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Rugby league fans have flogged the World Cup organizers over exorbitant ticket prices, empty stadiums and poor quality football in England.
Top nations like Australia and England brimming with NRL and Super League talent have nailed minnows to largely empty stadiums as fans can’t afford to go.
And as some of the small nations fail to engage in any sort of battle, there are fears that the number of people will drop even further because they won’t pay extortion fees to watch smaller football nations being pumped up.
Mistakes were all too common for Scotland as they lost 84 points against the Aussies
Reagan Campbell-Gillard being tackled by Scotland’s Kyle Schneider during the Rugby League World Cup match at the Coventry Building Society Arena
The official Rugby League World Cup website states: ‘Tickets start from £10 for adults and £2.21 [$3.92 AUD]for under 16 years.
The site claims that £10 [$17.74 AUD] tickets are available for all matches, with different maximum prices depending on the teams playing.
To watch Fiji v Italy or Lebanon v Ireland you can expect to pay up to £66 [$117.08 AUD]. For matches like England v France you have to pay up to £132 [$234.16].
The online ticketing system shows how expensive the decent seats cost, which is beyond the reach of many average rugby league supporters
To claim the cheap £10 tickets you must be a student or child and only have access to the category C seats, which have the worst visibility in the venue. The £2.21 tickets are only available for the ladies and wheelchair competitions.
It will cost you up to £25 [$44.35 AUD] for a restricted view seat and £85 [$A150.79 AUD] for a category A adult ticket.
Needless to say, the gamblers are not happy.
Many rugby league fans have taken to social media to complain about ticket prices
“First RLWC experience yesterday after I decided to go on a whim. Ticketing website – very poor and quite difficult to sign up for prices – clearly looking at the seated area is all wrong with some tickets overpriced. Mobile ticket – didn’t work to get into the ground,” one fan wrote.
“Add to that the rising travel costs and the incessant hassle of buying RLWC tickets and this is an expensive time to be a fan. The RFL should offer payment plans – buy your GF tickets before June 30 and pay in 3 installments, for example,” wrote another.
‘Trying to sort RLWC final tickets by X3 tickets. Expensive… sell them at a reasonable price and sell and pack it up,” added another.
With the cost of living skyrocketing worldwide following the Covid pandemic, many fans are feeling the bite and have been banned from participating.
However, some argue that the Rugby League World Cup deliberately blocked the sale of cheap seats in order to maximize profits.
One Twitter fan even posted a section that was supposedly sold out and with minimal fans occupying seats during one of the group matches.
Fans are queuing up to complain about the quality of football played by the small nations
RLWC chief executive Jon Dutton said the pricing was implemented before the post-pandemic cost of living and admitted they would have changed things in retrospect.
“We’ve made some mistakes and we keep our hands up when we make mistakes,” Dutton said.
“If we had the chance to do this all over again, now that we’ve gone through the pandemic, would we price things differently?
“Yeah, but we’re in the cycle now, we have customers who bought tickets two years ago and we’re at an entry level comparable to everything that’s happening in the Super League.”
Samoa was dismal in their 60-0 opening game loss to England, despite a number of NRL players in their ranks
England players celebrate another try as Penrith and New South Wales star Stephen Crichton looks on with disappointment
Ticket prices aren’t the only black eye this World Cup has seen, with a host of skewed results, including England beating Samoa 60-0 and Australia tearing up Scotland 84-0.
In addition, the opening ceremony was cut short due to an electrical failure, preventing fans from getting the most out of their money.
“The focus for us now is to move forward,” Dutton said of the incident at St James’ Park.
“Personally, I was absolutely devastated by what happened.
“My disappointment is that I don’t want to take away from what happens on the playing field.
“This has been many years in the making, and being in that stadium on Tuesday watching that Tonga v PNG game was a personal highlight for me,”