High price to pay for slow ticket uptake

THE depth of feeling against the IRFU’s ticketing policy for the autumn internationals has not stopped All- Ireland League clubs from getting creative in their efforts to shift their allocations and avoid a damaging financial hit.

Derek Clements, Dungannon RFC club secretary was critical of the IRFU and admitted they were “struggling at the present time” to sell tickets.

“Off the top of my head, most of the New Zealand ones have gone but South Africa is a bit disappointing and as you would expect, Samoa, there’s not a great amount of interest and Argentina’s somewhere in-between.”

The Dungannon man was in no doubt where the blame for the problem lied.

“There’s no doubt about it that the IRFU have got it wrong,” Clement said. “They’ve pitched the price too high and by going for four autumn internationals on the trot, that’s not on.

“It’s fine if you live in Dublin but not when you live 100 miles away or even more and given the current economic conditions also.

“It certainly seems to me that the IRFU have seriously miscalculated.

“You live in hope that things are going to move on but it’s a bad time.”

That said, Clement pointed to Dungannon’s push to sell its allocation.

“We are trying to get round it by being innovative.

“We’re taking advantage of the offer of transport and for the Samoa match we’re doing a father and son deal with our mini rugby section, where we’ll probably be selling the tickets at a small loss to encourage fathers and sons to go.

“But it’s going to be difficult, no question about it.”

Dungannon’s Father & Son package is for the Samoan game with a pair of tickets on sail for £75stg, which will include a free bus to the game, while a free bus will also be going to the Argentina game.

The IRFU was also taking measures to get bums on seats, yesterday advertising discounted, restricted view tickets on its website with a South Africa/Samoa package on sale for €75 and New Zealand/Argentina packages for €95, both with accompanying €4 service charges.

There were also individual match tickets on sale for both the Samoa (€50) and Argentina (€95) matches, while elsewhere on the website, free train tickets from Belfast, Cork, Galway and Limerick to the Samoa game were on offer to those entering a draw.