Fans paying the price

[tookey]

The cost of running the NRL has almost doubled since the departure of former CEO David Gallop. And don't think the $1 billion TV deal is paying for the salaries of Dave Smith, Todd Greenberg, Jim Doyle and other upcoming appointments.

It's the poor old fans getting slugged at the turnstiles. Not only has the NRL doubled grand final ticket prices but they are about to do the same for State of Origin.

I'm reliably informed tickets for next year's series will be in line with the grand final prices announced last week. In other words, the games will now be out of reach of struggling families. No wonder crowds are down in the NRL so significantly. A lot of heartland fans simply can't afford Origin tickets and club tickets in the same week.

http://www.sportal.com.au/league/news/the-lurkernrl-rumour-filefriday-245337

Unbelievable that the NRL now costs twice as much to run as when Gallop was in charge.

Typical banker. Spending plenty of money then increasing the ticket prices to over it. It is now being run more like union where only the rich can afford to go to origin and grand finals.

 

[Chip and Chase]

Let's not paint Double Standard Dave as a Saint, or even infer a certain level of competence in his management.

News are renowned for some very creative accounting, and I doubt very much that the NRL was run as a real business.

 

[manlyfan76]

I signed up to the NRL NATION where I have agreed to do some surveys for them. I have been very honest in my answers, the latest one was on the SOS where I explained that I don't give a toss about State of "Origin" as they call it. Why would anyone want to pay a small ransom to sit in the nose bleed section of homebush stadium is beyond me, esp to watch an exibition match.

 

[COMMANDER]

The only origin in Brisbane this year had 5000 tickets available to normal punters; the rest went to corporate sellers and travel agents.

If you couldn't get one of the 5000 crappy nosebleed seats the cheapest seat was about $500 and the average about $1000

 

[Pride]

Cant blame ticket prices for your normal weekend games attendance numbers down. GF and SSO might be a little higher but the usual weekend games are usually fairly cheap compared to a lot of other events around Sydney. Still the scheduling that's the problem.

 

[Brookie Brawler]

Unfortunately the reported strong GF ticket sales this week will only back up the NRL's decision to up the price, although it will be interesting to see what tickets are going for in the week before the game if

(a) Souths make it, or
(b) Souths bomb out the week before.

I really hate having to pay big money to sit in ANZ Stadium and have a crappy view of the game. Grand Final you have to put up with it but Origin is a different story. Great football but not necessarily lifelong memories like you get from a GF.

If they increase the Origin to the same sort of prices next year it still might sell out because there is only one game in Sydney and Brisbane will always sell out.

As for the regular season games, its still pretty expensive to go on a regular basis. Tragics like us don't mind but its increasingly hard to get others to come along more than a couple of times a year unless they are massive fans.

 

[bones]

If you couldn't get one of the 5000 crappy nosebleed seats the cheapest seat was about $500 and the average about $1000

Those seats sound like they are not worth pissing in.

 

[COMMANDER]

If you couldn't get one of the 5000 crappy nosebleed seats the cheapest seat was about $500 and the average about $1000

Those seats sound like they are not worth pissing in.

Eight