Ireland team manager Paul McNaughton criticises IRFU ticket package
Ireland team manager Paul McNaughton has stated that he hopes that the Irish Rugby Football Union’s decision to charge fans to buy a ticket package for all four November Tests does not keep supporters away.
The IRFU decided to sell the tickets as a package rather than individually and this has led to only 35,000 tickets purchased in the 50,000 capacity Aviva stadium.
“I hate to think that people will stay away because of the ticket policy. It was disappointing. There’s an economic issue out there, the pricing etc and the attempt to sell the tickets as a four-ticket package obviously wasn’t taken on by the clubs,” McNaughton
told the press.
“My own club in Greystones struggled to sell them. The clubs and the IRFU now need to work together because it (the club) is the ticket distribution base of the IRFU,” he added.
As a result of the ticket prices, the stadium was not full for the Test against South Africa and McNaughton is worried that the stadium will be far from full against Samoa.
“I guess there are 35,000 who have tickets so I would urge these people to go to the game,” said the Ireland rugby manager. "If they have got tickets they might think the small game is the Samoa game. It’s not a small game for us.”
McNaughton admitted that “mistakes have been made” and that the IRFU had to take into account the recession when pricing tickets in future. The team manager admitted it was “surreal” to be playing a side of the calibre of South Africa with empty seats.
“People may be waiting for the New Zealand match before coming back to the Aviva Stadium. As I said there must be 35,000 tickets out there with somebody. We would really encourage them to come,” pleaded McNaughton.
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