Matchday ticket purchase charges

Hello all,

It has come to our attention that Connacht Rugby has put in place a new policy regarding the purchase of tickets on the day of a match. This new policy is to apply a surcharge of €3 to concession and adult tickets purchased on matchday. Personally I feel that this is an retrograde exercise that will only serve to keep away casual "walk-up" fans from attending matches.

I am going to email Alex at Connacht Rugby to state that I am not in agreement with this new charge and I would encourage others who feel the same as I do, to do the same.

The email address is alex AT cbirfu.ie.

Here is a template complaint if you don't feel like typing:

To whom it may concern,

As a supporter of Connacht Rugby I would like to complain strongly about the implementation of a surcharge on Matchday ticket purchases. This is a backward step for driving greater participation in Connacht Rugby by the community and only serves to discourage and annoy those supporters who wish to buy their tickets at the gate, or from the office, on Matchday.

Given the weather conditions in Galway, people often wait until they know how the weather will be before deciding to attend a match. The surcharge may not stop these supporters from attending on a lovely sunny day, but it will leave a bitter taste in their mouths, and drain their good-will towards Connacht. This is especially true of visitors to the city, or friends of long time supporters, who are going to their first rugby/Connacht match, and who serve as a true source of new growth for Connacht.

Supporters from outside the city of Galway will be more heavily affected by this. Some supporters do not have easy access to electronic purchasing mechanisms (credit card, internet access) and so are unfairly impacted by this punitive charge, as they cannot call to the office to purchase in cash. Again this charge will impact their view of Connacht Rugby and reinforce the idea that Connacht is a Galway team.

The fact that this charge applies to concession tickets also is very concerning to me as a Connacht Rugby supporter, who would like to see their less-fortunate brothers and sisters treated with compassion. These supporters are the most likely to not have access to the facilities required to pre-purchase their tickets and may not be sure of their funding until the day of the match itself. When money is extremely tight this surcharge, and the associated bad-feeling, may cost Connacht Rugby some supporters.

I would strongly urge you to rescind this surcharge before the name of Connacht Rugby is damaged.

Yours Sincerely,

The €3 surcharge has nothing to do with Tickets.ie as far as I can tell. Not sure what the reasoning is behind it, but I'd imagine that it is something to do with the ease of planning for crowds, and perhaps the cost of keeping the office open on matchday. Either way I would suggest that Connacht simply swallow those costs, as it comes across as unfair to those who are getting hit with it.

Also I have updated the post. You should direct you emails to Alex rather than Eoin.

swift4prez wrote: seen `this myself and think its awful, connacht should make 100% profit on tickets so why add on another €3. are tickets.ie charging €3 per ticket printed!? they print tickets in the office as it is!

ive still have 6 tickets for the enclosed area, think im giving 3 to friends and see whats left.
ill know by midday tomorrow if any are left and will hand them over to anyone here or twitter looking for it. if not ill hand them out at the gate.

10% surcharge on tickets.ie, so ticket that costs €20 direct form Branch Office, you pay €2 for the privilege of using your own paper and ink to print the ticket.

The surcharge policy if anything is completely Arse about Face, it should be a surcharge where CB have to have someone standing by to produce/sell a ticket and handle the cash/payment, where the customer prints the ticket themselves there should be no surcharge at all the ticket price should incorporate any cost to Connacht Rugby of utilising the tickets.ie service...

The whole point it to reduce the requirement for ticketing staff especially as the vast majority of people across the region have access to the internet at home or in the workplace or from local library, except where a customer requests tickets.ie to post out the ticket (then cost of postage (1€) and a small admin fee (2€) is acceptable)...

Connacht Rugby wrote: A 10% booking fee will apply to tickets purchased online at tickets.ie and through the retail network (Centra and SuperValu stores). There is no additional charge for children’s tickets. - See more at: www.connachtrugby.ie/tickets/#sthash.vywrmyPN.dpuf

I have no problem with the online charge. That is pretty standard practice for any and all events where you buy using a credit card. Tickets.ie costs Connacht money... they pay to have that service provided, and you pay to use it. Otherwise you can buy them directly from Connacht without a charge.

My problem is that this Matchday charge will blindside a lot of people, and especially those who cannot get to the office before matchday to buy their ticket (i.e. anyone living and working outside of Galway). I have never seen a charge like that at another ground. If they want to encourage early booking there are a lot better ways to do it than this method which looks money-grubbing and greedy IMO.
For people who DO live outside Galway, they either now have to pay €22 euro on tickets.ie or €23 on matchday! If they have no credit card, they have to pay €23 or arrange for someone else to go to the branch on their behalf.

Right im a little confused here, tickets are €20 but if you walk up to the gate they will charge you €23.

All that's going to do is piss off supporters who decide last minute to go to the game.

Makes no sense whatsoever.