RLWC Ticket Upgrades

[Eddie]

I assume a number of you have received an email from the RLWC offering upgrades if you buy tickets in the next 48 hours?

While I appreciate the need to sell tickets; it’s concerning that they’re doing this already, particularly for the final which maybe they don’t think will sell out. It’s also not great for the enthusiasts among us who bought tickets as soon as they could and don’t get the discount. 

[gingerjon]

Just now, Eddie said:

I assume a number of you have received an email from the RLWC offering upgrades if you buy tickets in the next 48 hours?

While I appreciate the need to sell tickets; it’s concerning that they’re doing this already, particularly for the final which maybe they don’t think will sell out. It’s also not great for the enthusiasts among us who bought tickets as soon as they could and don’t get the discount. 

I saw it. I'm not sure what I think but I did compare it to the Women's Euros which also emailed me this week - they're 100 days out - and are still selling tickets at the prices they always committed to in the packages that have always been available, all to a process they made clear when sales/ballots opened.

One seemed very professional, one seemed a bit ramshackle.

Other opinions may vary.

[Toby Chopra]

Pretty peeved to be honest. Up until today I've been really impressed by the professionalism and pricing discipline of the RLWC commercial operation. It's been like night and day compared with the usual RFL shenanigans, and was a big reason why I was willing to commit early for WC tickets. 

Yet today here we go with the discounting. I have some Cat C tickets. Will I get upgraded too? It's unclear, I vaguely remember there was some ticket promise, wasn't there? If not, they've blown the goodwill. 

Is Dutton still in charge? 

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

36 minutes ago, Eddie said:

I assume a number of you have received an email from the RLWC offering upgrades if you buy tickets in the next 48 hours?

While I appreciate the need to sell tickets; it’s concerning that they’re doing this already, particularly for the final which maybe they don’t think will sell out. It’s also not great for the enthusiasts among us who bought tickets as soon as they could and don’t get the discount. 

I think plenty more discounts/offers will come up before the tournament kicks off and maybe even during the tournament. Ticket prices are very high compared to the last tournament we hosted back in 2013 when adult tickets were going for £10 for early tournament games and £20 for the final.

In comparison the latest 48 hour offer where you get a free upgrade is on £70 tickets for the England v Samoa game, £55 for either England v France or England v Greece, £70 for the semi final or £85 for the final.

If this tournament does sell well, and I really hope it does, it will bring in money to rugby league like we have never seen before from an International tournament.

[Scubby]

This is a good idea but I am actually waiting for the England squad upgrade offers.

Select Sarginson and get Johnstone

[Eddie]

9 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

I think plenty more discounts/offers will come up before the tournament kicks off and maybe even during the tournament. Ticket prices are very high compared to the last tournament we hosted back in 2013 when adult tickets were going for £10 for early tournament games and £20 for the final.

In comparison the latest 48 hour offer where you get a free upgrade is on £70 tickets for the England v Samoa game, £55 for either England v France or England v Greece, £70 for the semi final or £85 for the final.

If this tournament does sell well, and I really hope it does, it will bring in money to rugby league like we have never seen before from an International tournament.

I don’t mind £10 for a midweek daytime group game between the Cook Islands and Greece or whatever (I know they’re not in the same group) but £20 for the final utterly devalues it. 

[Damien]

I dont recall them doing this last year before the cancellation so the fact they are doing it this year isn't a good sign. I wonder if it is to do with the changes in personnel.

This is a debate that has been done to death but I always think its crazy to shaft people that have bought early. We should always be encouraging people to by in early to our marquee events and people that have bought before now shouldn't be at a disadvantage. The RLWC is still some 7 months away so its not like this is a panic move.

[Dave T]

To be fair, this is quite a specific offer, Grade C becomes a Grade B. 

For the opener that is a £70 ticket is upgraded to a very slightly more central seat. 

[Exiled Wiganer]

I don’t mind. I paid what I thought was a fair price for ours. If others get better deals, good on them. 

[Dave T]

Just now, Damien said:

I dont recall them doing this last year before the cancellation so the fact they are doing it this year isn't a good sign. I wonder if it is to do with the changes in personnel.

