Cheaper and Family Tickets for 6 Nations

[Scrum 5]

Moving the right way. Hopefully we won't see a half empty stadium in Lansdowne for being out of touch again: http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/rugby/ ... 67836.html

[Dexter]

Moving the right way. Hopefully we won't see a half empty stadium in Lansdowne for being out of touch again: http://www.irishtimes.com/sports/rugby/ ... 67836.html

Sometimes I wonder are some people ever happy:

IRFU tries with ticket prices but converts size of family to two
GAVIN CUMMISKEY

DEFINING “FAMILY” nowadays is not easy. Maybe, just maybe, it’s a social unit consisting of one or more adults together with the children they care for.

The IRFU put the modern family in an even tighter bind yesterday. According to Irish rugby’s governing body, come next year’s Six Nations Championship a family is a one-parent-one-child combination. No more and, well, no less.

The union has endeavoured to learn from the public backlash last November when disgust with the 21 per cent hike in ticket prices on its return to the Aviva Stadium on Lansdowne Road from Croke Park was vented by plummeting attendance figures for the autumn series matches against South Africa, Argentina, New Zealand and Tonga.

Prices have dropped and, more importantly, been categorised depending on where one is sitting in the new stadium.

And with this comes the new, eh, family deal.

“After last November we brought in Deloitte Sport UK consultants to look at our ticket prices and distribution with a view to making sure what happened in November never happened again,” says Pádraig Power, the IRFU commercial and marketing director.

“The recommendations they came back to us with were that introducing family tickets, the one and one, works.

“They are saying it is best practice elsewhere, particularly from a health and safety point of view in terms of one to one supervision.”

The “family package” for the Welsh match on Sunday, February 5th, is on sale for €82.50 or €60, depending on how high up the parent and child are prepared to climb.

The hopes of a nation may be tuned to Ireland’s expected bar-room brawl with the Italians in Dunedin this Sunday morning in their World Cup clash, but they remain the least enticing draw come spring time.

The “one and one” deal to go see the Italians on February 25th drops to between €45 and €60.

“We think they are going to be very popular and will deliver huge value,” Mr Power continued.

The GAA has no restrictions on its family packages except for the All-Ireland finals. For last month’s football semi-final between Dublin and Donegal at Croke Park it cost €45 for the “one and one” option with this increasing by €5 per child. So, one adult and three children cost €55 to sit in the Cusack Stand.

“Parent and child ticket package might be a better way of putting it,” Mr Power admitted.

It just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

..and we played Samoa in November, not Tonga.

[mtleinster]

I think it is much better to have 1+1's as a family, especially as in theory demand will exceed supply.

this should give an excuse for those this 3 kids to bring one to each game

i am a 2+2 family, but for the summer internationals, I brought my son and allowed him to bring a friend and his dad.

As i fix my chauvinist hat, I would say that 60% of mums who are brought along to games would much rather watch it at home or pub. Anyone who argues this point would be the 40%

[Xanthippe]

As i fix my chauvinist hat, I would say that 60% of mums who are brought along to games would much rather watch it at home or pub. Anyone who argues this point would be the 40%

I wonder what happens to your percentages if you factor in the possibility that the 'one & one' are a mother and daughter!

[Barry]

all good PR for the IRFU - wonder how many family tickets will actually be available and through what channels ?

up to now, the vast majority of schoolboy/girl tickets are reserved for a small number of schools while clubs got hardly any (my club, with 400+ underage players, get 2 schoolboy tockets per game).

[mtleinster]

As i fix my chauvinist hat, I would say that 60% of mums who are brought along to games would much rather watch it at home or pub. Anyone who argues this point would be the 40%

I wonder what happens to your percentages if you factor in the possibility that the 'one & one' are a mother and daughter!

Don't really have an answer for that one,

my point was that it is easier for a dad and son to go to the game now

Previously, if you wanted to take your kid you had to buy 4 and decide what to do with the other 2

now if you want to go with 4 you buy two two 1+1's therefore implying your mother daughters

QED percentage unchanged

[Mauler]

The GAA has no restrictions on its family packages except for the All-Ireland finals. For last month’s football semi-final between Dublin and Donegal at Croke Park it cost €45 for the “one and one” option with this increasing by €5 per child. So, one adult and three children cost €55 to sit in the Cusack Stand.

The big difference is that the GAA players are amature, and while 82,300 turned up in Croke Park last Sunday week to watch the Dubs v Kerry, netting the GAA quite a few million, Cluxton who scored the winning point was back in his class room teaching a few days later.

Also, the GAA on the playing pitch, at least, are not in direct competition with any other organisation with the possibly exception of the AFL. The IRFU and their 4 constitute branches continually have to compete with the Clubs in France & England who are trying to poach their best players. To keep them playing in Ireland, the IRFU must pay them their market value, or at least make their overall package competitive. (Better rest and recovery, player management, Tax breaks etc).

According to the IRFU it costs €32m p.a. to pay for the Professional game. If we want to continue to watch BOD, POC, ROG, Sexton, Ferris, SOB, Best etal playing rugby in Ireland then we have to be prepared to pay for that. And some of that cost must be borne by us, the supporters along with the many sponsors the IRFU have, TV revenues and merchandise sales etc.

[Edna Kenny]

It sounds like a good move by the IRFU. They have to balance between keeping revenues high and offering enough value to fill the stadium. They could probably fill it many times over by having €5 child tickets but they would make a loss. the GAA have an enormous stadium so they might as well try to fill it with cheap tickets for games that won't sell out. Leinster did the same with the Last Stand and have also used similar strategy for the Fever in The Aviver games. A family ticket requiring you to buy 4 tickets is probably just as discriminating as there are plenty of families where one parent would rather not go or there might only be one child. This will allow a lot more parents to bring a kid along where before they were facing a €100 ticket charge per child.

[ellandleinster]

good move by the IRFU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I love the category known as Restricted Premium. Only in Ireland !!

[Schumi]

The GAA has no restrictions on its family packages except for the All-Ireland finals. For last month’s football semi-final between Dublin and Donegal at Croke Park it cost €45 for the “one and one” option with this increasing by €5 per child. So, one adult and three children cost €55 to sit in the Cusack Stand.

The big difference is that the GAA players are amature, and while 82,300 turned up in Croke Park last Sunday week to watch the Dubs v Kerry, netting the GAA quite a few million, Cluxton who scored the winning point was back in his class room teaching a few days later.

Also except for the All-Ireland finals (where family tickets were restricted according to the Times piece), none of the GAA games sold out so they weren't losing anything by selling more children's tickets.