Connacht Rugby tickets in demand on eBay

Date Published: 17-Aug-2007

Tickets for Connacht’s rugby friendly with former World Cup champions South Africa at the Sportsground next Tuesday may have sold out weeks ago, but for those willing to fork out the extra cash, they could still buy those precious items for the glamour tie on eBay up until yesterday evening.

Demand for tickets for this clash has been insatiable, underlining the growing popularity of Connacht as it leaves behind those bleak days when the IRFU sought to erase the province’s name from the rugby map.

Tickets for the friendly – South Africa’s first warm-up game in the Northern Hemisphere ahead of their World Cup campaign, which begins against Samoa in France on September 9 – went on sale on Monday, June 25.

Costing a modest €30 for an adult and €10 for children, the tickets had sold out by the middle of July, despite the fact that Connacht had increased their capacity – they will be erecting terracing at both ends of the pitch for the tie – to 5,000 people.

However, for those unlucky enough not to have been able to snap up those admission slips, they could still have purchased tickets on eBay up until Thursday evening, albeit at an inflated price. For instance, a pair of tickets – which went on sale on Sunday, August 12, for €12 – had increased in value to €67 by the following day. By yesterday morning, the two tickets for Connacht v South Africa were at €100.14 after 11bids. However, following two more bids within the closing eight hours of the sale time, they eventually sold for €135.98.
Indeed,…..