RWC 2011 ticket design launched as organisers express confidence in achieving overall sales targets

• First tickets delivered to Wellington family today. Global delivery Rugby fans over next three weeks.
• Organisers remain confident ticket sales on track despite recent earthquake
• Rescheduled Matches priority offer begins next week
• Final ticket sales phase to begin on July 4

Ticket Design & Delivery

Rugby fans from around the world will soon receive their tickets for Rugby World Cup 2011 (RWC 2011) matches.

The tickets have a uniquely New Zealand design and feature the Tournament’s mangopare and koru designs which represent the world coming together in union for Rugby’s greatest contest.

“This is an exciting moment for fans, particularly those who purchased tickets a year ago. It is such a tangible sign that the Tournament is drawing near,” said Martin Snedden, CEO for Tournament Organiser Rugby New Zealand 2011 (RNZ 2011).

New Zealand fans who opted to have their tickets delivered by mail or via Worldwide Partner DHL will receive their allocation over the next three Saturdays. Fans who opted to collect their tickets can do so from Ticketek outlets from May 30. Tickets for Dunedin matches will be delivered in July. Overseas fans who opted for delivery should receive their tickets by the end of the month.

“This is the biggest ticket sales campaign ever undertaken in New Zealand so it’s great to finally get to this point.”

Ticketing update for rescheduled matches

RNZ 2011 has now completed the first stage of the ticketing process implemented as a result of matches being rescheduled due to the Christchurch earthquake, being the refund of ticket monies paid by affected purchasers.

“The devastating Christchurch earthquake has necessitated the transfer of eight matches in total, representing 130,000 tickets worth $20m. These tickets have now been refunded. Fans who bought those tickets will receive notification this Friday of their priority option to repurchase tickets at the relocated venues from next week.”

RNZ 2011 also announced that fans who had purchased ticket pool packs at the venues that have been allocated additional matches (Invercargill, Dunedin, Nelson, Wellington, North Harbour and Eden Park) will receive a special pre-sale offer in June to add those additional matches to their existing venue packs.

Organisers remain confident ticket sales on track

Prior to the refunds triggered by the Christchurch earthquake RNZ 2011 had sold a total of 919,000 tickets worth $189m (70% of the overall sales target of $268m). This is similar to the position at the same point in time for the previous Rugby World Cups in France and Australia.

Following the cancellation of ticket sales for the 8 relocated matches, and the full refund to those affected ticket purchasers, the sales equation now stands at 790,000 ticket sold, such sales being worth $169m in total.

“Pre-Christchurch, ticket sales were exactly where we expected them to be. The transfer of matches so close to kick-off is unprecedented for any major event and has created significant additional challenges, but we remain confident that we should be able to recoup the bulk of the refunded sales within the next two months or so,” said Snedden.

“In addition, RNZ 2011 has the appropriate insurance arrangements in place for this type of incident".

Included in the current sales figures are 105,000 tickets so far committed to through the RWC 2011 Official Travel Agency (OTA) programme. This is up from the 70,000 tickets originally committed to by that programme and already outstrips the RWC 2003 total OTA sales of 85,000.

“Total OTA sales to date have been excellent and we remain hopeful that more sales within this programme will occur between now and Tournament time.

“Overall, we still remain confident that, by Tournament-end, we will achieve our sales target of $268m and 1.35m tickets.

Final sales phase begins July 4

RNZ 2011 also announced that the final sales period for RWC 2011 tickets starts Monday, July 4.

“For those who have always intended going to RWC 2011 but who haven’t yet purchased tickets, July 4 is a key date. From this day we will be putting on sale remaining tickets, either over the counter at Ticketek outlets, by phone or through the Tournament websitewww.rugbyworldcup.com.  

“Tickets will remain on sale until they are gone and we urge fans to get in quick as this really will represent the last opportunity to secure a place ringside at Rugby’s biggest Tournament.

“The final sales phase is traditionally a strong sales period for major events. As was the case in Australia in 2003 and France in 2007 we fully expect that to be the case in New Zealand.

See Tables 1 & 2 for full ticket sales-to date summary. 

Visitor numbers / overall Australian sales remain strong

“In December we stated that , based on our public sales to date coupled with orders through the Official Travel Agency programme, we are expecting at least 85,000 fans from more than 100 countries would visit, 20,000 more than attended RWC 2003 in Australia.

“We still remain confident that we will achieve at least that number. We have received no indication since the earthquake that those who had purchased tickets will now not be coming”.

“Our biggest single market remains Australia and sales from there are strong overall,” said Snedden.

“Current public ticket sales and orders through the Official Travel programme indicate visitor numbers of around 29,000 from Australia. This is well ahead of initial forecasts in 2005 (17,000) and Tourism Ministry forecasts of 2010 (21,300).” 

See Tables 3 & 4 for a full breakdown of visitor numbers.

IRB Chairman Bernard Lapasset said: “There is no doubt that Rugby World Cup 2011 will be a successful Tournament. All partners are committed to delivering an outstanding event - a Tournament that New Zealanders and the global Rugby family will be proud of.”

Tables 1& 2: Ticketing – current state of play

*Post-refund and prior to priority sales opening for rescheduled matches and makes no allowance for insurance considerations.

Table 3: RWC 2011 visitor numbers - Australia

Table 4: RWC 2011 overall visitor numbers

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