This is a debate that has been done to death but I always think its crazy to shaft people that have bought early. We should always be encouraging people to by in early to our marquee events and people that have bought before now shouldn't be at a disadvantage. The RLWC is still some 7 months away so its not like this is a panic move.

See my post, it is quite a specific offer, so not a mass 50% off which pees people off, but tbh it looks a bit weird. 

I don't think the offer is anywhere near good enough to make a difference, but it looks like they wanted to do something to have a story. But the story is rather rubbish if I'm being honest. 

I must admit, it has gone a bit quiet, I don't know whether this was intentional to allow the season to launch and not conflict, but I see little about ticket sales now, maybe this is a sign they are going to step up. 

I am less optimistic than I was a couole of years ago about this tournament, I think the postponement has knocked a lot of wind out of the sails, but I do accept there is still 6m to go and plenty of time to make it work. 

[Damien]

6 minutes ago, Dave T said:

See my post, it is quite a specific offer, so not a mass 50% off which pees people off, but tbh it looks a bit weird. 

I don't think the offer is anywhere near good enough to make a difference, but it looks like they wanted to do something to have a story. But the story is rather rubbish if I'm being honest. 

I must admit, it has gone a bit quiet, I don't know whether this was intentional to allow the season to launch and not conflict, but I see little about ticket sales now, maybe this is a sign they are going to step up. 

I am less optimistic than I was a couole of years ago about this tournament, I think the postponement has knocked a lot of wind out of the sails, but I do accept there is still 6m to go and plenty of time to make it work. 

News wise there is a stark difference between last year and this year. Even social media seems a lot more quiet, last year I seemed to get very regular news feeds popping up. The hype and buzz has certainly been lost somewhat. I do appreciate it is hard to keep that push going for 2 years, and still be creative when you probably used a lot of things last year, but it certainly needs to start ramping up again.

[RigbyLuger]

There's loads of stuff on their feeds today with 200 days to go.

[Moove]

I don't think I'm too bothered about an occasional time-limited offer especially something like this where it's just slightly upgraded seat, although sadly I'll miss out as I don't know which dates I'll be able to go to yet. I imagine they'll do something for 100 days too. It's not quite at the usual levels of RL discounting just yet.

Having said that, given the cost of living squeeze which has tightened considerably over recent months I imagine it's going to be even harder to shift them at the level they originally wanted to. I did worry they'd been a little too ambitious with some of their original pricing anyway though. More with some of the group games than quarters/semis/final.

Plenty of time still to go though so hopefully this is just part of a wider ticketing strategy than a reflection of lower than expected sales.

[Chris22]

In more positive news, 30K now sold for St James' Park opener.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

I haven't actually bought my tickets yet. I'd been waiting to see what was going on with covid.

Coincidentally I signed up to the ticketing website yesterday but haven't bought any yet cos I'm waiting for a mate in Edinburgh to get back to me about going to the game in Newcastle. I will buy tickets in the next couple of weeks. I'm planning on going to 4 games at least (Newcastle opener, Sheffield and the 2 at MKM) and hopefully going to some wheelchair games in Sheffield if I can fit them into my schedule.

This offer isn't anything to get too peeved at, as Dave says it's a very specific offer which doesn't actually do an awful lot in terms of saving you money. A Cat C seat is the medium range price to start with so it's certainly not the cheapest tickets available and it's just upgrading you to a seat that would only be a tenner or so more anyway. 

I don't think its particularly because they aren't selling many tickets because as I looked down the list of games yesterday when browsing ticket prices, the majority had only medium or low availability left anyway. There were a handful of games that still had high availability but not many and we're still 6/7 months out so still plenty of time to sell more tickets. 

[Dave T]

I still haven't bought any tickets for this yet, although I plan to attend a fair few games. 

I must admit though, the pricing is nothing like a standard RL event. And that's fine, this shouldn't be a standard RL event, it's a World Cup, but I think it's a hell of a step up from last time, and what we normally are asked to pay. 

I hope the organisers know what they are doing. Last time there appeared to be a big reliance on people attending multiple games, but I worry that fans will be priced out of doing that. I certainly won't be attending as many as I would like to. 

