Massive mark-up on All Black tickets brought from Sports Tickets International Limited
Earlier this year Grant, Cam, Russ and I purchased tickets to the Ireland, Wales and England rugby tests against the All Black in the UK this November.
The purchase was made through Sports Tickets International Limited who are, according to their site, the Officially Licensed Match Ticket Company of the New Zealand Rugby Union (“NZRU”).
The total amount that my Visa was charged was 922.85 but when I picked up my tickets yesterday the face value of all 12 tickets came to a meagre £632. This means that STIL added on a whopping 46% to the price of the tickets!
That is one hell of a mark-up!
This table shows the breakdown.
| Test | Face value for 4 tickets | STIL cut | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cardiff | £200 | 92 | £292 |
| Twickenham | £164 | £75.44 | £239.44 |
| Dublin | £268 | £123.28 | £391.28 |
| £632 | £290.72 | £922.72 |
Naturally I have emailed them to find out what is going on.
STIL have replied
STIL have added a handling fee to the face value of each ticket. This fee covers the cost of making this facility available (including website and software charges, travel, administration, wages and processing fees), and as a result the face value of the tickets will not equate with the amount charged. Any income, which remains at the end of this project, once all costs have been paid, will be returned to the NZRU to assist with the development of Rugby in New Zealand.
I have copied and pasted the below from the Terms & Conditions Page on the STIL website, hope this helps.
How much money do STIL make?
If we assume that our tickets are the average price then STIL is making roughly £25 per ticket. If we also assume that they have 5000 tickets per game to sell then they will have 25000 tickets which means that they will take £625,000 or 1,766,519 New Zealand Dollars (today’s exchange rate is 2.826) to perform the duties mentioned above.
I am pretty sure that I could do it all for less than that.
I have emailed them again and asked them how much money is returned to NZRU for the development of NZ rugby.
STIL have replied again. In answer to the preceding question they said:
The breakdown is about 50/50
So NZRU get nearly ONE MILLION NEW ZEALAND DOLLARS for the development of NZ rugby which is good. And it costs STIL nearly ONE MILLION NEW ZEALAND DOLLARS to sell Kiwis in the UK tickets to 5 games of rugby.
So I asked STIL
So you are saying that it costs nearly one million New Zealand dollars to provide tickets for New Zealand fans for 5 games of rugby?
And they threatened me with this email:
Carl
I am not sure where you are getting your figures from and where you are going with this, but we will not be following any further line of communication.
If you like, we will take you off our database, and recommend you purchase your tickets direct from the host unions in future.
Kind regards
Margaret Faisandier
Sports Tickets International Ltd
The Official match Ticket Licensee of the NZ Rugby Union
You know what I am getting at Margaret Faisandier, you are profiteering from loyal All Black fans!!!
What should be done?
Out of respect for the loyal fans and for the good of rugby in New Zealand in the future I recommend NZRU take the following actions:
1. NZRU should have a regular (two yearly?) and transparent tender process for the job of selling UK tour tickets to New Zealanders in Europe. This will minimise the cost and maximise any revenue for NZRU.
2. NZRU should make a clear statement about what percentage is to be added to the tickets and how much of that money goes to the development of New Zealand rugby. I am sure that most Kiwi fans won’t mind contributing to the ABs via their tickets especially given the economic pressures NZ faces from European teams. The key thing is that NZRU should be open and honest about it so that the fans don’t feel scammed or ripped off.
STOP THE PRESS!
A friend of a friend (NZ is a small country) helped me get this issue brought to the attention of New Zealand’s biggest daily newspaper. They ran this story titled Fans put hard word on NZRU over agent’s ticket charges on the eve of the All Black match against England at Twickenham.
It’ll be interesting to see what happens from here. NZRU clearly don’t know what is going on in their own back yard and millions of dollars have been wasted over the last few years leaving fans feeling bitter and ripped off (see the comments below). What will NZRU do?
Update for 2009
My friend from university got two England v All Blacks tickets for Twickenham from STIL Rugby and he paid £100 for each.
When the tickets arrived they had a face value of £50 each and they were in the worst part of the stadium!
How can this be viewed as anything other than a massive rip-off of loyal fans?
Update for All Black tickets in 2010
All Blacks autumn international tickets have gone on sale through STIL. The cheapest tickets available to the worst seats at Twickenham were roughly &#pound;100 meaning that STIL are still adding a 100% markup to All Black tickets. The STIL website terms and conditions now says this:
STIL have added a handling fee to the face value of each ticket. This fee covers the cost of making this facility available (including website and software charges, travel, administration, wages and processing fees), and as a result the face value of the tickets will not equate with the amount charged. Any income, which remains at the end of this project, once all costs have been paid, will be returned to the NZRU to assist with the development of Rugby in New Zealand.
But there still isn’t any indication as to how much of the hundreds of thousands of dollars added to All Black tickets by STIL are returned to the NZRU to assist with the development of Rugby in New Zealand.
Surely there should be an open and competitive tendering process to maximise the return for NZRU?
November 4th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
Hi,
I have put the same questions to STIL, Unfortunately I bought tickets for 8 family and friends for Cat1 seating for Ireland, Wales & England.
