Rugby chiefs to introduce tiered ticketing policy

IRISH rugby chiefs have moved quickly to correct their ham-fisted ticket pricing policy with a revised, tiered package of prices for the Six Nations.

The Union has essentially abandoned any suggestion of coupling tickets for the attractive home ties against France and England in 2011, and has introduced a range of price reductions, from 10% for Category 1 tickets to over 62% for school-children. But the IRFU is still confident of getting €125 for over 3,000 premium level tickets for the France (Sunday, Feb. 13) and England (Sat, March 19) games.

The new ticket pricing will be reviewed ahead of the 2011 Six Nations series.

Of the Aviva Stadium’s 51,700 seats, 21,700 are committed to IRFU programmes across advance 10 year premium ticket sales, advanced 10 year ticket sales, visiting Union allocations, sponsors, former internationals, press box, corporate hospitality programmes, corporate boxes and committee boxes.

The remaining 30,000 seats, which include general admission seats and seats at premium level, are committed to the branches for dissemination amongst the constituent clubs of the IRFU.

A special IRFU committee was set up in the wake of the furore over ticketing strategy for the autumn internationals under the chairmanship of Pat Fitzgerald. He said yesterday: “I believe our new approach will go a long way towards balancing the requirements of the differing constituents. We were tasked by the Union to come up with a pricing structure which would provide attractive options to supporters at various levels and secure capacity crowds for both France and England. We also needed to be cognisant of the key role international fixtures play in generating the income required to manage and develop the game at both the domestic and professional levels.”

The prices of these is as follows: Schoolboy/Schoolgirl: €15 x 1,800 tickets, North Stand (62.5% price reduction (p.r.); Category 4: €50 x 2,500 in East, est Upper Stands/Touchlines (50% p.r.); Category 3: €65 x 5,000 in East/West/South Upper Stands and portions of North Stand (35% pr); Category 2: €80 x 4,500 in East/West/ South and portions of North Stand (20% pr); Category 1: €90 x 13,000 in East/West/South Stands (10% pr). 3,200 Premium Level tickets will continue to be available at €125.