This reflects £16m of sales that have occurred over the last six weeks.
RNZ 2011 CEO Martin Snedden said: ‘This is a significant milestone. It is a great place to be with the final ticket phase beginning on Monday’.
‘Prior to RWC 2011, the highest revenue-generating event in New Zealand’s history was the 2005 British & Irish Lions Tour, which grossed £12m. As of today, we have achieved eight times the ticket revenue for that event’.
RNZ 2011 is forecasting total sales revenue of £138m based on expected ticket sales of 1.35m from the 48 Tournament matches.
Snedden revealed that just over 900,000 tickets have been sold so far.
Recent ticket sales have been driven by the resale of tickets to the eight matches reallocated as a result of the Christchurch earthquake and further offers of tickets to those who entered the ballots for the semi-finals and final, as well as further sales of travel and hospitality packages.
Snedden added: ‘This coming Monday, at 9am, the final phase of ticketing for RWC 2011 gets underway. We’re urging fans to quickly take advantage of this sales period and secure the seats they want to witness Rugby at its best’.
‘There will be tickets available for most matches other than the Final. This includes the semi-finals and the quarter-finals’.
‘This could be the last time we will see the 20 best teams in the world battling it out for the Webb Ellis Cup in our own backyard, so we hope Kiwi fans in particular seize the opportunity to get ringside seats at the biggest sporting event of 2011’.
The public ticket sales period begins at 0900 (NZ time) on Monday, 4th July with tickets for the pool matches available online at www.rugbyworldcup.com/tickets.
Tickets for knock-out matches, excluding the final, go on sale Tuesday 5th July.
Published: 4/07/2011
Source: http://www.sportindustry.biz/news/view/10045/rwc-2011-gets-ticket-sales-boost
