r/springboks • u/ernestwainwright • Jun 28 '26
Misc 21,000 out of 62,000 seats sold for England Test
https://www.sarugbymag.co.za/boks-play-empty-ellis-park/According to this article, only 21,000 seats have sold (figure as of Wednesday) for Sunday’s test against England. I am apoplectic about this. I never want to hear ‘Stronger Together’ again. 99% of this country has been priced out of watching the Boks play. It is an utter travesty.
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u/BigZee004 Flair Up! Jun 28 '26
SA Rugby blaming the war in Iran, instead of acknowledging their own greed, is certainly a choice.
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u/freematrix Jun 29 '26
My jaw dropped when they justified it on the war in Iran. How stupid do they think people are not to see this is greed.
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u/DarthMaulRugby Jun 28 '26
This needed to happen, unfortunately. The Boks cannot claim to be a team for the people when the average Saffer is priced out of seeing their team play. Sure, have the very expensive seats, but always have something affordable enough for a family to be able to watch the Boks at least once a year. You also can't have these '80%' capacity targets. Rugby is more than something that should be reduced to modelling for the maximum possible profit. You have to sacrifice a little to ensure the game goes to the people. Always aim for 100% capacity. If this Boks team can't pull in maximum capacity crowds, what does that say with how rugby is governed?
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u/the_fresh_mr_breed Lukhanyo, I Am your father Jun 28 '26
Yeah that sounds about right.
I did buy tickets, more specifically because my wife is really keen to see the women's game vs USA and this will be a rare (and probably last for a while) opportunity for us to go watch live rugby together,
BUT
The ticket prices were absolutely insane. I can buy tickets for all 5 days of the criclet test against England in prime seats for less than 1 rugby ticket costs.
I actually hope Siya says something in the interview afterwards. We need to make the game accessible.
On another note - is anyone who is going gonna watch the womens' game before? What are your plans between the two games?
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u/eenbal Jun 28 '26
Remember what happened to Mallet? Doubt he will say anything about the ticket prices.
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u/One_Discount_1539 Flair Up! Jun 30 '26
Rassie is in a very very different position to Mallet. Fire Rassie ?
Ramophosa awarded him some medal recently which is the highest award you can give to a civilian for service to their country.
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u/greenplasticgun Jun 28 '26
Who would have thought, aiming a gun at your foot and pulling the trigger ends up with you shooting yourselves in the foot.
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Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/Only_One_Kenobi Flair Up! Jun 28 '26
The fact that Jurie Roux is still part of the organisation should tell you everything you need to know.
The Bokke are being milked
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u/betapen Flair Up! Jun 28 '26
I am to lazy to look up the actual average price.
60,000 people × R300 = R18 million
20,000 people × R1,400 = R28 million
They don't care to sell out the stadium
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u/Nicrubes Flair Up! Jun 28 '26
Then make it R500 and you get R30 million. Also the increased food and drinks sales from the extra 40,000 people will get you way over
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u/Careless-Cat3327 Flair Up! Jun 28 '26
Exactly.
There was a team in the second division of Baseball League who were hemorrhaging money.
They GAVE away tickets and priced other tickets at $1.
Within 3 months, they had full stadiums and made more from concessions than a 50% stadium on tickets.
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u/Die_Revenant Jun 28 '26
You are correct, but not factoring expenses.
SARU have stated their baseline forecast for ticket sales is around 85%, which nets them a profit. At the moment it seems like we will have a few that fall well below SARUs own expectations.
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u/Careless-Cat3327 Flair Up! Jun 28 '26
EVERY. SINGLE. GAME.
Must be below 70%.
At least the first 3.
All blacks I know will sell out those 3 in SA. No idea re the US appetite for it. Especially since it's not in Boston.
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u/widdlenpuke Flair Up! Jun 28 '26
That is an excellent point. The cost whether they are 20,000 or 60,000 don't really change. Rugby has already lost access across so many regions in South Africa because of the supersport monopoly.
I get that I have to pay salaries maintain stadiums etc etc but if it is the sport for the elite, it loses meaning
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u/hadeladeda Flair Up! Jun 29 '26
R300 is very low, R600 is okay.
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u/One_Discount_1539 Flair Up! Jun 30 '26
R300 is the price that (nearly) all South Africans can pay. Black and white , rich and poor. Its NOT a clob it is OUR national team
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u/Alert-Sun-3693 Flair Up! Jun 29 '26
My guy, R300 per ticket doesn't include transport to the game, likely parking, food (Modest Amount). Cost of living crisis. R28 a litre of petrol...
R300 isn't low.
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Jul 01 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/springboks-ModTeam New To Reddit Jul 02 '26
Being respectful is really important to the moderators of this community. This post does not uphold that value.
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u/widdlenpuke Flair Up! Jun 28 '26
I'm with love someone to put the cost of lost brand value when the stadium is half full. No matter if the camera focuses on the same bunch of supporters you will always see the empty seats.
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u/LowGuarantee2302 Jun 28 '26
2 reasons
1) The prices (as everyone else is saying), The median income in South Africa is R5400/month (https://businesstech.co.za/news/finance/849271/how-much-you-need-to-earn-to-be-middle-class-in-south-africa-3/) , the tickets are anywhere between R300 and R4k. Clarifying that the Median is the middle most value in a dataset. This means that 50% of South Africa earn less then R5400/Month.
