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Bledisloe Cup tickets take a dive

Wednesday 16th July 2008

ANZ stadium: Still spaces left

Australian officials are blaming the new Bledisloe Cup fixture in Hong Kong for the lack of ticket sales ahead of next weekend's Tri-Nations Test in Sydney.

Tickets to a match between Australia and New Zealand used to sell out within days, or even hours, of going on the market.

This year, there are 10,000 seats left a week before the Bledisloe Cup match, and officials are scrambling to explain the sudden case of apathy from among the sport's usually rabid fans.

For more than a decade, Bledisloe Cup Tests hosts in Sydney were played before full houses, but the July 26 match between the Wallabies and All Blacks is still far from a sell-out.

While crowds at ANZ Stadium Test matches have been down generally over the past five years, Australian Rugby Union (ARU) officials thought the Bledisloe Cup match between two of the sport's powerhouses would stop the slide.

ARU chief executive John O'Neill said there were many factors, and not surprisingly, blamed his neighbors across the Tasman Sea.

He said Kiwis had shown only scant interest in the Sydney Test, and that between 3,000 and 6,000 tickets allocated to New Zealand tour groups had been sent back to the ARU.

"It is the first time the Bledisloe Cup has been in Sydney since 2005, and this is certainly a new phenomenon," O'Neill told the Sydney Morning Herald.

"Every other Bledisloe Cup match here has been sold out well in advance."

O'Neill was uncertain whether the backlash in New Zealand over Robbie Deans being appointed by the Wallabies, rather than taking over from Graham Henry as the All Blacks coach, was a factor.

The New Zealanders are not coming over in their tour packages," O'Neill said.

"They're instead saving up for Hong Kong. So there's plenty more room for Australians to gold the stadium and watch Robbie Deans's first Bledisloe Cup appearance against his old nation. The Deans-Graham Henry rivalry is well known and is fierce. So there's a lot of reasons to get out there."

O'Neill said many Australian supporters were also conserving funds for the Hong Kong Test, to the extent they would not buy tickets for home Tests or the return game in New Zealand next month.

"We've noticed that," he said.

"We don't have as many going to Auckland for the Bledisloe Cup there. And it's because the appetite is to go to Hong Kong instead.

"There's something obviously unique about the Hong Kong Test, and a lot of travelers have experienced the Hong Kong Sevens experience."

Meanwhile across the Tasman, Eden Park has just 4,000 seats remaining ahead of the Bledisloe Cup match on August 2. News from Auckland is that the game is expected to sell-out.