2024 Grand Final Tickets

[Gomersall]

Just a heads up. I’ve received an email from the RFL informing me that 2024 Grand Final tickets are selling for 50% off for one week starting Sunday 12th November from 5pm.

[Hopie]

The question is, does selling tickets cheaply show that the RFL has no money, or is it the reason they have no money?

You can buy grand final tickets at half price and challenge cup tickets at 25% off. Surely if you want first dibs on tickets for the grand final you should expect to pay full price? Shouldn't everybody have to pay full price for a premier event? 

[Dave T]

I can see the merits of an early bird discount, there ain't that much reason to buy this early otherwise. 

But I'm not sure it would need to be 50%. It feels rather excessive. 

[Yorky]

I feel this is where the RFL can't win. They seem to get quite heavily criticised for poor marketing, not growing the game etc but affordable tickets is one of the biggest carrots to dangle in front of a potential new audience/ casual sports fans and offers like this are a smart move for getting people through the gate.

 

I look at other sports I follow and should I invite friends along who aren't big sports fans its a hard sell when for example a day at England cricket or a night at the boxing are regularly ticket prices of £80 plus and therefore the answer is usually no thanks. Compare this to the 50%  grand final offer we took advantage of last year where we paid £30 for some of the best seats in the house at Old Trafford, as a result, i will almost certainly be going again and probably with a few new faces.

[Eddie]

3 hours ago, Gomersall said:

Just a heads up. I’ve received an email from the RFL informing me that 2024 Grand Final tickets are selling for 50% off for one week starting Sunday 12th November from 5pm.

What date did it say the final is please?

Edited November 7, 2023 by Eddie

[Gooleboy]

3 hours ago, Gomersall said:

Just a heads up. I’ve received an email from the RFL informing me that 2024 Grand Final tickets are selling for 50% off for one week starting Sunday 12th November from 5pm.

Smacks of a bit of desperation giving 50% off.

[Just Browny]

Pretty sure this and the Challenge Cup Final are the only rugby games currently scheduled in the entire calendar, so they've got to get a bit of cash flow somehow.

[northamptoncougar]

It’s cheapening the sport, people want “events” & an “experience,” selling a final for the price of less than a few drinks is a desperate attempt to entice the wrong crowd 

[Hopie]

We just had 4 RFL events in the last 4 weekends, so if the RFL have no money at this point then I am deeply concerned. 

I like the idea that you are selling tickets for the next version of something as someone leave the current version. So Grand Final tickets going on sale straight after this event window makes sense, but if you are selling them at half price that seems a problem to me. If I was going to this match and wanted the best seats in the house I would expect to pay full price for having first choice of the seats available.

The prices for RFL events are usually very low, so any discount feels like you are giving them away, I can understand the RFL allowing clubs to sell tickets at a group discount at "cost" to raise funds, as any profit they make will also fund the game so it cuts out the middle man, but bargain basement, stack it high, sell it cheap will put some off, and just lets those who would go anyway pay less than they otherwise would. Halving the price won't double the sales, and grand finals usually get a big crowd, so you should be able to hold on until those who are willing to pay do so.

[my missus]

26 minutes ago, Just Browny said:

Pretty sure this and the Challenge Cup Final are the only rugby games currently scheduled in the entire calendar, so they've got to get a bit of cash flow somehow.

Have they not just made upwards of a million pound from the internationals they must have money in the bank.

[Mathius Hellwege]

Which GF date?

[Whippet13]

Isn't it the Super League who decide GF pricing and agree any promotions, not the RFL?

My understanding is the RFL just provide the sales platform via RFL Commercial's deal with Ticketmaster.

The 2024 GF will be on Saturday 12th October, saw it advertised on the big screen at the weekend internationals.

[RigbyLuger]

Super League = RFL these days, or, to be more precise, I guess this comes under RL Commercial.

[Dave T]

10 hours ago, Yorky said:

I feel this is where the RFL can't win. They seem to get quite heavily criticised for poor marketing, not growing the game etc but affordable tickets is one of the biggest carrots to dangle in front of a potential new audience/ casual sports fans and offers like this are a smart move for getting people through the gate.

 

I look at other sports I follow and should I invite friends along who aren't big sports fans its a hard sell when for example a day at England cricket or a night at the boxing are regularly ticket prices of £80 plus and therefore the answer is usually no thanks. Compare this to the 50%  grand final offer we took advantage of last year where we paid £30 for some of the best seats in the house at Old Trafford, as a result, i will almost certainly be going again and probably with a few new faces.

A problem here is your point about using this to get new fans. In reality, only existing fans will know about this, and the offer is extreme considering it is already good value. 

This will likely just save some existing fans a few quid. 

It's good they are on sale, that doesn't mean their approach is automatically good.

[Rugbyleaguesupporter]

We could make more money with a free grand final ticket if you take out a streaming sub, rather than inevitably half price both of them 

Or why not buy a full price grand final ticket and get 75% off challenge cup final one? 

[Dave T]

51 minutes ago, Rugbyleaguesupporter said:

We could make more money with a free grand final ticket if you take out a streaming sub, rather than inevitably half price both of them 

Or why not buy a full price grand final ticket and get 75% off challenge cup final one? 

There are early more creative things that can be done here (and to be fair, they have tried some in the past), but they do take effort to run, and I think we are in a place where we take the easiest option wherever we can. 

[phiggins]

1 hour ago, Dave T said:

A problem here is your point about using this to get new fans. In reality, only existing fans will know about this, and the offer is extreme considering it is already good value. 

This will likely just save some existing fans a few quid. 

It's good they are on sale, that doesn't mean their approach is automatically good.

