FORMER IRISH rugby captain Keith Wood has described the price of tickets for matches at the Aviva stadium as “incredibly expensive”.
Calling on the Irish Rugby Football Union to come up with initiatives to attract younger patrons, the former Lions star proposed that tickets should be made available to schoolchildren when matches were not sold out.
“If there is a situation where matches are undersold they should be absolutely allocated out to kids so they get an opportunity to go in there because it’s incredibly expensive at the moment as it is,” he told Breakfast on Newstalk.
“I actually think you want to have children at a game without a shadow of a doubt.”
The Labour Party spokeswoman on tourism, culture and sport, Mary Upton TD, criticised the increased prices, saying a 21 per cent rise “is not justified in the depths of an economic recession when people across virtually all sections of society are experiencing a drop in incomes”.
She said apart from the basic rise in ticket prices, the decision to require people to buy a package of four tickets for an autumn series of matches and two tickets for the Six Nations would discourage the casual fan and discriminate against those living in areas where there were no rugby clubs.
Green Party Senator Mark Dearey said the rise would discourage people from poorer backgrounds from getting involved in rugby, and perpetuate the image of the sport as elitist.
“I am disappointed at the new ticket prices and afraid that the rugby chiefs are completely out of touch with regular fans. With the latest price hike, only those with considerable disposable income will be able to buy tickets to the games in 2010 and 2011.”
On Wednesday the IRFU revealed that fans wishing to buy a ticket for any one of the autumn internationals must also purchase the same ticket for the other three games at a cost of €340.
The union defended the rise, saying the pricing of general entry tickets reflected the enhanced offering to patrons at the new Aviva stadium.
“The IRFU is a not-for-profit organisation and is not in existence to produce a financial dividend to shareholders. Irish rugby is the only fully professional sport in Ireland, and the only dividend that the IRFU produces is one of participation in sport,” an IRFU statement read.