RDS beer price-gouging by Leinster

In their determination to squeeze their fans for every cent they can, Leinster very sneakily put the price of drink up for last Saturday's game v Scarlets - a pint of stout went up from €5 to €5.30 - not sure how much pint of the cup sponsor's p1sswater went up by but the old price was €5.50 so probably not far short of €6. They're the sort of prices you pay in a swish hotel bar - not to drink beer out of a plastic glass in the freezing cold. Will know better next time!!!

Bring a flask with whiskey in it

I have been to the RDS/Thomond/Racecourse numerous times and refuse to pay their prices for beer, mind you in Ireland in general I try to avoid it!!

Went to a wedding over xmas in Meath to a plush hotel and got stung for a 300e bar bill... ouch!!!!

It's happening all over the place. Gouging at just about every venue i've been too is rampant.

So i stopped drinking at games (booze & franchise soft drinks), and now they get nothing from me other than ticket price. Silly really, how bad must management be to realise that if they go above a certain price per unit people will just stop buying.

Alastair

But people don't stop buying, well not the people the tickets are priced for anyway!!!

In national stadiums now the grass roots style supporter isn't the key demographic, it's more corporate and the middle class semi fan who loves the day out and are willing to pay the stupid money for drinks and tickets and programmes and pies and vuvuzela's etc etc...
Sales for snacks in stadiums is on a constant rise, and therefore so are the prices!

At ravenhill I heard laverys were charging £2 for a poncho. While this is good business at the pro12 game in Limerick there were numerous guys giving away free ponchos. I know they are different competitions and sponsors but I feel munster gives it's fans much more than ulster do. The stewards were far better too

£3.40 for a plastic cup of pishwater carling, worthys or a can of bow at the Liberty. The food is vile too..

Pint at Ravenhill, isn't that bad, about same as most bars in belfast maybe 10p more, but then is is served in crappy plastic cups, and they stockpile it before the game so they can hand them out quickly so aren't the freshest.

Twickenham, H-cup final for 2 plastic bottles of beer, remember being shocked at the price, can't remember how much it was now, changed back to pints straight after.

Hip flask of whiskey for the winter, really is the ticket. May even think of a thermos of hot whiskey for next game. Just don't tell on me and I'll share.

thebluesmancometh wrote:Alastair

But people don't stop buying, well not the people the tickets are priced for anyway!!!

In national stadiums now the grass roots style supporter isn't the key demographic, it's more corporate and the middle class semi fan who loves the day out and are willing to pay the stupid money for drinks and tickets and programmes and pies and vuvuzela's etc etc...
Sales for snacks in stadiums is on a constant rise, and therefore so are the prices!

For the day trippers at National stadiums i can almost understand it. They're not home to any club, there are no week-in-week-out punters. Gouge away. From a purely personal perspective i've only been to Wembly the once (Sarries/Quins last March) and although it was an enjoyable day out, i don't think i'd make it a regular thing.

The Stoop charnges £4.50 +/- for a pint last time i picked up a generic lager/beer/ale. These are fairly standard London prices, so i'd rather drive, pay a fiver for parking, not drink and then go home and sink a few. Works out a lot cheaper. If pints were a quid less i probabley would have a couple on-site to be honest; there's a golden spot to hit and at the moment most stadiums seem well over the top.

Well most regions in wales are at the 3.00 to 3.50 mark, still crazy over the top but enough to fleece who they are marketing to, the daytrippers!!

It's odd in Wales, the crowds are poor at best, and they need enticing but for some reason the pricing of items isn't one way of doing it, they'd rather give tickets away willy nilly then try to make the money on snacks and drinks, which is working out pretty poorly as the last time I was at 2 of the regions the queus were very reasonable in comparison to normally having to wait 15 mins!!! You can go into the city centre and pay 2.50 a pint and then cross into the Arms park and pay 3.50 of froffy warm pishwater, it's no wonder everyone leaves it till 2 mins before kick off to enter!!

Yeah, when the blues came back to CAP the prices shot up and they removed worthy from the pump for fosters among other things!

Ye there was some ill feeling about that gc!!!!

For some reason the CAP went from charging 2.40 per pint to 3.50, granted there was a few seasons in between but still!!!!

Artful_Dodger wrote:Bring a flask with whiskey in it

What is this drink "whiskey" of which you speak, Irishman?

InjuredYetAgain wrote:

Artful_Dodger wrote:Bring a flask with whiskey in it

What is this drink "whiskey" of which you speak, Irishman?

We are not mean and tight lipped with our vowels.

On another matter, I couldn't believe how cheap the drink was in Llanelli The more you drink the more you save.

Where you have to drink it is the downside. The people are very friendly is the upside.

Jen - I blame our education system. It goes along the lines of the shorter a word is, the less chance we have of spelling it wrong - hence no "e" (unless you are in one of our many seedy nightclubs in which case they are everywhere)