FearTheVee

Does anyone actually have an issue with the release of worse tickets for less, or is it an issue that is just imagined on here? As someone who has bought 14 tickets for the match I don't see it as undermining the initial pricing or incentive to buy early at all. There is not one single ticket currently on sale in the stadium at the price point I paid or lower that is better than the ticket I have, so the incentive for me to buy early is real and entirely intact.

I understand that point if you think the original pricing of the initially released tickets was too cheap? Maybe you did (life's too short to scroll back!!) and if that is your view, I understand why you think releasing some worse tickets for less is bargain basement. But if we were happy with the original pricing for the original lower/middle bowl tickets (I was) then I don't get the pushback on (the worse half of) these recently released tickets being cheaper than the original lower/middle bowl tickets and the better of the recently released tix. It just seems obvious to me that they would be cheaper than better tickets, rather than some panic agenda to discount them.

Just looking at the site and it looks like of the new seats released the £30 are selling better than the £20, which suggests to me that a lot of people don't see the £20 as a discounted buy; they are buying more of the £30 as they are better tickets - which would seem to support a rationale for the price delta.

But how does opening up say 3,500 or so tickets at £20 shift the agenda from trending at 40k to 70k? They've basically opened up as many tickets at £30 as they have £20 haven't they?

This may be true but what is the comparator? How many would we usually have sold five months out with 2 of the 3 tests already sold out and marketing to come? We will pass 50k and pass it comfortably with or without the (currently small) number of £20 tickets on sale. IMO of course, could be massively wrong.

How many tickets do you think they had planned to have sold by this time? Are you saying that you think the organisers think that we are a long way short of where we wanted to be / should be and need to enter discounting mode? I've just had a look and there aren't actually that many Cat4 (£30) tickets left elsewhere - I know the focus is on the £20 tix but half of the tix released are actually £30 in the upper tier so I would argue that they are actually worse value (or at best equivalent for some of the better seats up there) than most of the £30 already sold - the opposite of discounting. As for the £20 tix being great value, I'm not sure they are relative to the £30 tix. I certainly don't want to sit there. I think we're looking in pretty good shape tbh - there is almost five months to go and a lot of the people who wil fill up the stadium will be floating sports fans who won't decide to go until a month or so before max IMO, as someone who works in London and can picture the type of folk that will go on a whim for the sake of £20/£30.

But the CCF has a better record in terms of >51k crowds than any international RL match in the last 30 years (other than the world cup semi final double header). It's only the Catalans finals and the 2021 covid impacted finals that have been under that level and pre-Coviid we were running at 60k+ for about 30 years. So it makes sense to have those tickets on sale. This is a different beast in terms of knowing whether we'd fill those tiers IMO - we haven't hit >51k for 30 years other than the game above. Anyway, we'll never agree but I think it's been a sensible approach and not one I would class as discounting any more than some of the original tickets being cheaper than better tickets was discounting.

I don't know enough to argue this point, but I saw this picture earlier. I'm struggling to see that the seats in the upper tier in the background of this pic were ever on sale, suggesting at least some tickets weren't released at a lower price point / the RFL were actively not releasing cheaper tickets until higher priced tickets in more visible areas were sold? That has been the case for every RL game I've ever watched at Wembley I think

Ah you're right I was misrepresenting that date, good spot. But the FAQ were in place before general sale so I'm making the same point (they should indeed be updated).

Other than looking at the colour of unavailable seats on a stadium plan, did anyone really think that the worst seats in the house would sell for the same as the £45 seats? It makes zero sense.

Incredible player, as was Ben Barba after an off-season and others like Darren Britt, Dave Fairleigh, but I can't have them in there over players that played as long as the ones I named. As it happens, I think Newlove was comparable to Lyon - he was absolutely ridiculous at his peak.

