Big talking point: Will slashed prices bring rugby fans back to the stadiums?

Bulls supporters can treat themselves to a top-class rugby match for just R25 on Saturday as ticket prices for their crunch match against Ulster at Loftus Versfeld have been slashed.

The move follows a disappointing response last weekend to government’s relaxing of the Covid regulations to allow sports stadiums to have spectators up to 50% of capacity.

The biggest attendance in the four United Rugby Championship matches played in South Africa last weekend came at Kings Park in Durban when a crowd of 5,120 braved a torrential downpour and a frustrating loss for the Sharks team against Edinburgh. But that was still less than 10% of capacity.

Cape Town Stadium (capacity 55,000) had a crowd of 3,544 for the Stormers’ nailbiting win over Ulster, about 3,000 people attended the Bulls’ previous game at Loftus Versfeld (capacity 50,000) and Ellis Park (capacity 62,000) had a paltry crowd of 2,500 for the Lions’ impressive win over the Ospreys, but it was a Friday night, 7pm kickoff in Doornfontein, which is always a hard sell.

A variety of reasons have been put forward for the poor attendances, including a lack of sufficient time for both the unions and the fans to change their plans in response to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement.

Ticket prices have also been suggested as a deterrent in these tough economic times. Cape Town Stadium tickets ranged in price from R80 to R200 per person, Kings Park was R50 to R160 and Ellis Park was R40 to R180.

Tickets for the match between the Bulls and the Dragons were at an average of R100, so prices have been slashed by a whopping 75%. And it has proven to be a success with CEO Edgar Rathbone revealing they had sold 3,000 tickets on Tuesday morning alone.

The fact that the stadiums can now also sell alcohol to spectators could be a telling factor as well to getting the crowds back to rugby.

Covid vaccination

Anecdotally, other reasons that have been put forward for not attending include the requirement that all spectators be vaccinated or produce a negative Covid test that is less than 72 hours old; the hassle of getting to some of the stadiums making it much easier to just watch on TV; and security concerns.

There has been no word yet on whether the Sharks, Lions and Stormers will follow the Bulls’ lead in cutting the price of tickets. Their websites still reflected the same prices as for last weekend on Tuesday afternoon.

But rugby administrators should be able to tell from the size of the crowd at Loftus Versfeld at 2pm on Saturday whether ticket prices really do make a difference to attendance.