Team wants fans back for cup final
Anextra 1500 grandstand tickets will be discounted as a “thank you” to loyal Magpies supporters ahead of this Friday’s Mitre 10Cup Championship final.
While it can’t offer free entry again on Friday night, the Hawke’s Bay Rugby Football Union is still hoping for another big crowd backing the Magpies and is discounting 1500 extra seats in the Graeme Lowe St and at $12.50 a seat, $20 off the usual $32.50 price.
McLean Park will host the Mitre 10 Cup Championship final between Hawke’s Bay and Northland at 7.05pm, six days after a crowd of morethan 10,000 turned up to see the Magpies trounce Taranaki 59-23 in the semifinal.
Hawke’s Bay Rugby Football Union (HBRFU) commercial manager Dan Somerville said the decision to offer free entry had been a one-off.
“It was obviously a nun known for us, but we were hoping to get around that 10,000 mark,” he said.
“I think we kinda did our bit last weekfor the community. This time it’s for the community to get behind the boys, to support their team and try to help them win the competition.”
The Napier City Council, Unison and Rodney Green all chipped in to make last week’s gesture possible.
Somerville said on top of it being a gift to fans after the recent flooding in Napier, the union thought people might look to save their money and only come to an eventual final, assuming Hawke’s Bay would defeat Taranaki in the semifinal.
HBRFU has restructured its ticketing and expanding its offering of the cheapest tickets in the ground ($12.50) through a lot more of the Graeme Lowe Stand than normal.
“That’s away for us to compromise,” Somerville said.
“There’s heaps of space for people who might have enjoyed it and want to comeback, hopefully that’s an affordable option.”
Hesaid the entertaining brand of rugby Hawke’s Bay have played this year, as well as a forecast of good weather, would hopefully draw a crowd of close to 8000 people, which is about what the Magpies’ three Ranfurly Shield defences this season drew.
The strong crowds are helping to fill a financial hole for the union, with New Zealand Rugby withdrawing their funding to provinces and sponsorship being well down on previous years.
Those two sources of revenue are by far the biggest for HBRFU, with ticket sales making up less than 10 per cent of income, but Somerville said every dollar counts this year.