Five million bids for World Cup tickets set for moment of truth
TOMORROW is D-day for swathes of rugby fans who deluged organisers of next year’s World Cup in England with five million ticket applications for the tournament.
Customers are set to learn on Saturday whether they have been successful, but were warned yesterday that demand vastly exceeded supply during last month’s two-week application window.
Those who find they have missed out will be given priority when around 100,000 further tickets for the competition, which runs from 18 September to 31 October, are released at the end of next month.
“Demand has exceeded supply for a high number of our matches,” said England Rugby 2015 chief executive Debbie Jevans.
“The only downside of such strong demand is that there will inevitably be some disappointment when rugby fans are notified of the results of their applications on Saturday.”
The cheapest tickets at all 48 matches were oversubscribed, while 23 of the fixtures went to a ballot at every price point.
Organisers sold 950,000 seats on general sale, plus a further 340,000 via rugby clubs.
England’s pool stage showdown with Australia attracted the highest demand, with 650,000 applications for the match at 82,000-capacity Twickenham. The final, held at the same venue, attracted 500,000 bids.
Hospitality tickets are still on sale, while some sellers on secondary ticketing platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub are already asking more than £4,000 for seats at the final – though buying them second hand is in violation of the terms and conditions.