As an example I was charged NZD $300 for 8 x Cat 1 at Twickenham that at a generous exchange rate equates to £120 per person for tickets that hold a FV 0f £71. To add to this we are placed in the corner behind the goal which to every supporter in the world, works out to be Cat3 at best.
Naturally I sent a mail to the NZRU asking how there licensed distributor was available to charge ticket tout prices. Unfortunately this has been forwarded onto STIL who choose to leave a nasty voicemail suggesting they have FEDEX collect all the tickets and a refund organised.
I have since responded to the Union suggesting that they have a duty to look after all All Black supporters this means providing tickets to matches at Face Value. If STIL’s overheads are to high the license should either be removed or the costs absorbed by the union instead of being passed on to the fans.
This is disgraceful, surely STIL can raise revenues by advertising on their website and thus not passing them on to us. How much money does it require to distribute tickets to one tour?
If costs are getting out of hand maybe the employees from STIL should have cancelled their trips to London and just mailed out all the tickets. What does a business class ticket and 5* hotel cost these days.
Anyway while I wait for my next response from STIL or NZRU. I hope that many more disgruntled Kiwi’s add their two cents worth.
And for those that have missed out on purchasing tickets, I wouldn’t fret you will be able to buy tickets cheaper from touts standing outside the ground.
November 19th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
I feel your pain, but at the end of the day nobody holds a gun to my head to attend sporting contests. I made a conscious decision years ago that it was more affordable for me to watch the big expensive matches on TV. I attend games that I can afford. I would urge every other rugby fan to do the same. If the people running these operations see a fall-off in ticket sales, and if they hear feedback from their inevitable surveys, they’ll wise up quickly and realise they have priced themselves beyond not only the middle class rugby fan, but the ones with fat wallets too. Don’t reward them and permit them to roll over you. Penalize them. And don’t do it with just a warning. Give them a yellow card. And if they don’t change their behaviour, show them a red card and stop going. The only thing these people understand is your pocketbook.
November 26th, 2008 at 4:00 pm
Would you believe it Ticket Master have released further allocation of tickets to twickenham this weekend 3 days before the match at face value.
Thats right for the people who bought tickets through STIL, just to rub salt in the wounds. Those $300/ £120 tickets are selling for £71.
I hope STIL have a very merry xmas, as many people all over the world struggle in the current environment STIL can enjoy the profits of their exploitation.
November 26th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
The tickets that I purchased were labelled category 1 on the website. However, I can confirm that the seats were not of category 1 quality. I feel this is equivalent to false advertising. The seats are behind the goal posts – far from a category 1 tier in any other sales system. I went to some world cup games and the tickets I have purchased are equivalent of category 3 – certainly not category 1.
Additionally if that wasn’t enough, the price paid for the ticket is ludicrously higher than the face value.
I can understand there must be some fee added to the face value – but the shear percentage is an insult. I’d be very interested in knowing what the NZFU pay for these tickets..
I feel this percentage increase is an insult, and will not be purchasing any more tickets to any All Blacks games again if this is the kind of shady practice the NZRU is going to be involved in.
November 28th, 2008 at 3:46 pm
I was disgusted by STIL’s mark up and poor distribution if based in London (think you had to pick the tickets up from them during working hours on only two specific days). One would think with the extra charge on the ticket they could have personally delivered it with a dozen speights to go…
Myself and many mates living in London did not buy tickets from STIL out of principle and would rather watch it in a pub than give money to these fools. NZRU should clean up their act and make these charges and tender process transparent. We all want to see the money going back to kiwi rugby to keep it being tops in the world.
November 28th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
I purchased a ticket for the Cardiff game which cost £63.49. Only on receipt did I realise the face value was £40.00 That’s a 58% mark up. I know people who purchased several tickets and felt very uncomfortable asking for payment from people when the tickets clearly stated £40.00.
Generally in the UK a ticket processing fee of around £5 per ticket is charged, and perhaps postage of around £5 depending on how it is posted. This is the absolute top range of cost. I picked up my ticket from NZ house, which would have required minimal rental. There were hundreds of tickets there for pick up. Assuming AFTER £10 of costs were taken out, the profit per ticket would have been NZD40.
Furthermore, the majority of STIL seats were in the nosebleed section of the stand. So I paid 58% more, and after having to take personal time out to pick the ticket up, ended up being in one of the furtherest seats from field.
I’m all for people making a profit but I feel ripped off and will be taking my chances with the general public next time if STIL are involved. Also, yes, NZRFU have a duty of care to fans. NZ is attempting to make ticket scalping illegal for the RWC in 2011, in principle, how is this any different?
December 1st, 2008 at 10:30 am
[...] Original post here. [...]
December 1st, 2008 at 4:36 pm
I too purchased Cat 1 tickets to the Wales game.
Being the first all blacks game we had ever been to, my partner & I forked out the bit extra for Cat 1 tickets, expecting to have a seat somewhere along the side of the field.
We ended up seating directly behind the goal posts… in the north stand, which only has 2 tiers, and you sit lower than the rest of the 3rd tier around the stadium.
Not what I would call Cat 1…
January 23rd, 2009 at 11:29 am
[...] The original post is here [...]
October 23rd, 2009 at 3:17 pm
Damn it, I wish I read this before I purchased our four tickets at £120 each with face value of £71.
Go NZRU GO!!!