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Bid to boost World Cup ticket sales
(The Herald Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) WITH less than a quarter of tickets for the Murrayfield matches sold, Rugby World Cup organisers are planning a public relations blitz in Edinburgh to increase interest in the Scottish leg of next year's tournament.
It was announced last week that the millionth ticket had been sold for the France-based event, but to date only 15,300 of the packages that include Scotland's two matches, against the All Blacks and a European qualifier, at their 67,500capacity home ground have been sold.
"The organising committee made a conscious decision to concentrate Allez au Contact [the ticket sales programme] in France for the first six months of its operation, as this is where the bulk of the two million-plus tickets will be sold, " an RWC spokesman explained. "There is still much to do for Edinburgh but the organising committee are aware of this and are now starting to target the Scottish rugby public one year out."
There has been grave concern about taking games out of France, in particular to Scotland, ever since the decision not to play them all in one country was confirmed. That is largely because the memory of Scotland's disastrous involvement in the 1999 event, hosted by Wales, still looms large.
The big issues then were failure to take responsibility, with RWC and the Scottish Rugby Union bickering publicly over whose job it was to market the games, and inflated tickets prices. Indications are that both have been resolved this time, with RWC accepting full responsibility for the success or failure of matches which aim to be very much part of a French tournament.
"The France 2007 organising committee is running the matches, not the SRU, " said their spokesman. "The agreement to use Murrayfield is a venue hire contract only, and it is the organising committee that has all responsibility for ticket sales. The SRU is not involved.
"The idea is to create a little bit of France in Edinburgh for the two matches and to 'twin' Edinburgh with St Etienne, where Scotland also play."
Representations to the International Rugby Board about the pricing also seem to have been effective, with packages available for all four Scotland pool matches for as little as GBP68, surprising even Scotland's representative on the IRB Council.
"We always listen and we've taken on board the views expressed by a variety of stakeholders in Scotland, but considering what was being anticipated, I don't think very many are yet aware of how competitive these prices are, " Bill Nolan observed.
Copyright 2006 Newsquest Media Group Source: Financial Times Information Limited - Europe Intelligence Wire.
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