I'm interested in what you are advocating for as a "non-discounting" approach? Were you happy with £30 as cheapest adult tickets in lower/middle bowl originally? It didn't seem unreasonable to me. If so, what's the issue with worse tickets being cheaper than that? Put another way, if we can even half sell out the poorest tickets in the stadium in the upper bowl at £20 a tciket, would you say that the resulting attendance of 70k+ (which I think would be the biiggest ever attendance in either hemisphere) had only been achieved as a result of discounting? I certainly wouldn't, I'd say it had been achieved as a result of sensible and defensible pricing. No giveaways, no BOGOF, no Groupon, just graded ticket prices where £20 are the worst. Works for me.

Actually the FAQs say at release on 25 October £30-£80, which they were. Worse tickets - that were not available at that date, and may never have become available - are now on sale for £20. Any attendance of 51k or under could have been accomodated without any upper bowl tickets being sold. It's good news these tickets are now on sale as it means we are very confident of beating that, but it's not "discounting" to release inferior tickets for a price less than superior tickets. That's pricing, not discounting.

But they absolutely were the available ticket prices on release at 25 October for Wembley, so the FAQs were absollutely right. If the sales had been poor these £20 tickets would probably never have even been released. What would you expect them to say at that point - £30-£80 but if they sell well we'll release worse tickets for £20? I suppose they could have but I'm not sure what the point would have been. It's not discounting IMO and I don't really know how it can be interpreted as such. It's just releasing tickets for parts of the stadium that may never have been sold (they wouldn't have been based on some previous attendances at Wembley) for an appropriate value relative to the value of the better, lower bowl tickets sold so far. If people have an issue with £20 for these tickets (I've sat there - they are rubbish), then they should have had an issue with £30/£35 tickets in better seats, but I didn't hear any of that.

I don't think it looks like a panic move, and irrespective of what colours may or may not have been on a map before tickets were released, it would never have crossed my mind for one second that the worst tickets when released would cost the same as better tickets. Not releasing the upper bowl on day1 is just common sense IMO. It would have been daft to open it on day1. We need to be sensible and be confident about the position on the lower bowls before spreading supporters around the top bowl out of view of the cameras. I'm struggling to see how any of this betrays any sort of "problem with finding an audience" - we're in a very strong position which suggests to me that they are finding an audience prefectly well so far with a long time and a lot of marketing budget to come. It couldn't be anything further from a panic move IMO - I'd argue it's exactly the opposite and they have been waiting for the right time to release the nosebleeds and £20 feels about right in relative terms to the other prices for those tickets (I personally hate it up there).

At Saints I'd say one of Paul Newlove, Sean Long or Paul Sculthorpe in my time. Newlove is one of my fave all time players but I'd probably go Sculthorpe. Unbelievable player.

How is selling much worse tickets for less than much better tickets "discounting" that those with much better tickets should be annoyed about? I'm confused. If you're someone who would have bought the £20 tickets given the choice, believe me you will have a better experience with your better tickets. I don't recall any real issues being raised with pricing of any of the Wembley tickets. The tickets at the top of the bowl should absolutely be cheaper than better seats elsewhere in the stadium. So if nobody was complaining about pricing before they were released, I'm not sure how we can be complaining now just because the worst seats in the stadium are cheaper than better seats that were appropriately priced.

I agree but we’re in lesser of two evils land where maybe limping to end of the season in a clearly unpalatable way beats failing now. All very sad.

The benefit is getting the best tickets for the price

I forgot about that

Anything close to previous Newcastle MW crowds would be excellent IMO - was worried about it being well down tbh.

Frawley is one of those players that is so poor you have no idea how he's managed to get where he is. Hastings would be a good player to have back in SL.

Anyone with eyes could see that lad would kick on to be a top forward. He’d make my England squad - maybe even the team if he keeps pushing on. weird how it played out for him at Leeds behind some bang average players. Wanted Saints to sign him.

He just has a cap with a lion on it. To be fair that would be the first sign of assets so far. Or maybe it’s a Swinton cap and this is all part of a NRL merger power play.

Will be at the game - taking my 10 and 8 year olds to their first GF game at Wigan Dreading it and think we'll get panned by 20+. Just not enough quality fit in the backs: if we had Feldt and Robertson in there (and I was confident Wellens would pick Whitby to bring a much needed kicking game) I'd be more optimistic. Truth is we are miles behind Wigan currently in terms of quality on the pitch and coaching off it.