WRU and ticket prices.

It saddened me seeing 20,000 seats empty on Saturday. Do I blame the supporters? No. Do I blame the WRU? Yes.

Why should we pay 50 pounds to watch a friendly against Argentina? (No offence Argies, but it's not value for money)

Many 'real' fans are being alientated out of the international game by the WRU for this very matter.

If the prices were dropped by at least a tenner there would of been at least 60,000 in the stadium, But nope, the WRU don't care about the fans. It's disgusting.

The stadium these days are just full with blazers and 'cowgirls' who have no interest in the game. These are the type of people who boo kickers, go to get burgers and hotdogs with only 20 minutes played, keep going to the toilet and disrupting our enjoyment of the game. Im fed up with it.

Your views?

For a rugby mad nation Wales should be fulling the stadium. Not sure if the prices are the problem, but they could be. 50 quid is ok for the best seating but seats behind the goalposts etc should be more reasonably priced

I was meaning to ask what the crow numbers was for the Wales v Argentina game. The stadium looked pretty mutch empty.

I would thought given how rugby mad the Welsh are supposed to be that the stadium would of been full. Atleast for the first game of the tournament.

Mr Taff wrote:It saddened me seeing 20,000 seats empty on Saturday. Do I blame the supporters? No. Do I blame the WRU? Yes.

Why should we pay 50 pounds to watch a friendly against Argentina? (No offence Argies, but it's not value for money)

Many 'real' fans are being alientated out of the international game by the WRU for this very matter.

If the prices were dropped by at least a tenner there would of been at least 60,000 in the stadium, But nope, the WRU don't care about the fans. It's disgusting.

The stadium these days are just full with blazers and 'cowgirls' who have no interest in the game. These are the type of people who boo kickers, go to get burgers and hotdogs with only 20 minutes played, keep going to the toilet and disrupting our enjoyment of the game. Im fed up with it.

Your views?

Mr Taff. Is that the same Mr Taff who penned https://www.606v2.com/t37021-ireland-england-scotland-please-step-back ?
I wanted a word with you.
Perhaps you could express a few words of reflection.

On the attendance front, clearly the goal ends were overpriced for the Argentina game.

Why should we pay 50 pounds to watch a friendly against Argentina? (No offence Argies, but it's not value for money)

Next game up is the might of Samoa which must be seriously worrying for the bean counters.

[ed ] mind you lower prices might encourage more

blazers and 'cowgirls' who have no interest in the game. These are the
type of people who boo kickers, go to get burgers and hotdogs with only
20 minutes played, keep going to the toilet and disrupting our enjoyment
of the game.

Stadium enpty? Leave it out there mustve been near 60000 people there!!
Also Maj what tournament is this we're participating in???

Of course the crowd is going to be down, the regions have all but failed, noone is interested in 'regional' rugby, so the game from grass roots is dying.

Brand WRU are happy as long as they sell their products and keep raking in the profits.

The advertising campaign was named 'our land, our way' which describes the WRU perfectly don't you think?!

Looking at the WRU site just Upper Tier tickets available for Samoa at £25 (£10 for kids). Not a bad price but awful for those with vertigo.

sell out for NZ.

Worryingly tickets available at all prices against australia.

LT

Just because upper tier are left doesn't mean they havn't closed off the section behind the goals, upper tier can mean they have sold 25000 tickets.

I have said time and time again that the WRU don't give a flying you know what about the real fans, all they are interested in is the coporate hospitality.

Looking at the pricing schedule the Middle and Lower Tiers all cost more than £25 - "even" behind the posts. I acvtually prefer to be end on

bedfordwelsh wrote:I have said time and time again that the WRU don't give a flying you know what about the real fans, all they are interested in is the coporate hospitality.

TBH same can be said for the RFU (and probably IRFU/SRU). You get away with it so long as the stadium is sold out I guess.

I have to agree about the WRU with all, but just want to point out a welsh mindset for a second.

Although we all know the SH 3 are the best in the world I don't think the welsh public tend to care all that much, don't get me wrong NZ will always sell out but Aus and SA struggle at times and any SH team outside that never tends to sell out.

Come 6N time games sell out amazingly quickly, even against Scotland who are about on par with Argentina who we expect to beat but are beaten regularly enough.

There is an old addige that the only way the English could invade Wales a few hundred years ago is by waiting for 2 towns next to each other beat themselves up and walk straight in.

We love an old enemy, we love getting one over on our neighbours and we love a rivalry.

