Warning over online ticket rip-offs
Musician and businessman Billy Crosbie, 52, bought five tickets online for Saturday’s Heineken Cup Final between his heroes Munster and French rivals Toulouse.
He purchased the tickets while Munster were battling in the so-called “pool of death” earlier this year against tough opponents in the opening stages of the European Rugby Cup.
“I bought the tickets long before we knew Munster would be in the final,” said Mr Crosbie, of Kinsale, Co Cork, yesterday.
“I wanted it to be a treat for myself and my four sons to go to the Heineken Cup final at Cardiff, regardless of who would be in it.”
He said he went online for tickets to what he thought was an official website for Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium, the match’s venue.
After clicking on a link for ticket sales he was taken to another website, where seats were for sale at £175.
Mr Crosbie chose five seats and paid a total of £875 on his credit card.
“I thought I was getting seats worth £175, but when the tickets arrived they had a face value of £45. I felt I had been cheated,” he said.
Yesterday, European Rugby Cup spokesman John Corcoran said the only online seller authorised to sell Heineken Cup final tickets was Ticketmaster, which would have sold any tickets at face value with a small handling charge on top.
The site which sold the £175-tickets, was not an official seller but a re-seller, the Irish Examiner has learned.
“We would advise all fans to buy tickets early and always through official sources like Ticketmaster,” said Mr Corcoran.
Tickets for the final went on sale in June, 2007. Fifity thousand have been sold online and through clubs with a further 15,000 allocated to Munster and Toulouse.
Another 9,500 have gone to corporate sponsors, the IRFU, television stations and marketing organisations, ensuring the sell-out game will be watched by a 74,500 capacity crowd.