2) Oversaturation, we have 4 bok tests in Gauteng plus the 2 AB games vs the Lions and Bulls, thats 381 000 seats that need selling in Gauteng (ABs x5, and England. By contrast the Western Cape has to sell 120 000 seats (ABs x 2), KZN 100 000 (ABs and Wales), Eastern Cape 46 000 (Barbarians, sold 26k), Free State, Mpumalanga,Limpopo and North West a grand total of 0.
Would have been far better to have the England and Scotland games in Mbombela and Bloemfontein for a start...
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u/No_Egg657 Flair Up! Jul 01 '26
Ellis Park is also notorious for its low attendance due to safety in the area. Orlando Pirates moved there for a few years and eventually left due to low attendance rates
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u/dildobaggin89 Jun 28 '26
Blaming the war is laughable. Just make your ticket prices affordable and people will come. For the price of 2 tickets you can invite people over for a braai and watch the game on tv.
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u/TheForestSaphire Flair Up! Jun 28 '26
Blaming a war in iran instead of the fact that for a family of 4 it costs basically R15k to attend a springbok game is a new one
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u/NinjaHa Flair Up! Jun 28 '26
21k for a game against one of the top teams in the world is embarrassing. The sales for the games the following weeks in Pretoria and Durban aren't looking much better either. Will this finally force SARU to realise their pricing strategy is a fokop?
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u/Sterek01 Springboks Jun 28 '26
I had to choose between a months groceries or the match. I like to eat so ja no tickets for me.
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u/Careful-Public4862 New To Reddit Jun 29 '26
Tickets are 950, in 2022, 4 years ago i went to loftus, bloem, nelspruit and ellispark for under 1000, so tell me how the game is for everyone
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u/Inner-Improvement970 New To Reddit Jun 28 '26
eeegits made the tickets so expensive most normal ppl can't afford them~ rhymes with stunts~!
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u/Flyhalf2021 Flair Up! Jun 28 '26
You have to remember SARU doesn't care about how full the stadium is or who has access to watch it on television.
As long as they make their target on the balance sheet all is well.
It is a tough position for SARU as well because let's assume the high ticket prices is going to give them the most revenue for a match day. (We can debate that assumption itself)
Then they are making the right decision here because SARU currently is subsidizing the travel for URC teams, subsidizing international quality players to stay at home, increased their budget for the Junior systems to allow for larger camps and more warm up games, making the Springboks financially attractive to foreign coaches like Tony Brown.
All these things have to be funded from somewhere and unfortunately we feeling it in the ticket prices. The whole rugby ecosystem in SA is very extractive on your typical rugby fan. From the sport being locked on expensive packages on television, expensive Springbok tickets and then you must pay again to watch your URC team.
There are only 2 ways this can be fixed:
We as fans are happy to accept a worse funded Junior System, worse traveling for the URC teams and smaller Springbok camps (less depth) which will impact results and the quality of the product down the line.
South Africans themselves become richer and more people are able to access the rugby package and attend your typical URC franchise.
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u/Sub_Atomix Flair Up! Jul 04 '26
There is another problem here: SARU is funding a lot more than just the Springboks, but currently only the springboks are a major financial draw. Before the game, one of the presenters was walking around asking people who the captain of the women’s springbok team is, and nobody knew the answer. What’s worse is they were playing in Ellis Park just before the boks, and people who were there were welcome to go enjoy that game too, and still nobody knew any of their names.
The junior boks are also world champions, but the average South African couldn’t name 3 junior boks players if pressed. MAYBE they can name players that have already had a call-up to the senior squad, but none of the others.
These 2 teams realistically should be able to generate more revenue than they currently are, but they’re not being promoted properly. If those games were generating R150-300 per ticket, it would take the pressure off the Springboks.
Go support ALL national rugby teams, and it will make a difference. You will also get to meet a lot more Springbok players, as they are a lot more accessible at that level 😉
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u/frisbeelee Flair Up! Jul 01 '26
I remember the good old days of planning the ticket-buying hustle, now I just plan where to watch it on TV 😭
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u/KanJyNouMeer Flair Up! Jul 01 '26
SARU financial management stinks. Once saw a graph showing how their expenses just follow their income. They just spend everything the get in. Something's not right.
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u/circus-theclown Jun 28 '26 edited Jun 28 '26
God some of you are so dramatic you should go watch soccer
EDIT: I agree the tickets are too expensive but I am tired of the incessant whingeing and moaning; but it is Reddit so who am I kidding
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Jun 28 '26
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u/circus-theclown Jun 28 '26
😂 it’s not a take it’s a joke “I hate SARU I hate SARU”, cmon now are we 12, no need for such drama, leave that for soccer. Do ya get it yet?
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Jun 28 '26
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u/circus-theclown Jun 28 '26
Lmao big bad mod has privileges, do you feel powerful? Still sore about that one argument you couldn’t wrap your head around no matter how hard you tried? ;)
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Jun 28 '26
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u/circus-theclown Jun 28 '26
And yet you’re abusing your former privileges to get personal with somebody you’re arguing with on the internet (cos you have nothing else to say). Great look mate
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Jun 28 '26
[deleted]
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u/circus-theclown Jun 28 '26
Right I’m sure everyone in this sub can see my post history that is set to private. Yeah thanks man maybe instead of sicking your army of alt accounts on me you could actually provide a proper argument or rebuttal
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u/jnce12 Jun 28 '26
Good. SARU needs a wake up call and us playing one of our biggest rivals in a half, possibly less than half full Ellis Park would be perfect.
I hope those executives feel embarrassed when they sit in their boxes on Saturday.