For example, for my family of 3 in reasonable seats/standing it is going to cost:

Opener: £130

Scotland Opener: £90 (covered standing terrace) 

Tonga v PNG: £65 (seats) 

Eng v Fra: £85

Tonga v Wales: £50

PNG v CI: £50

Eng v Gre: £85

Sam v Fra: £50

Qf: £65

Semi: £130

Final: £150

This is the kind of thing I attended last time, paying probably £10-20 per ticket. 

Tickets for this tournament (excluding wheelchair and women's) will be around £1k for the 11 events. 

I accept that these are premium events, and some people will always be priced out, but if I add another £500 minimum on travel costs, in reality, I am not going to invest that much. 

I expect I will attend 33%-50% of what is listed above. 

This isn't a moan as such, I just hope the organisers know what they are doing, because as far as I'm aware, we have never sold RL events at this level of pricing, so if we are hoping regular fans will fill the grounds, we may be in trouble.

If we successfully tap into the general sports market, that will be great, but the strategy of playing at existing grounds suggests that will be challenging. 

I hope my worries are misplaced and the grounds are full, even if that means I can't personally justify spending that much and watch at home. 

[RigbyLuger]

9 minutes ago, Chris22 said:

In more positive news, 30K now sold for St James' Park opener.

https://uk.sports.yahoo.com/news/ant-dec-rugby-league-feature-083900929.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAACendSl9_X_EeJZ_2tjlBPkJTU6z7CTpP6XJUD75siYYZt7MVga1E5Yz6Qt8X1PlVpTLsIm4oQMY0f5jIby74pP_A3n-SDPdyfPtaMfMtWrNbaLdgy8VYZ_jqVwl1dTOrZXvmfIWjbiJpiKfVUTgtQ4aARdVlQECk-XKRz50Z9L2

 

Sales above 50% for the opener is great news. With how things are, plenty now may buy late, and there's a whole audience outside our bubble who may get tempted as the marketing ramps up.

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

8 minutes ago, Chris22 said:

In more positive news, 30K now sold for St James' Park opener.

That’s an unbelievable achievement if correct, when was the last time England got 30,000 for a home game? Never mind selling that many 6months+ before the game. Press releases like that followed up with don’t miss out buy now is what the tournament needs.

[Dave T]

14 minutes ago, Moove said:

I don't think I'm too bothered about an occasional time-limited offer especially something like this where it's just slightly upgraded seat, although sadly I'll miss out as I don't know which dates I'll be able to go to yet. I imagine they'll do something for 100 days too. It's not quite at the usual levels of RL discounting just yet.

That is an important point. My understanding is that it is a 48hr offer, it is basically to have something to talk about. 

[Dave T]

2 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

That’s an unbelievable achievement if correct, when was the last time England got 30,000 for a home game? Never mind selling that many 6months+ before the game. Press releases like that followed up with don’t miss out buy now is what the tournament needs.

The last full Test at home, 32k at Leeds. 

We generally only break that mark when we go bold, play in London or marquee grounds. 

The thing to focus on here is that this is a game versus Samoa, not the Aussies or Kiwis. 

[Moove]

3 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I still haven't bought any tickets for this yet, although I plan to attend a fair few games. 

I must admit though, the pricing is nothing like a standard RL event. And that's fine, this shouldn't be a standard RL event, it's a World Cup, but I think it's a hell of a step up from last time, and what we normally are asked to pay. 

I hope the organisers know what they are doing. Last time there appeared to be a big reliance on people attending multiple games, but I worry that fans will be priced out of doing that. I certainly won't be attending as many as I would like to. 

For example, for my family of 3 in reasonable seats/standing it is going to cost:

Opener: £130

Scotland Opener: £90 (covered standing terrace) 

Tonga v PNG: £65 (seats) 

Eng v Fra: £85

Tonga v Wales: £50

PNG v CI: £50

Eng v Gre: £85

Sam v Fra: £50

Qf: £65

Semi: £130

Final: £150

This is the kind of thing I attended last time, paying probably £10-20 per ticket. 

