More than 10,000 fans turned out to see their Hawke's Bay Magpies win last weekend's Mitre 10 Cup Championship semifinal. Photo / Paul Taylor
More than 10,000 fans turned out to see their Hawke's Bay Magpies win last weekend's Mitre 10 Cup Championship semifinal. Photo / Paul Taylor
An extra 1500 grandstand tickets will be discounted as a "thank you" to loyal Magpies supporters ahead of this Friday's Mitre 10 Cup Championship final.
While it can't offer free entry again on Friday night, the Hawke's Bay Rugby Football Union is still hoping for another big crowd backing theMagpies and is discounting 1500 extra seats in the Graeme Lowe Stand at $12.50 a seat, $20 off the usual $32.50 price.
McLean Park will host the Mitre 10 Cup Championship final between Hawke's Bay and Northland at 7.05pm, six days after a crowd of more than 10,000 turned up to see the Magpies trounce Taranaki 59-23 in the semifinal.
Hawke's Bay Rugby Football Union (HBRFU) commercial manager Dan Somerville said the decision to offer free entry had been a one-off.
"It was obviously an unknown for us, but we were hoping to get around that 10,000 mark," he said.
"I think we kinda did our bit last week for the community, this time it's for the community to get behind the boys, to support their team and try and help them win the competition."
The Napier City Council, Unison and Rodney Green all chipped in to make last week's gesture possible.
Somerville said on top of it being a gift to fans after the recent flooding in Napier, the union thought people might look to save their money and only come to an eventual final, assuming Hawke's Bay would defeat Taranaki in the semifinal.
HBRFU has restructured its ticketing and expanding its offering of the cheapest tickets in the ground ($12.50) through a lot more of the Graeme Lowe Stand than normal.
"That's a way for us to compromise," Somerville said.
"There's heaps of space for people that might have enjoyed it and want to come back, hopefully that's an affordable option."
He said the entertaining brand of rugby Hawke's Bay have played this year, as well as a forecast of good weather, would hopefully draw a crowd of close to 8000 people, which is about what the Magpies' three Ranfurly Shield defences this season drew.
Magpies openside flanker Solomone Funaki scores his third try against Taranaki this season. Photo / Paul Taylor
The strong crowds are helping to fill a financial hole for the union, with New Zealand Rugby withdrawing their funding to provinces and sponsorship being well down on previous years.
Those two sources of revenue are by far the biggest for HBRFU, with ticket sales making up less than 10 per cent of income, but Somerville said every dollar counts this year.
Tickets for Friday's final go on sale at 9am on Tuesday and will be available at Stirling Sports in Napier and Hastings, and hbmagpies.co.nz.