Exactly. Marketing it would find new people. What they're doing is telling existing customers about a clearance sale.

Have to wonder if IMG are involved (and if not, why not) in plans to sell these tickets. Across the two finals, there will be around 70-90k tickets that RL Commercial need to shift to neutrals

[Dave T]

10 minutes ago, phiggins said:

Exactly. Marketing it would find new people. What they're doing is telling existing customers about a clearance sale.

Have to wonder if IMG are involved (and if not, why not) in plans to sell these tickets. Across the two finals, there will be around 70-90k tickets that RL Commercial need to shift to neutrals

One thing I would say is that as long as this is part of a 12m strategy to sell these tickets, it can be fine. It gives them something to shout about and it is for a short period of time. But we are at a key time of the year - Black Friday and Christmas coming up - so we should expect to see activity around that. And I would add that the crowd at this year's final was decent for a Catalans final, so hopefully this does mean that they are doing plenty of stuff behind the scenes that maybe we aren't even aware of.

[Damien]

I have no issues at all with the RFL putting on the best deals early and encouraging people to buy early regardless of finalists. Every sale at this time is money/crowd in the bank and it is good to keep these sales bubbling over the next 12 months. We want to be filling Old Trafford and the more we sell to neutrals helps us achieve that.

At least with an offer like people know they are getting a great deal too and it is not going to be beaten going forward. The offer has to be good also to get people to commit 12 months in advance, 20% isn't going to cut it.

[Gomersall]

11 hours ago, Mathius Hellwege said:

Which GF date?

12th October 2024.

[phiggins]

59 minutes ago, Dave T said:

One thing I would say is that as long as this is part of a 12m strategy to sell these tickets, it can be fine. It gives them something to shout about and it is for a short period of time. But we are at a key time of the year - Black Friday and Christmas coming up - so we should expect to see activity around that. And I would add that the crowd at this year's final was decent for a Catalans final, so hopefully this does mean that they are doing plenty of stuff behind the scenes that maybe we aren't even aware of.

Hopefully that turns out to be the case. 

I do think we need to move away from a mindset of "decent crowd for a Catalans final" though. Of course, they won't be able to travel in the same sort of numbers as anyone else for a final, but they are also one of the top clubs and will be there or thereabouts with getting to finals most years. So, there has to be an onus on RL Commercial to shift a minimum number of tickets for the neutral areas. Which hopefully this will contribute to. Just not convinced of how effective it will be in getting people there that otherwise wouldn't be.

To be honest, I'd be more concerned about the Challenge Cup final. To get a big neutral crowd there, it needs people in London to be targeted and other SL fans to be convinced into making the trip, which is more likely to need an early commitment than a trip to Old Trafford

[Dave T]

59 minutes ago, phiggins said:

Hopefully that turns out to be the case. 

I do think we need to move away from a mindset of "decent crowd for a Catalans final" though. Of course, they won't be able to travel in the same sort of numbers as anyone else for a final, but they are also one of the top clubs and will be there or thereabouts with getting to finals most years. So, there has to be an onus on RL Commercial to shift a minimum number of tickets for the neutral areas. Which hopefully this will contribute to. Just not convinced of how effective it will be in getting people there that otherwise wouldn't be.

I think that's just a bit of a soundbite though tbh mate and doesn't deal with reality. We had a crowd of 59k this year, which shows that we absolutely did shift neutral seats. But there are limits - otherwise why doesn't every sports club have a 60k stadium? Or even 80k? Or 100K?

We see it across many sports - another similar sport has high fluctuations for their finals based on which teams make the final. I think the sooner we just don't make a big deal about it, we do a good job across the board and get the best we can (I accept we are probably nowhere near that) - but there is nothing unusual about acknowledging that a Final with a French team is likely to deliver a lower crowd. I think we are sometimes too insecure about it and it leads to us not working with reality.

[Anita Bath]

RFL marketing gurus really do have a step or two on their colleagues in other sports.

Never seen NFL sell superbowl tickets at 50% off, Has anyone managed to get half price Wimbledon tickets? Any Man City fans on here to tell us how much discount they got on Champions league final and FACup final tickets.

What next….I am expecting tickets dropping out of the corn flakes packet soon.

The only people buying tickets so far in advance are likely to be folks who know already they will go, precisely because they always go. So these discounts essentially reduce revenue. 

I hope they passed this particular brain wave past their IMG friends first.

Anyway now they have got this urgent priority out of the way we can turn our attention to more minor less pressing matters like the structure of the game below super league. Clubs already back in pre season training without knowing who they will play against, how many games there will be.

[EggFace]

I wonder across the Irish sea GAA have problems selling the All Irelands for both codes ?

[phiggins]

12 minutes ago, Dave T said:

I think that's just a bit of a soundbite though tbh mate and doesn't deal with reality. We had a crowd of 59k this year, which shows that we absolutely did shift neutral seats. But there are limits - otherwise why doesn't every sports club have a 60k stadium? Or even 80k? Or 100K?

We see it across many sports - another similar sport has high fluctuations for their finals based on which teams make the final. I think the sooner we just don't make a big deal about it, we do a good job across the board and get the best we can (I accept we are probably nowhere near that) - but there is nothing unusual about acknowledging that a Final with a French team is likely to deliver a lower crowd. I think we are sometimes too insecure about it and it leads to us not working with reality.

Don't disagree entirely, but I also said that I'm less concerned about the Grand Final than I am about the Challenge Cup final, where I think there absolutely has to be more done to sell to neutrals, given the size of the ground.

I don't think it's a soundbite, such is the finances of the sport, we need good crowds for these events, and we have an A grade club that will be struggle to take big numbers for obvious reasons