http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,3288117a10295,00.html
Will kiwis pay this sort of cash?
Will kiwis pay this sort of cash?
Ticket to RWC final will cost $735
22 May 2005By GREG FORD
[font=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, MS Sans Serif]The New Zealand Rugby Union has accidentally revealed tickets to the 2011 Rugby World Cup final will cost an average of $735.[/font]
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And Kiwi taxpayers could be up for as much as $70 million in underwriting costs if the union is successful in its bid.
In an attempt to convince sceptics it can host the tournament, the union last week presented its bid to media.
The move backfired when it failed to erase key commercial information for the sanitised tender documents.
NZRU chief executive Chris Moller said the union would be reprimanded by the IRB for breaking a confidentiality agreement by inadvertently divulging the information.
That information is that the union would charge an average $735 for a ticket to the final at Eden Park in Auckland and as little as $25 for pool matches.
The information backs up revelations on ticket prices made last week by the Sunday Star-Times.
The cheapest ticket to the 2003 cup final in Australia was $218.
Information about ticket prices was, until now, a closely guarded and sensitive secret despite taxpayers being exposed to the tune of $70m to underwrite the tournament.
The union has revealed few facts about the financial commitment it is prepared to make to host the cup, but in last week's Budget the government revealed, in a fiscal risk report, it could cost $70m to underwrite the bid. The union will match one dollar for every two the government spends meaning it faces a possible $35m liability.
New Zealand's small stadiums, considered our biggest impediment to hosting the tournament, means the union will have to hike prices to avoid making massive loses.
Onerous financial criteria by the IRB, which pockets all of the commercial income from the tournament other than tickets, means the pricing strategy for the cup could decide its success or failure.
The union is also restricted from on its running mates Japan and South Africa.
The Sunday Star Times disclosed last year the union has met with rival bidder Japan both here and there to discuss the possibility of co-hosting the cup.
Moller said last week details about the "broader principles" of hosting the tournament were discussed with Japan but neither was privy to inner workings of each other's bid.
IRB chairman Syd Millar is due to visit New Zealand during next month's Lions tour. A lengthy courting process of Millar and his fellow IRB councillors between now and November is expected cost about $1m.
New Zealand's chances of hosting the cup are slim. Our small venues pale in comparison to Japan.
South Africa's time zone means it would be able to beam matches into the key European broadcasters market during prime time. New Zealand would have to play matches in the less favoured breakfast time slot.
But Moller is upbeat about what he says could be our last chance to host the cup, because of mounting financial obligations with hosting it.
"We can't move the country in a physical sense but we can look at some lateral ideas and one of them could be to move daylight saving," he said. "That would be a huge call but we have to be a little bit flexible."
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