Sadly the WRU has ditched any sort of rivalry in the club game, and there is little rivalry with the SH teams, so the welsh public want to be at the English, Irish, Scottish games the very most IMO as that is the only rugby rivalry we get to enjoy these days. Don't get me wrong France and Italy are good games too but relatively new.

So I wouldnt say 60000 at Argentina is all that bad, or different from the past, I think the welsh public are just itching for some sort of spark of rivalry to enjoy, and the AI's are not really it.

Come the 6 Nations there won't be a spare ticket and the blinkered WRU will think all is well again.

Of course!

But all this culminates from the death of the welsh prem, and the balls up that is regional rugby! Ive been saying for months now the game is dying!!!

bluesman,

Stadium enpty? Leave it out there mustve been near 60000 people there!!

51000 according to http://www.espnscrum.com/wales/rugby/story/172386.html

thebluesmancometh wrote:Of course!

But all this culminates from the death of the welsh prem, and the balls up that is regional rugby! Ive been saying for months now the game is dying!!!

Blues we will have to agree to dis-agree on that point but the WRU don't care if the MS is full which generally it will be.

GT

51000 isn't that down for the average Argy game, pre world cup I think there was 55 - 60k wasn't there?

bedford

No disrespect mate, and I am fully aware I am starting to turn into the crazy on the street corner screaming the end of the world, numbers in most other sports regarding participation are up massively, football has doubled since regionalisms inception, obviously athletics etc after the Olympics, rugby not so much.

I have never seen relationships with the WRU, regions, clubs, schools, worse than they are at present, the prem is all but dead, our world famous clubs now act as a warming station for academy players.

Regions are failing, noone is interested, including the players and WRU.

The only part of welsh rugby thriving is the MS corporate section, oh and the brand WRU, but once everything below it goes under, and IMHO it will they will soon go under too, your starting to see rats fleeing a sinking ship, starting with players and coachers, the money men won't be far behind!!

Mr Taff wrote:Why should we pay 50 pounds to watch a friendly against Argentina? (No offence Argies, but it's not value for money)

It wasn't a friendly. It was a capped test match that determines RWC rankings for group, thats about as important as it gets.

How can watching two of the top 10 sides in the world playing each for such high stakes be bad value for money for 50 notes?

Alastair

It is a freindly, freindlies allow for the points system, but they are still freindlies!!!

If ranking points are as important as it gets then why do we bother with actual tournaments?

thebluesmancometh wrote:The only part of welsh rugby thriving is the MS corporate section, oh and the brand WRU, but once everything below it goes under, and IMHO it will they will soon go under too, your starting to see rats fleeing a sinking ship, starting with players and coachers, the money men won't be far behind!!

That would be a massive hit to all NH Rugby Bluesman if that were to happen

Wales got through a bit of a dirge 30 years ago but came back to be pretty strong. At a national level Wales are GS champs of 2012 and has is it been 4? in the last 7-8 years iirc? Thats not to be sniffed at.

I think they'll get through this. Look at all the finger pointing last year at English clubs and their poor performace in the HC, some times you have bad years at club/region level, i suspect you'll need to see a longer trend before the alarm bells ring hard.

bedfordwelsh wrote:

thebluesmancometh wrote:Of course!

But all this culminates from the death of the welsh prem, and the balls up that is regional rugby! Ive been saying for months now the game is dying!!!

Blues we will have to agree to dis-agree on that point but the WRU don't care if the MS is full which generally it will be.

I suspect that the MS will be full for the All Blacks.

Any estimates for Samoa?
Mr Taff is right in some ways. The ticketing strategy appears wrong. Why chuck money into an advertising campaign into the AIs which was all over Sky incidentally and therefore probably in the wrong market?

The (correct in my view) opinion that the regional plan is doomed is a separate question which has been well-rehearsed elsewhere in other threads.

Alastair

The difference being English future of the game isn't based on 4 failing regions in a multinational league and euro comp England and France are in near total control of.

The Aviva hadn't been made amateur and left to reot, players weren't leaving in their hundreds, and they werent playing in empty stadiums!!!

GT

The regional issue is forefront here, there is little support and lots of bitterness toward the WRU for them, there has become 2 different crowds in Wales, the dull dreary rugby supporters who stand in the rain watching the regions getting thumped week in week out, barely keeping the regions alive, and the tipsy cowboy hatted MS fungoer under their roof, pint in hand singing the record profits of the WRU.

Without one welsh rugby will go dead, without the other the WRU won't have a fanbase for bumper profits!!!

Samoa has a crap kick off time, 7:30 on a Friday?

thebluesmancometh wrote:Alastair

The difference being English future of the game isn't based on 4 failing regions in a multinational league and euro comp England and France are in near total control of.

