McNaughton laments IRFU 'screw-up'

RUGBY:IRELAND TEAM manager Paul McNaughton said he hoped the IRFU "screw up" with regard to the ticket-pricing and packaging for the November series of international matches would not keep people away from Ireland's game against Samoa on Saturday.

He also stressed the importance of the IRFU sitting down with the clubs and devising a ticketing strategy that will avoid a similar scenario, whereby only 35,000 tickets were sold for the 50,000-seat stadium.

“There has obviously been a screw up on ticketing arrangements, on pricing tickets on ticket packaging,” said McNaughton yesterday.

“I hate to think that people will stay away because of the ticket policy.

“It was disappointing. There’s an economic issue out there, the pricing etc and the attempt to sell the tickets as a four-ticket package obviously wasn’t taken on by the clubs,” he said.

“My own club in Greystones struggled to sell them. The clubs and the IRFU now need to work together because it (the club) is the ticket distribution base of the IRFU.

“I guess, people might be saying as soon as you get around to the English game and the French game, it will all be forgotten. But we’ve three games in the meantime where we want to see as big a crowd as possible, especially if people have bought tickets; we would encourage them to attend the game or at least give the tickets to fans or family,” added the manager.

The possibility is the attendance at the FAI Cup final between Shamrock Rovers and Sligo Rovers on Sunday may equal that of Saturday’s rugby match.

Sligo have sold 7,500 tickets and Rovers have shifted almost 10,000 in six days, with the Dublin club requesting a further allocation from the FAI.

Tickets for the final are priced at a modest €10 and €5, while the FAI have also said the lower tier of the ground has almost been sold out and tickets for the upper level are now on sale for the same price.

Those who attend the Cup final will also be entitled to a €10 discount on tickets for the international friendly against Norway on November 17th, redeemable by presenting the ticket stub to the ticket outlets in the Aviva Stadium on match day.

The current IRFU position is also running at odds with Leinster Rugby, who have already sold 29,000 tickets for their Heineken Cup match in the Aviva Stadium in December against French side Clermont Auvergne. Leinster have offered price sensitive packages to their fans, which covers clubs, schools and under age groups.

They also offered marketing initiatives and tried to be inventive with the sales pitch.

The price range runs between €5 and €10 for a children’s ticket, with adult tickets running from between €10 and €60 for the best seats in the house.

“I guess there are 35,000 who have tickets so I would urge these people to go to the game,” said the Ireland rugby manager.

“I’m not ashamed to say that I would ask those people to come to the match. If they have got tickets they might think the small game is the Samoa game.

“It’s not a small game for us.”

The IRFU were approximately 16,000 short of capacity for the game against South Africa which at €100 per ticket amounts to €1.6 million.

A similar sized crowd for the game against Samoa, with tickets priced at €50 would amount to around €800,000.

“Mistakes have been made,” added McNaughton, who said that it was “surreal” to play the Springboks with vast swathes of empty seats.

“People may be waiting for the New Zealand match before coming back to the Aviva Stadium. As I said there must be 35,000 tickets out there with somebody. We would really encourage them to come to the game.

“There is an AIL programme on at the same time and people may go to their AIL match. If they do I’d just ask them to give their tickets to other people. This team needs strong support and we hope we will get as much of those ticket holders to come.”