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THE SCOTSMAN REPORTS
I am utterly appalled at the price structure which the organisers of the 2007 Rugby World Cup have placed on tickets for the two matches Scotland will play at Murrayfield against Romania and New Zealand, as reported in The Scotsman (14 December). The only conclusion any rugby supporter of sound mind can come to is that it is corporate greed writ large.
As a regular attendee of rugby international matches at Murrayfield since my schooldays in the mid-1970s, I have seen ticket prices rocket to such high levels that I will be forced to be content with watching the games on television. I go to a rugby international on my own, I shudder to think what fathers with even a couple of kids have to shell out to fund a day out at Murrayfield these days.
During the last quarter of a century, I have seen the insidious creep of corporate hospitality clients into crowds attending rugby internationals at the expense of ordinary rugby supporters who, when I started attending in 1974, were largely school and university students. This is ripping the soul out of what made the experience of going to Murrayfield so special to me.
I suppose it didn\'t really surprise me when I read those ticket prices you have quoted this morning: the writing was on the wall at the 1999 World Cup when I attended the South Africa game and was surrounded by pinstripe-suited corporate businessmen either entertaining their clients, or rabbiting to business clients on mobile phones instead of taking any serious interest in the rugby match.
The organisers are claiming that they are well on the way to filling Murrayfield with 50,000 supporters for the Romania game with the most expensive price at £43 when just last month only 12,000 turned up paying £10 for a game against the same nation. Dream on! Do these people really think we learned to walk upright this morning?
Do they really think they are going to fill Murrayfield even for a game with the All Blacks at prices ranging from £38 to £164? If they do manage it, then you can be sure there will be precious few of the riff-raff like me there.
I have attended all the Murrayfield matches at the 1991 and 1999 Rugby World Cups: you\'ve got rid of me at last. Congratulations!
COLIN C. I. DOUGLAS
Mansfield Road
Scone
Perthshire
I agree with everything Gary Armstrong had to say in your report on World Cup ticket prices. I have been attending rugby internationals at Murrayfield for over 40 years. The first one was Scotland\'s 0-0 draw with Wilson Whineray\'s All Blacks on 18 January 1964 (Jim Telfer\'s second cap). I still have the programme and dozens of subsequent ones.
I will not, however be there in September to see the current All Blacks. The ticket prices are disgraceful. I know that, you know that and any decent, ordinary rugby supporter will know that. The SRU and RWC organisers are kidding no one. Your average and even not so average loyal grass roots rugby player and supporter are being well and truly priced out of the market. But I don\'t suppose SRU chief executive Gordon McKie and his cohorts will be that bothered.
ALAN W SHARP
Strachan Road
Blackhall
Edinburgh
As a Murrayfield debenture holder who has not missed an autumn Test, Five/Six Nations match or Barbarian game in the last 15 years, I would not pay the most unrealistic prices asked for the 2007 Scotland v New Zealand match.
Yes, it would be great to see the mighty All Blacks at Murrayfield but not at any price. I said that after being assigned appalling seats at the last Scotland v New Zealand World Cup game at Murrayfield at £45 a go.
The SRU surveyed us debenture holders earlier in the year for our views on the World Cup prices and were left in no uncertain terms that the genuine Scotland rugby supporter would be watching it on television.
If the World Cup is to become a corporate tournament like the major football tournaments, the SRU would be advised to leave well alone if they want genuine rugby supporters to continue to come to Murrayfield.
WILLIAM F. TAYLOR
Bonnyrigg
I would refuse to pay the prices announced for the Scotland v New Zealand World Cup game, and will not attempt to obtain tickets. I have been attending matches at Murrayfield since 1961, but recent years\' pricing of tickets and timing of games makes it doubtful if I shall attend many more.
IAIN MILLAR
Blackford Avenue
Edinburgh
The pricing for next year\'s Rugby World Cup games at Murrayfield is absolutely ridiculous. As a debenture holder and someone who has attended matches at Murrayfield since 1949, I am appalled at the level of pricing.
Our group of five who go to all current internationals (home and away) will certainly not be there and it\'s not because we can\'t afford it. For the price of a ticket to the All Blacks we can go away to a hotel for the night and watch the game in comfort.
