WITH cost-of-living pressures affecting students across the country, the price of tickets for sporting events has consistently risen over the last few years.
Tickets for a United Rugby Championship (URC) game at Thomond Park typically start at €32.25 (€29 plus a €3.25 Ticketmaster booking fee) for a standing ticket in the terrace. However, Munster Rugby do not offer a student ticket; the only categories listed on Ticketmaster are adult and juvenile (under-sixteen). The IRFU also do not have a student offering.
Commenting on the price of tickets, rugby fan and University of Limerick student Cian Leonard said, “prices at €32.25 would put me off going to a rugby game. The price should be half that for students or at least closer to €20. If you think of €32 as a pricey weekly shop for students, they won’t spend that on a game”.
Connacht are the only province who offer student rate tickets, priced at €26.50 (€25 ticket plus €1.50 booking fee).
Lena Rock, a fellow UL Student, added “It’s just too expensive for students and younger people to be going to the games, I suppose. You’d only go every once in a while.”
Munster fan Laura O’Flaherty said, “it’s definitely not affordable on a regular basis” and that student tickets should be available “in the €15 or €20 range”.
In the opening two rounds of the United Rugby Championship, Thomond Park has been at less than half of its 25,600 capacity, while thousands of tickets are still available for Munster’s headline Champions Cup match against Racing 92 this Saturday at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
International fixtures are even more expensive, with tickets often costing close to €100. For the November International Tests at the Aviva Stadium, adult prices for the game against Fiji start at €91.60, and €136.60 for the fixture with Argentina. The highly anticipated game against South Africa has been sold out for months, but the cheapest tickets listed on resale platforms start at €240.
In contrast, adult tickets for the Women’s Six Nations clash against England in May are available for just €12, with the fixture quickly approaching a sell-out.