The Hong Kong Rugby Football Union owes its strong financial position to the success of the Rugby Sevens. It has enabled the union to pour large sums back into the development of the game, including new playing pitches. The union has a lot to thank public support for. When it comes to allocating tickets to the Sevens, however, it has found itself having to choose between the public and the growing rugby community that it has nurtured. The public has lost, with the announcement that only 4,000 tickets would go on public sale this weekend, down from 5,000 last year, which has been considered insufficient. Their mood would not have been lifted yesterday when a new online ticketing system crashed.
At the same time the price of a ticket has risen by 20 per cent - from HK$1,250 to HK$1,500. But such is the appeal of an event that has become a Hong Kong institution, this is unlikely to dampen demand. Indeed the reduced ticket allocation to the public has sparked howls of protest and left ordinary rugby fans wondering, yet again, where the tickets are going. In this case it is to the local rugby community. Union chairman Trevor Gregory has left the public in no doubt where it stands. 'The HKRFU exists for the sake of our local rugby community which has experienced strong growth ... so we have allocated an increased number of tickets to the Hong Kong rugby community.'
Gregory has a point. Participation in the playing and organising of sport is to be encouraged. Even so, the extra tickets for rugby clubs will fall far short of demand. And fewer tickets for the public will mean a boost for the black market, and for regular scalpers from abroad who obtain tickets supposedly reserved for public sale.
The Sevens is a community and family event. Making it more exclusive defeats that purpose. The rugby union needs to find a better answer to its dilemma. It is in the best interests of the sport to give ordinary fans a better chance of getting tickets, lest the Sevens comes to be seen by the public as an event from which they are excluded.