The Aviva hadn't been made amateur and left to reot, players weren't leaving in their hundreds, and they werent playing in empty stadiums!!!

Suit yourself. I'll expect the death knell anytime, i won't be holding my breath though.

Welsh rugby will survive, it always does, but i just have problems believing its as dire as you say when one of your regions is in play off position in the Rabies, with another pushing for play off place and your national team is GS champ of the NH.

dallym wrote:For a rugby mad nation Wales should be fulling the stadium. Not sure if the prices are the problem, but they could be. 50 quid is ok for the best seating but seats behind the goalposts etc should be more reasonably priced

Sorry - but it's nothing to do with the money. We are NOT a rugby mad nation. Look around you, the game is not thriving at any level. Our so called governing body has abstained from it's responsibility.

here here offload

Alastair

I agree mate, rugby will survive but the professional version of it will die out soon enough.

When the WRU go under, I've started to write up plans on how the PWRU will regenerate the game!

My sister went to her first ever rugby match at the Millenium on Saturday, she loved it. She loved the atmosphere, she loved the occasion, she loved the 5 pints she drank. So i'd like to thank the WRU for producing one more rugby fan (albeit an English one!). I really feel for the perceived state of the regional game but you guys certainly know how to put on a show at international level!

Grrrreat

thebluesmancometh wrote:When the WRU go under, I've started to write up plans on how the PWRU will regenerate the game!

More power to you, that's better than 99.9% of the rest of us armchair pundits have done

Effervescing Elephant wrote:My sister went to her first ever rugby match at the Millenium on Saturday, she loved it. She loved the atmosphere, she loved the occasion, she loved the 5 pints she drank. So i'd like to thank the WRU for producing one more rugby fan (albeit an English one!). I really feel for the perceived state of the regional game but you guys certainly know how to put on a show at international level!

I love stories like that! Took my other half to a game after the last 6N when she got hooked and she loved it even more! Nothing as fancy as a capped international though, glad she had a great time, nothing like a Rugby atmosphere.

Where was it Alastair, for rugby atmosphere I can think of a certain few places to go AND have a good time, RDS no because you get hammered, Thomond is a great place, I like the Shed (yet not everyone would call that typical rugby atmosphere) and Welford road, a lot of other places aren't great, the only place worth going to in Wales is Sardis road.

But I get the feeling your English so I will guess the double header at Twickers? Or was it Wembley?

bluesman.

Wales, the dull dreary rugby supporters who stand in the rain watching
the regions getting thumped week in week out, barely keeping the regions
alive, and the tipsy cowboy hatted MS fungoer under their roof, pint in
hand singing the record profits of the WRU.

Unfortunately professional sport is part of the entertainment industry.

In one sense England has benefited from a relative lack of success since you-know-when as the Twickenham crowds have slowly been returning to 'normal'.
But you can't cherry-pick your audience.

At the base level, in a fit of understandable panic, the WRU went for an artificial structure which involved driving a square peg into a round hole by the abandonment of the traditional structure.
But that decision was made at a time of famine (in terms of available talent) and I'm not convinced that the regions created the new flush of growth or the drought was over in any case.

I think we might be starting an argument on how we agree.

GT

Your bang on, we are arguing about who agrees with who.

The drought in talent was evident, huge losses to league in the late 90's and the fight against professionalism for so many years.

The regions have produced squat, they just coincided with professional set ups and new academy systems put in place, as I have said a thousand times we need at least 4-8 more academy structures!!!

thebluesmancometh wrote:Where was it Alastair, for rugby atmosphere I can think of a certain few places to go AND have a good time, RDS no because you get hammered, Thomond is a great place, I like the Shed (yet not everyone would call that typical rugby atmosphere) and Welford road, a lot of other places aren't great, the only place worth going to in Wales is Sardis road.

But I get the feeling your English so I will guess the double header at Twickers? Or was it Wembley?

In that case it was Wembly and the Sarries/Quins game that broke the record for the club attendance, which was a great bonus. I guess you could call it a soulless fotty arena, but it's still our national stadium and tickets for the Big Games tend to be a cheap day out. A full 86K people was great fun though.

Wan't having a pop or anything mate, I've been calling for ages for the MS to hold those types of double headers for the regions, use the bumper crowds to help the club game in Wales opposed to just lining the WRU's pockets!!!

The world is in a recession so luxury spending i.e. sports attendance will be naturally down.

However can't the unions do incentive ticket sales.

