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DUNCAN JOHNSTONE
Last updated 12:59, January 19 2015
Rugby World Cup alarm bells are ringing with single tickets to the final being resold for as high as $6329.
That's more than four-times the asking price for the best seats in the house that were sold for $1430 under the official ticket allocations.
Fans wanting two tickets side by side could have to fork out as much as $15,000 at this late stage.
The tickets are listed on British online ticket marketplaces like viagogo.com and are a legal alternative to seats being scalped by the notorious touts.
But there are concerns that an increasing number of people are getting their hands on as many tickets as they can, just to maker a quick profit with expensive re-sales in the leadup to the tournament that England hosts in September and October.
Seats to the showpiece October 31 final are obviously at a premium after official tickets to all the knockout matches sold out before Christmas with record demands for the eight edition of the tournament.
But greedy moves are being made on lesser games and the All Blacks four pool matches are victims of the price-hikes as fans clamour to see the defending champions in action.
Top prices for some All Blacks tickets in viagogo are staggering.
To watch Steve Hansen's side open their defence against Argentina at Wembley Stadium could cost almost $2000.
Even the clash with African easy-beats Namibia at London's Olympic Stadium four days later could mean a $900 outlay.
Tickets for New Zealand's match with Georgia in Cardiff on October 2 are going for more than $800 and the final pool match with Tonga in Newcastle on October has tickets priced in a similar range.
The moves have generated outrage amongst average fans in Britain.
In Gloucester the chairman of the local rugby supporters group spoke out against the profiteering.
The stadium hosts five World Cup matches but even tickets to the United States versus Japan game are going for about five-times the face value.
"One of the big problems with the secondary ticket market is that it is supply and demand and people will pay those prices, even though the whole premise and system is, in my view, outrageous," Bob Rumble told the Gloucestershire Echo newspaper.
"If people feel that is sufficient value, they will go ahead and buy them, whatever we say. I find it totally wrong and abhorrent to the values of our sport, but that is my personal view.
"If people didn't support this market, hopefully, it would just dry up and go away."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/rugby/i...condary-market
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