THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
DAVID FERGUSON CHIEF RUGBY WRITER
RUGBY officials will today meet the Scottish sports minister in Edinburgh in an attempt to reassure the Executive that Scotland's involvement in the 2007 World Cup will not see images of an empty stadium broadcast to a global audience once again.

Bernard Lapasset, the president of the French Federation de Rugby (FFR), will meet Patricia Ferguson at Holyrood this afternoon, accompanied by Gordon McKie, chief executive of the Scottish Rugby Union. Claude Atcher, the 2007 RWC tournament director, will also be in Edinburgh to address the media.

However, they face a tough sell according to Gary Armstrong, one of Scotland's greatest-ever players, who has described ticket prices as "ridiculous" and fears that there will be a repeat of the stay-away that saw rugby fans steer clear of matches when the tournament last came to Scotland in 1999.

The SRU has stressed that it has had no influence on ticket prices for the two World Cup matches to be held in Scotland next year. All prices have been set by the RWC organising committee.

The top-priced tickets for the Scotland v New Zealand pool match at Murrayfield on 23 September 2007 cost £164 each, with a booking fee of £11 taking the cost to £175. Scotland's other match at Murrayfield, against Romania on 18 September 2007, is more realistically priced at £9 to £43.

When the pricing structure was announced last month - to condemnation from rugby supporters - it was not known how many tickets would be available in each category. However, a colour-coded ticketing plan of Murrayfield Stadium on the tournament's official website - which can be accessed via the ticket section of the Scottish Rugby Union website - shows that the vast majority of tickets are priced at £85 and £148. The £85 tickets are for the ends of the ground (North and South stands) and the £148 tickets are in the West and East stands and cover the length of the field of play.

Two corners of the ground have been reserved for £38 seats, while most of the £51 tickets occupy the back few rows of seats of the upper tier at each end - and are laughingly described as "the most accessible seats". The £164 seats are in the centre of the East and West stands.

The last Rugby World Cup, held in Australia in 2003, was the most successful tournament yet, prompting widespread agreement that it should remain a one-country event. However, though France are the main hosts next year, the French rugby union offered games to Scotland and Wales in a successful effort to swing votes and beat off a rival bid from England.

The current executive board, led by McKie, agreed last year to take the games on after debate over the possibility of selling the matches back to France. But after poor crowds for last month's first two autumn Tests - with tickets cut to £10 - there are justifiable concerns over the ability to sell the seats

The last time Scotland hosted World Cup games was in 1999, but that proved a PR disaster with Hampden Park and Netherdale in the Borders setting record low crowds of a few thousand.

Fewer than 10,000 turned up for Scotland's game with Uruguay - still a record low - just over 17,000 witnessed the Spain clash and fewer than 16,000 attended the quarter-final play-off with Samoa. The match at Murrayfield between defending world champion South Africa and Spain drew less than 5,000 spectators.

Scotland even failed to sell-out Murrayfield for the quarter-final match with New Zealand, despite having succeeded in persuading RWC organisers to reduce the originally-planned ticket prices to a range of £18 to £40.

The ticket prices, poor marketing and poor scheduling of kick-offs contributed to that fiasco, but with attendances at professional games and internationals in Scotland having fallen since then it was no surprise to learn of efforts by the previous SRU regime to hand the 2007 RWC matches back to France.

Gary Armstrong captained Scotland through 1999, his final year of international rugby, and believes the poor crowds turned a World Cup dream into a huge let-down for many players. He believes the only Scots pleased by the prices will be publicans, insisting the Scottish rugby public will opt to watch TV coverage rather than head to Murrayfield.

"It is certainly not going to help Scottish rugby, or the World Cup," said Armstrong. "You would think that they would want all the games full, but they are going to get big empty spaces again with that kind of pricing. It's ridiculous.

"We've had our own problems in Scottish rugby with over-pricing, but this is unbelievable. The World Cup should be a great opportunity to turn people on to rugby, but instead the organisers are pricing the local punter out of it, so you'll be left with corporate types, or Scots with big money flying in from abroad, and everyone here watching it on the TV.

"How is that going to get kids interested in the game? Their dads will be at the pubs watching it instead of taking them to the game and enjoying it together. It's sad, but that's the way rugby has gone in the professional era and this caps it."

Armstrong also fears for the players and the negative effect a half-empty stadium might have on their ability to qualify for the quarter-finals.

"It's weird when the stadium is only half-full, and that would be sad for the players. There's nothing better than a full stadium at Murrayfield and, like me, most of the current team have experienced that and know how much of a difference it makes.

"It sounds like a cliché, but a full Murrayfield crowd does give you a 16th man and so while it will be tough against the All Blacks anyway a full house would help us there, and also send the boys to France with confidence. The best atmosphere I can remember was the Grand Slam game in 1990 - the noise when we came out was incredible and it lasted the whole game. That was definitely a factor in the victory because it kept us going and believing that we could do it - you keep each other going on the field, but to have 60-70,000 shouting you on as well makes a huge difference.

"One of the problems now, though, is that you don't have the same kind of supporter dominating at Murrayfield; the folk that know their rugby. You won't get that 1990 crowd again because tickets were cheaper then so you had the real rugby fans from across the country in there, shouting and bawling all the game.

"Because of all the bills to pay in professional rugby now, there has been so much catering for the corporate side. I was there last year speaking at lunches and half the people in the stadium don't know anything about rugby; they're just enjoying a business day out with some sport on the side.

"That's the era of professionalism. It's hard for the SRU because they need to get these guys in through the gate and the World Cup organisers want to make the most they can from the tournament as well. But Scottish rugby is suffering now because we haven't got the balance right in the past decade.

"People have got out of the habit of watching live games on their doorstep, which is why there is a shocking number of folk at club and pro team games."

Ticket prices for next year's Scotland v New Zealand match compare unfavourably with other major sporting events. Next year's Heineken Cup final at Twickenham has a top price of £60, and has shifted 30,000 tickets already, despite supporters not yet knowing who will be involved

It was also considerably cheaper to see games in Germany at the recent FIFA World Cup, also staged once every four years, than it will be at next year's RWC. The best seats sold publicly for all stadia, to see the likes of Brazil, Italy, France and Argentina in their pool games, cost £66, with other seats at £40, £30 and £24.

This article was posted on 14-Dec-2006, 16:16 by Hugh Barrow.