Remaining NRL finals tickets sell out in five minutes amid anger over availability
The final release of general public tickets to Saturday’s NRL finals sold out within five minutes on Tuesday morning, leaving thousands of fans unable to attend the games in Sydney.
But the NRL, whose stadium policy has prompted furious fans to vent their frustrations online, will continue to allow home teams to host finals at small suburban grounds despite the ticket shortage.
The controversial policy stands in contrast to the AFL which, despite a desire from St Kilda to use the smaller Marvel Stadium, will use the far larger capacity MCG for all three Victorian finals this weekend.
Minor premiers Penrith host New Zealand Warriors at BlueBet Stadium on Saturday and Cronulla will host Sydney Roosters at PointsBet Stadium in an elimination final later that night.
Those two grounds currently offer a combined capacity of barely more than 30,000 – approximately the size of the smallest of Sydney’s three major rectangular venues, CommBank Stadium in Parramatta. That venue, alongside Accor Stadium at Homebush, which hosted the Women’s World Cup final, and the $828m Allianz Stadium at Moore Park, will not be used this weekend. Club and NRL members had early access to ticket sales on Monday before tickets were made available to the general public at 10am AEST on Tuesday. By 10.05am the entire allocation for the Cronulla v Roosters game had been exhausted. Three minutes later, all tickets for Penrith’s match against the Warriors had also been sold.
NRL chief executive Andrew Abdo said week one of the finals “is about rewarding a club for where it finished on the ladder, and those fans”. “They have worked really hard to get into the position to be able to host a final.”
Among the broader rugby league community, the decision has prompted some frustration. On a Sydney Roosters internet forum in a topic titled “locked out”, one user described Cronulla’s ground as the “worst stadium, worst location and there’s zero public infrastructure”. Many posts echoed that sentiment, although others respected the decision to allow the Sharks to choose their venue as a reward for finishing higher on the ladder.
Roosters captain James Tedesco said on Monday Cronulla had earned
the right to play at home. “It’s the right way to do it, especially when they deserve the advantage for finishing higher than us.”
Incoming AFL chief executive
Andrew Dillon said last week Marvel Stadium would only have been used for St Kilda’s home final against GWS if all four week one finals were in Melbourne.
“The MCG is the home of finals in Melbourne and we’ve done that for the last number of years. If we had four finals in Melbourne on the first weekend then there may have been a final at Marvel because we would’ve needed the extra venue.”
The match has been forecast by the AFL to sell 65,000 thousand tickets, approximately 10,000 more tickets than the capacity of Marvel Stadium.
The NRL has sought investment from state and federal governments for suburban grounds in recent years. Abdo said that “unashamedly” remains the league’s position.
“We want suburban grounds,” he said. “We want investment in Shark Park, that can hopefully lift capacity over time and give a great experience. That is absolutely our strategy.”
Australian Associated Press contributed to this report