HKRFU opt not to raise Sevens ticket costs
Despite surging costs, HKRFU opts to retain present levels until 2015 but warns there will have to be strict controls on expenditure
Prices for Cathay Pacific/HSBC Hong Kong Sevens tickets will remain unchanged until 2015 despite the Hong Kong Rugby Football Union grappling with costs of staging the tournament and developing and maintaining facilities for a growing rugby population.
Most of the increased revenue stemmed from the Sevens, but tickets will remain at HK$1,500 for adults and HK$150 for under-12s. It will be the second successive year that prices have stayed unchanged. In 2011-12 they went up 20 per cent.
"We normally revise our prices every second year and it is due for consideration again. But I believe that due to the economic conditions, there will not be an increase and we will stay at the same level for another year with a price hike only in 2015," said Grant Jamieson, HKRFU's director of finance.
Jamieson warned that a close watch would have to be kept on controlling expenditure, which for the first time had increased more than revenue.
"We made a net operating surplus of just over HK$41 million but increases in revenue were offset by increasing costs ... as a result of maintaining first-rate facilities and hosting [the Sevens]," Jamieson said.
"Our revenue increased year-on-year by 11 per cent but at the same time our expenditure increased by 22 per cent ... We have to be mindful of the increasing costs of staging the Sevens."