Tickets to go and see the ABs or AUS will probably be over subscribed so why not sell ABs and Samoa tickets together and AUS and ARG tickets together?

Perhaps not mandatory given 4* £60 will hurt most families but say if you purchase 2 tickets for ABs at £60 each offer them a large discount on ARG or SAM tickets.

It happened in France 07 and the results were good we saw matches such as Fiji Canada sell 45K and Georgia Namibia sell 33K.... pretty much to capacity.

Its not just about ticket sales... perhaps they'd lose a little bit of revenue on ticket sales but say they sold 10K more tickets... thats 10K more people buying programmes, food, drink, betting etc etc.

That and they would bring in more and more fans into the sport.

I was at the Fiji v Japan match in Toulouse in '07. An absolutely fantastic game and by providence in a fabulous seat. The game was at the larger Toulouse footy stadium rather than Stade Toulousain (which I would have preferred for my tick list). But the ground was full (about 35000 I think).

In the same pool rounds the MS hosted non-Welsh games which were non-Welsh and the empty seats made the stadium look hollow on TV. That was the first time the realisation became truly transparent to me that the Welsh don't love rugby rather than the Welsh idea of the idealised concept of Welshness.

If the Welsh can't pitch up in huge numbers against Argentina or anyone outside the 6Ns and the top three, then you'd have to question whether it's a passion for rugby or nationalism by proxy.

[quote="fa0019"]The world is in a recession so luxury spending i.e. sports attendance will be naturally down.

However can't the unions do incentive ticket sales.

Tickets to go and see the ABs or AUS will probably be over subscribed so why not sell ABs and Samoa tickets together and AUS and ARG tickets together?

If memory serves me right they done that a few season back it was £99 was the so-called leeser games and the big game whoever that was at the time.

In theory it was a good idea and well took up but it did really only benefit those in and around the capital where it was easier to get to 3 times in 3 weeks.

GT

It's not the case at all, but is becoming so. The WRU don't want rugby fans at the MS, they want cash cows, the corporate and others with plenty of money to spend!!!

The WRU have killed the prem, all the support that was for it and the national game will soon suffer.

Mr Taff wrote:Why should we pay 50 pounds to watch a friendly against Argentina? (No offence Argies, but it's not value for money)

I'm sure there were many Argentineans and neutrals who thought it was good value for money

Mind you £50 was a little expensive when only one team turned up.

Hehe,

Nice one HERSH, mind you they could have saved themselves 40 minutes and just turned up at half time and won as easily given our performance

£50 ... Only one NH side is worth that.

If they charged £5 per ticket, it would be £4 too much for that pathetic Welsh performance.

Yet again, the Welsh team pretend to be something they are not. And yet again are shown up by a SH team.

Perhaps when Samoa, beat you this weekend, you will realise that pretence is over. Welsh rugby is just not worth paying to watch.

Earl Toff of Twickenham wrote:£50 ... Only one NH side is worth that.

If they charged £5 per ticket, it would be £4 too much for that pathetic Welsh performance.

Yet again, the Welsh team pretend to be something they are not. And yet again are shown up by a SH team.

Perhaps when Samoa, beat you this weekend, you will realise that pretence is over. Welsh rugby is just not worth paying to watch.

Earl may I introduce you to Mr Taff? https://www.606v2.com/t37021-ireland-england-scotland-please-step-back ?

You may be able to pleasure each other.

But it is worth paying to see our NH silverwear

Nice try toff

thebluesmancometh wrote:But it is worth paying to see our NH silverwear

Nice try toff

As long as you realise we only lent it to you so you could give it a good polish for us.

We'll take it back next March (16th), just make sure you get a good shine on it, and remove those sticky finger prints.

greytiger wrote:

Earl Toff of Twickenham wrote:£50 ... Only one NH side is worth that.

If they charged £5 per ticket, it would be £4 too much for that pathetic Welsh performance.

Yet again, the Welsh team pretend to be something they are not. And yet again are shown up by a SH team.

Perhaps when Samoa, beat you this weekend, you will realise that pretence is over. Welsh rugby is just not worth paying to watch.

Earl may I introduce you to Mr Taff? https://www.606v2.com/t37021-ireland-england-scotland-please-step-back ?

You may be able to pleasure each other.

Why would one want to converse with Mr Taff. Reading the post you provided the link for he seems an utter pleb.

As long as you realise we only lent it to you so you could give it a good polish for us.

We'll take it back next March (16th), just make sure you get a good shine on it, and remove those sticky finger prints.

Now thats how you wum!!

WUM ? .... how quaint.

They didnt teach me that one at Eton...

Bet you were in a right MESS