Kiwi rugby fans priced out of cup final

OPINION: All Blacks captain Richie McCaw leads out his team for the World Cup final on Eden Park to a cacophonous chorus of – jeers.

Faint applause can be heard from the $390 "cheap" seats, but the Barmy Army and the English Home Counties stockbrokers in the $1250 premium stands soon drown it out with another velvet-voiced verse of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.

Far fetched? You betcha. There's not a hope in Hades, England will make the World Cup final. But it's not beyond the realms of possibility that All Black fans will be outnumbered at the 2011 tournament curtain fall – such is the parlous state of the New Zealand dollar, aka the Pacific peso.

Martin Snedden, the 2011 tournament boss, has confirmed what many of us have long feared: rugby is no longer the game for all New Zealand. For two months of 2011, it will be here, as it is in Britain and Australia, a recreational outlet for the moneyed few and the corporate sector – the Hooray Henrys former Manchester United skipper Roy Keane dismissed as "the prawn sandwich" brigade.

To be fair, rugby does not have this on its own. You'll need a second mortgage to stump up for a ticket if the All Whites make the 2010 football World Cup final in South Africa.

But, $1250 for 80 minutes of relative inaction? It makes $39 at the Cake Tin seem a steal for as dramatic a denouement as the All Whites-Bahrain football World Cup sudden-death playoff.

Snedden is undoubtedly right when he asserts that his ticket prices are so stratospheric due to the immutable economic law of supply and demand.

But, oh, how the Rugby World Cup has changed since its first outing in 1987. Remember that? You should. It's the only one we've won – but please don't remind Graham Henry; we'd hate to spoil his Christmas.

Take a glance at crowd shots from that final and you'll see scores of families with kids, swathed in their winter woollies, as they watched David Kirk and his cohorts vanquish France. More Swandris and ski jackets than Barbour coats.

At the last two World Cups in France and Australia, kids were scarcer than they were when some mendacious minstrel put a pipe to his lips in the German burgh of Bremen.

Some prudent souls have squirrelled away 10 bucks or so a week for 2011 Cup tickets since the NZRU won hosting rights in 2005. They should be able to stump up the asking price , along with well-heeled flighty "fans" who over-use that awful appellation "the ABs" but are really just moths attracted to the brightest flame.

But, for many of us, our World Cup final "experience" will be indirect, via big screens in public squares, public houses or private lounges.

We're constantly consoled that while the Government will face a $20 million loss, the Rugby World Cup will inject many millions more into the country's coffers. If the 2005 British and Irish Lions tour is any indicator, then it will, indubitably, be one big party.

But what long-term good will it do if the real rugby public and the country's kids can't get to the big games?

The 1987 World Cup stoked the fires of future stars such as Jeff Wilson and Andrew Mehrtens. Will the 2011 tournament have the same impact, if our youngsters can't get up close and personal?

Snedden is right (unfortunately). Market forces dictate. Rugby is no longer a sport, it's a business. The All Blacks are no longer a team; they're a brand.

As such, this will almost surely be the last time the Rugby World Cup is hosted in New Zealand. On that score, perhaps, it might be worth digging deep into cob-webbed pockets.

I just hope the All Blacks, if they make it that far, really do have home advantage.

- © Fairfax NZ News