Tickets for this tournament (excluding wheelchair and women's) will be around £1k for the 11 events. 

I accept that these are premium events, and some people will always be priced out, but if I add another £500 minimum on travel costs, in reality, I am not going to invest that much. 

I expect I will attend 33%-50% of what is listed above. 

This isn't a moan as such, I just hope the organisers know what they are doing, because as far as I'm aware, we have never sold RL events at this level of pricing, so if we are hoping regular fans will fill the grounds, we may be in trouble.

If we successfully tap into the general sports market, that will be great, but the strategy of playing at existing grounds suggests that will be challenging. 

I hope my worries are misplaced and the grounds are full, even if that means I can't personally justify spending that much and watch at home. 

Yeah I think that's pretty much my thoughts too.

As one example, to watch Australia vs Italy it's £55 to sit in the mid-range 20m-line seat I usually sit in at a Saints game where it's £28. Don't get me wrong, internationals are the pinnacle of the sport and we should absolutely expect a premium on club games, but that's a fairly whopping increase for a sport with a relatively small fanbase.

So while existing fans can choose cheaper options and may pick and choose their games, clearly the organisers are going to have to find a way of shifting tickets to people who wouldn't normally go to club matches and that's where I worry a bit given it's gone a little quiet other than to people who are already on mailing lists, Twitter followers etc.

Like you say it's one of those situations where we'd be absolutely delighted to be wrong and if they can find thousands of people able and willing to pay £55+ for mid-range seats at Saints, Warrington etc then fingers crossed a few of those will be keen to attend club games in years to come too.

[The Hallucinating Goose]

4 minutes ago, Sir Kevin Sinfield said:

That’s an unbelievable achievement if correct, when was the last time England got 30,000 for a home game? Never mind selling that many 6months+ before the game. Press releases like that followed up with don’t miss out buy now is what the tournament needs.

It is a fantastic achievement especially when you consider we have only once before had a 30k+ attendance for an England game that did not involve Aus or NZ and that was the world cup semi in 1995 against Wales. I think there has only been about 10 other England attendances over 30k anyway, as mentioned, all against either Aus or NZ. Obviously I'm not including GB attendances of course. 

[Scubby]

27 minutes ago, Damien said:

News wise there is a stark difference between last year and this year. Even social media seems a lot more quiet, last year I seemed to get very regular news feeds popping up. The hype and buzz has certainly been lost somewhat. I do appreciate it is hard to keep that push going for 2 years, and still be creative when you probably used a lot of things last year, but it certainly needs to start ramping up again.

I am just speculating here but were a lot of the key people on fixed term contracts until November 2021 and may have moved on? Budgets and contingency constraints (postponement led) may mean that has only partially been replaced?

[WN83]

Whatever the offer is and if people are miffed or not (which I get to a degree) it gets people talking and thinking about getting tickets. I’ve been lazy and not bothered with any yet but will certainly be at all the England games and plenty in between, so it’s put it on my radar at least. 
 

That opener looks well on course for a sell out which is great news and will give the game and the tournament a real shot in the arm. Get plenty of eyes on it, put in a good performance and it could really gain momentum from there. 

[Sir Kevin Sinfield]

4 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I still haven't bought any tickets for this yet, although I plan to attend a fair few games. 

I must admit though, the pricing is nothing like a standard RL event. And that's fine, this shouldn't be a standard RL event, it's a World Cup, but I think it's a hell of a step up from last time, and what we normally are asked to pay. 

I hope the organisers know what they are doing. Last time there appeared to be a big reliance on people attending multiple games, but I worry that fans will be priced out of doing that. I certainly won't be attending as many as I would like to. 

For example, for my family of 3 in reasonable seats/standing it is going to cost:

Opener: £130

 

I am in a similar situation, I will attend some games, but certainly less than the 2013 tournament, while spending more on tickets this time. However tickets were far too cheap in 2013, pricing for this tournament is still reasonable imo compared to other big events, hopefully the tournament sells and bring a lot of money into the sport. The cheapest category for the opening game is £30 adults and £15 concessions, if you want cheap tickets you should expect to be given the cheap seats.