JOHN HORN
Longbraes Gardens
Kirkcaldy
As a regular Scottish supporter, who rarely misses a home game, and usually manages at least one away match each Six Nations, I feel well qualified to comment on the proposed ticket prices for the Scotland v All Blacks match at Murrayfield. Latterly, paying up to £60 for a Six Nations ticket in a good location - and I always purchase two - has been just about tolerable. I would also add that my wife and I have been on several Lions Tours and also attended the last World Cup in Australia. Whilst we did not go to matches beyond the quarter-final of the last World Cup, up to that stage the tickets were always reasonably priced. If the ticket prices for the All Blacks game remain as published in The Scotsman, it will definitely mean my wife and I will not be attending.
It saddens me to make this statement, and used as I am to an empty Murrayfield when watching Edinburgh, I am also sad for the Scottish players who will lose this, and no doubt much other, valuable support. The grasping attitude of Rugby World Cup Ltd will slowly kill their golden goose.
DAVID HALLIDAY
The Steils
Edinburgh
Responding to your article regarding ticket values for the forthcoming World Cup matches at Murrayfield, I totally agree with Gary Armstrong\'s viewpoint. The real rugby fan is being priced out of watching live matches at Murrayfield. Those in charge appear to be completely out of touch.
No matter how loyal the fans are, especially those outwith Edinburgh who have to incur both travel and accommodation expenses, they will eventually just not turn up.
PETER FORREST
Buckstone Loan
Edinburgh
I\'ve been going to Murrayfield since 1963 and have been a debenture holder for a good 25 years. Would I pay £175 for a ticket to watch Scotland play New Zealand in the World Cup next year - no, never! And remember for many, add on the cost of a night out with a reasonable dinner and you would finish with a bill for £400+ for a couple. That\'s big bucks - and we live in Edinburgh, so have no travel costs.
We\'ll watch it at home with friends and enjoy the atmosphere in town that evening.
JOHN BENNETT
Dean Park Mews
Edinburgh
Again money is king to RWC, with no thought for the future. When Scotland was not winning, many local supporters still came. Now in happier times ticket prices are set even above small companies\' hospitality levels (large corporates will see it as reasonable) and the message is clear: not wanted.
True, I can take my family to the Romania game without re-mortgaging but the ticket prices for New Zealand game are set at World Cup final level. What the RWC organisation is doing is morally wrong, and the SRU should stand up and say so rather than being party to this scandal.
MICHAEL G COCKBURN
Blackhall
Edinburgh
I wrote to Gordon McKie some months ago on the issue of ticket prices, as a disgruntled debenture holder whose objection to many of the SRU\'s policies consistently gets overlooked. Of course, an assistant acknowledged receipt but I heard nothing.
I know it was the previous regime who accepted the French bribe to vote for the French rather than the English to host this Rugby World Cup but you would have thought that this SRU would have had more sense than to stick with this arrangement. Hand it back to the French and have all the games in France where they should be anyway. Why should Scotland get the advantage of two home games?
Is this yet another example of masterly inactivity being displayed as sound business judgment?
RICHARD ZORAB
California Street
San Francisco
Unbelievable prices. How can the organisers justify a booking fee per ticket of £11? Since they charge the booking fee anyway, why not just include it in the price? That makes the cheapest ticket for the All Blacks game a whopping £49. As much as I would love to see my two teams play each other in a championship match, it\'s not going to happen. And most of my friends don\'t have that type of available cash either. We\'ll take our money to the pub thank you.
LINSAY MacLEAN
Edinburgh
It would be interesting to find out if the SRU had any input on ticket pricing before agreeing to these games. I guess not. They would have focused on the pound signs. Hosting World Cup games are only a coup if planned and strategically thought out before hand.
Scotland are regaining ground lost on the playing field under Frank Hadden, with improved performances in the 2006 Six Nations campaign. However, this momentum is being undermined by applying outdated, ill-thought business practices.
If the SRU could not directly control ticket pricing for these games then they should not have agreed to them. £75 should be the maximum for any Scotland ticket at Murrayfield. The vast majority should be £25 to £40.
BEN FAWCETT
Laurencekirk
Aberdeenshire
Those ticket prices, even to see Scotland thrash the All Blacks, are a disgrace to rugby tradition, the game, the fans and our intelligence. Boycott the game, whatever else you do - and fight this appalling mismanagement of the RWC.
RICHARD A. CLEGG
Atlanta
USA
This article was posted on 19-Dec-2006, 08:29 by Hugh Barrow.
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