Rugby World Cup tickets reach £9,000
Thousands of tickets to next year’s Rugby World Cup have appeared on ticket re-selling sites ahead of yesterday’s community ticket sale launch.
More than 4,000 tickets were discovered on a variety of re-selling sites by investigative reporters from BBC Watchdog.
This is despite the first community tickets, exclusively for members of local rugby clubs, only going on sale at 1pm yesterday.
A further batch of tickets for general sale will go on sale on 12 September 2014 and will include three fixtures at Exeter’s Sandy Park.
Some “VIP” tickets for Rugby World Cup affiliates and sponsors have also been distributed.
Many of the tickets on the re-selling sites were already priced over £9,000 while most cost more than £1,000.
One seller even claimed to have tickets for the north upper tier of the Twickenham final, despite the fact that no seats for this match had yet been allocated.
While there is nothing illegal about re-selling tickets the practice has been prohibited for some events, such as the 2012 London Olympics.
In a statement one ticket re-selling site, StubHub, said: "StubHub believes that speculative selling - where the seller could not possibly have obtained tickets by any means, for example through fan clubs, sports club membership, hospitality, debentures or any other means - is an unfortunate aspect of the industry and a practice which is against our terms and conditions.
"We thank Watchdog for bringing the sale of these particular tickets for the Rugby World Cup 2015 to our attention.
"We have spoken with the sellers concerned and would not define this as an example of speculative selling.
"These sellers - like all those on our site - have been carefully vetted and given their solid track record, we would fullyexpect them to be able to provide the tickets listed by category and zone.
"That said, the trust of our customers is a priority. We have therefore withdrawn these seller listings until the official ticket sale for the Rugby World Cup 2015 begins.
"To reiterate, in very rare cases where something goes wrong and we cannot find a replacement ticket of comparable value, fans are backed by our Fan Protect Guarantee, which entitles them to a full refund."
A second site, Viagogo also released a statement on the ticketing concerns.
It said: "Remember, viagogo guarantees every ticket, so it would be foolish and pointless for a seller to speculate and list a ticket that he could not fulfil.
"Our quality control process had already identified those tickets as being incorrectly listed, and they have been removed from the website.
"Most premiere events such as the Rugby World Cup pre-allocate tickets to many groups - sponsors, VIPs, corporations, debenture holders, travel/package companies and others - well before tickets go on sale to the general public.
"Thus, many sellers already know what tickets they are going to receive and can list tickets for sale on viagogo long before they have been offered for sale to the general public.
"That means, if a consumer is not a sponsor or VIP, he can still get access to Rugby World Cup tickets from viagogo and can buy with confidence, knowing that his purchase is guaranteed."
