AFL warning on tickets as sell-out looms
Andrea Petrie | March 24, 2009
THURSDAY night's blockbuster between Richmond and Carlton is likely to sell out today with
fewer than 5000 general admission tickets still available.And scalpers are trying to cash in, with asking prices for some tickets fetching $220 on the internet last night.
With the much-anticipated game being held on Thursday night, contingency plans are also being put in place to manage the saturation of people to the MCG during peak hour road and rail traffic. The game features former West Coast captains and premiership teammates Ben Cousins and Chris Judd playing against one another.
AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said yesterday that between 4000 and 5000 tickets were still available to the public, with at least 85,000 expected to attend.
"It's an exceptional result considering Richmond and Carlton have only ever drawn more than 75,000 for a home-and-away game twice in their history," he said. "For a full crowd you're depending on standing room and all ticket-holders turning up but either way it is going to be a big turnout." He said the game was being held on Thursday for availability reasons because the SCG and Gabba were often hosting cricket matches at this time of year. It helped having a Thursday night game on the fixture in the first round.
MCC spokesman Shane Brown said visitor passes had sold out for the game last week.
"It's a tricky one for us because we have to estimate how many people will show up," he said.
Anti-scalping legislation introduced in 2003 only covers the grand final, but Keane said the AFL worked closely with eBay to remove tickets offered up for sale on the internet for higher prices.
"And where we can identify the tickets we cancel them because the conditions of the ticket state they can't be re-sold above their face value," he said.
"We say to people firstly, don't buy tickets above face value when obviously there are still tickets available at normal prices.
"And two, there's no guarantee you will be admitted if you do buy them (and they are cancelled)."
The AFL is anticipating that Friday night's grand final rematch between Hawthorn and Geelong will attract about 65,000 people.
"Traditionally Carlton and Richmond always draw more strongly than Geelong and Hawthorn so our expectation all along was that Thursday would be the bigger game," Keane said.
"The general enthusiasm and interest for football in all our games this weekend is probably a bit higher than what we expected so we'd be hoping for a really strong first round.
"Hopefully that translates all the way through the year, coming off our all-time attendance record last year," he said.
"We made the decision in December last year to freeze the basic general admission ticket prices at the same as 2008 so hopefully that will help sustain interest all season."
http://www.realfooty.com.au/news/news/afl-warning-on-tickets-as-sellout-looms/2009/03/23/1237656851189.html
