Matchday ticket purchase charges

Pinky as you obviously live in gal way city or close by you have no idea how we think so why bother speculating?

The reality is that non gal way based fans are now being discriminated against. If I lived in or near gal way city I can purchase a ticket for 20 euro Monday to Friday in the sports ground. If I don't it will cost me 23 euro from the same source. They wont post me the ticket or allow me to collect it at the sports ground on game day. Grounds which experience far higher average attendance have ticket office without surcharge and collection points for tickets. Its discrimination. They don't want us and the message is clear and received.( or at least they don't want the hassle of dealing with us on match day)

For the record I have no quibble with tickets.is charging 2 euro. They are after all a third party for hire to sell Connacht core business and that's their commission.
Connacht rugby themselves charging a commission for handling their own business on their 14 principle business days is another matter altogether and is taking the piss too far IMO.

I had a spare ticket tonight for the zebre game, gave it to one lucky supporter outside the ticket boot for a tenner. It felt great!

He has obviously never heard of a ticket collection booth!

are there not clubs around Connacht with the facilities to open a designated collection point for a specified time period

sea_point wrote:

rossie wrote: He has obviously never heard of a ticket collection booth!

How many people to staff it, and who pays for it? Add the cost on to ST's or to those who actually want the walk up option available...?

Just emailed Alex to register my disappointment.

I think a lot of good points have been made here. The main ones I made in my email were that the fact the charge was introduced so covertly would suggest to me that the branch knew it was a poor decision.

More importantly (and cows alluded to it already), I feel the €20 figure is also a psychological limit for a lot of people. To make an analogy, I go for lunch with a group of colleagues most days. There's no canteen where I work so we go to pubs etc near the office. We are all in agreement that for lunch, €10 is the limit. Something could be €10.50, and people would be reluctant to spend it. Similarly, when it comes to connacht games I think a lot of people don't even give the €20 a second thought. But that extra €3 might make them give it some thought, and once that happens we're in trouble. Because logic will kick in, and people will start adding up parking fees etc (which I know haven't changed), and all of a sudden they'll realise the real cost is probably closer to €30 and they'll decide to watch the game on telly instead (or if it's not on, watch the Munster/Leinster/Ulster game which definitely is on).

Like I said, I'm disappointed. I feel a lot of good work had been done to improve PR over the Summer in particular, and a move like this is likely to undo a lot of it.

Finally, with a surcharge of €3 on a €20 ticket, it'll take 7+ people who actually do pay it, to make up for 1 who decides not to attend the game. So, while I suspect this won't deter the hard core fans (which let’s face it, if you're on here you probably are), I really do believe this will have a big effect on the fair weather fans. And it's the fair weather fans that we should be trying our best to keep happy in the hope they'll become brainwashed like the rest of us!

Finally finally, based on past performance, I suspect the branch will stick stubbornly with this charge, and if numbers do dwindle, they'll just lie about the attendance figures like they always do.

RonanL wrote: Just emailed Alex to register my disappointment.

I think a lot of good points have been made here. The main ones I made in my email were that the fact the charge was introduced so covertly would suggest to me that the branch knew it was a poor decision.

More importantly (and cows alluded to it already), I feel the €20 figure is also a psychological limit for a lot of people. To make an analogy, I go for lunch with a group of colleagues most days. There's no canteen where I work so we go to pubs etc near the office. We are all in agreement that for lunch, €10 is the limit. Something could be €10.50, and people would be reluctant to spend it. Similarly, when it comes to connacht games I think a lot of people don't even give the €20 a second thought. But that extra €3 might make them give it some thought, and once that happens we're in trouble. Because logic will kick in, and people will start adding up parking fees etc (which I know haven't changed), and all of a sudden they'll realise the real cost is probably closer to €30 and they'll decide to watch the game on telly instead (or if it's not on, watch the Munster/Leinster/Ulster game which definitely is on).

Like I said, I'm disappointed. I feel a lot of good work had been done to improve PR over the Summer in particular, and a move like this is likely to undo a lot of it.

Finally, with a surcharge of €3 on a €20 ticket, it'll take 7+ people who actually do pay it, to make up for 1 who decides not to attend the game. So, while I suspect this won't deter the hard core fans (which let’s face it, if you're on here you probably are), I really do believe this will have a big effect on the fair weather fans. And it's the fair weather fans that we should be trying our best to keep happy in the hope they'll become brainwashed like the rest of us!

Finally finally, based on past performance, I suspect the branch will stick stubbornly with this charge, and if numbers do dwindle, they'll just lie about the attendance figures like they always do.

Its very disappointing that this charge has been added especially if as it seems from above it is as a result of selling tickets from super valu and centra shops. Increased convenience in buying tickets should not come at a premium for fans who just want to pay on the night. There's a plethora of reasons why a person would have to wait to pay at the gate such as when they're paid etc, so it seems very mean.

RonanL wrote: Update - my email to alex at cbirfu.ie bounced. DNS error apparently. Anyone else getting that this morning?

Well I am one of the those people who works really wierd hours and do not really know what days I get off until a week before at most. Due to this, I did not buy a season ticket this year as I was only able to make about half the games last year.

So this is really annoying me, as I feel it is punishing me for not being a season ticket holder again.

ConnachtCows wrote:

RonanL wrote: Update - my email to alex at cbirfu.ie bounced. DNS error apparently. Anyone else getting that this morning?

Try alex at cbirfu.com