the event, there's still money left over from the additional $$$$ they've charged this year.

 

[DC_fan]

I have been told Ray Hadley had something to say on this topic on 2GB this afternoon

 

[DC_fan]

After reading the comments in this thread i realised that alot of you just think the NRL owes you something.

Maybe its because you were still a loyal fan through the darkest days of the super league and the years after that, so you think the NRL should reward the loyalty.

But just because you got to go to a Grand final for $50 bucks, doesnt mean you have earned the right to cheap tickets now. The NRL doesnt owes you anything just because, while the game was in a bad position, you were there to take advantage of cheap tickets.

I don't believe anyone here is suggesting that the game owes us anything. But we shouldn't expect the NRL to be charging the prices they are for the grand final.

 

[BunniesMan]

Superjourno Buzz is on the case:
https://twitter.com/BuzzRothfield

@BuzzRothfield 9m 2012 family grand final seats behind posts - $200. Same seats this year $425 #scandal #crisis

 

[cleary89]

people in this thread whinging about it becoming like the superbowl... yeh, having it be the hottest ticket in town would be a bad thing.

Families don't need to go to the gf every year and those thinking they do are kidding themselves.

 

[DC_fan]

Superjourno Buzz is on the case:
https://twitter.com/BuzzRothfield

A code in crisis

 

[Perth Red]

Like govt's hiking up taxes, can live with it if you can see how the money is being used to improve things, if it is just screwing the fans so execs and mngmt can justify ridiculous pay rises then it will damage the game. Crowds this year are getting worse, pssing off fans is the last thing the arlc needs to be doing.

If they came out and said "the extra $8million a year will be used to do x,y&z to strengthen the game" then fans might not feel like hey we being taken for a ride.

Where you are trying to maintain goodwill from your customer base it isn't always a question of how much you can charge but how much you can justify charging.

 

[Matchball]

It is disgusting greed. I wouldn't pay $50 for any of those seats.
Tv in a bar is where it's best viewed and free.

 

[BuffaloRules]

That's how business works, and for better or worse the game is all about business these days. I don't like it and can see it ending up like epl or NFL with players on huge salaries totally alienated from the fans and fans seen as little more than customers who are there to wangle as much money out of as possible. Like it or not that is the way we are going.

Gee, welcome to big time first world Professional Sport circa 2013.

I don't necessarily like the price hikes, but show me a popular sporting showcase game that isn't the same price ( or more)?

I'm planning to go to the MCG Cricket test Day 3, and a pretty average ticket is $150.

 

[Cumberland Throw]

I just bought adult ticket to ashes @ scg for $53

I honestly don't think the NRL has earnt the right to be arrogant on gf tix

They basically have about 5 sold out games from 186 all year

And now they think they are hottest ticket in town