0
THE lure of Hong Kong, an aversion to Sydney's ANZ Stadium and apathy among the All Blacks faithful are considered the prime reasons why next week's Bledisloe Cup Test in Sydney is nowhere near a sell-out.
For more than a decade, Sydney Bledisloe Cup Tests have played before full houses, with tickets selling out within a few days of going on sale. This year, however, Australian Rugby Union officials are worried at still having about 10,000 available tickets for the July 26 trans-Tasman battle.
Read More
Sure, it's easy to blame the Hong Kong game (though when there's tickets left for that, what do we blame then???) but between piss-poor attendence at the France game and not being able to sell out the first Bledisloe played in Sydney for 3 years, I reckon it's about time the ARU had a good hard look at itself and it's brand. There's enormous competition between the football codes at the moment, and based on this effort, we're losing (I don't count beating mungos- they couldn't sell out the Origin decider either). I'd be inclined to blame cost of living pressures, but from memory the last Socceroos game, with half their top tier players missing, that didn't count for anything, did better than that.
At least it looks like the Suncorp Bledisloe will come close to sell out- last time I checked they were on single seats in most catagories.