Cardiff tickets just got dearer

THE WRU have increased ticket prices for the Six Nations within weeks of announcing a record turnover of £97m.

Most seats for the home matches against England and Ireland will cost an alltime high of £110, a hike of almost 15 per cent on the £97 charged last season.

The latest increase means that the cost of watching Wales in Cardiff has increased by almost 40 per cent in six years, from £80 in 2012 to £110. In the six years before that they rose by 70 per cent, from £47 to £80.

Revenue from international rugby accounts for almost half the WRU’s money. Test match income last year rose by £10m on the previous year to £44.9m.

In their annual report the WRU said the increased match receipts were ‘predominantly’ due to four factors:

“One more home fixture, higher average ticket prices, higher average attendances and increased broadcast income.”

The Union have reinvested £42.8m in Welsh rugby at all levels. Chief executive Martyn Phillips defends rising admission charges on the basis that “all profits from ticket sales are fed directly back into the game, funding our strategic planning for the future as we seek to ensure more people are playing more rugby more often in Wales”.

The WRU can also point to the escalating cost of Test rugby tickets elsewhere. The best seats at Twickenham for England-New Zealand last month soared to £195, more than doubling the price when the countries last met at ‘HQ’ four years ago. The RFU defended their decision by claiming that £195 was “comparable to other major sporting events”.

Wales know that demand for the England match in February will always outstrip supply. But other matches are becoming a harder sell. Despite their first autumn clean sweep, Wales failed to fill the stadium for any of their four matches. An average attendance of 63,000 fell 11,500 short of capacity.

It was the first time they failed to sell-out at least one of their four November matches.

“Our primary purpose is to grow the game and to get more people interested in rugby on a more regular basis,’’ Phillips wrote in the WRU’s annual report.

“We are also working hard to ensure our game continues to increase its appeal and reaches out to everyone in Wales. We are conscious that some clubs re flourishing while others are struggling.

“Very often our success in growing rugby in Wales has a direct correlation to the amount of money we are able to invest in the game. We have been able to increase our re-investment in the game from £36.6m (in 2017) to £42.8m (in 2018).’’