Door opened to more Rugby World Cup finals tickets

Photo / Richard Robinson

Rugby World Cup finals tickets are being put on sale today for anyone who applied for them in previous ballots.

Semifinals tickets have also been made available and are being sold on a first come-first served basis till either 5pm Wednesday or until the limited release of tickets sells out.

The offer, from tournament organisers, comes as more than 100,000 Eden Park tickets are left with less than 100 days to go to the tournament, and only about half of 1.6 million total World Cup seats have been filled.

Unlike the previous ballots, which assigned ticket categories at random, this time people can choose from the cheapest $300 semifinals seats to the most expensive $1300 final seats.

Tickets are limited to four for each semifinal and two for the final. People who already bought tickets in the previous ballots can buy again.

In a personalised promotional email, tournament boss Martin Snedden said: "As you can imagine, tickets to these matches are in extremely high demand, so you will need to act fast."

If any tickets are left on Monday, organisers say they might make them available to the general public. They declined to say exactly how many tickets were being sold or what the likelihood was for the offer to be extended to the general public.

In the previous ballots, which ended in February, about 60,000 people applied for 45,000 tickets, or 15,000 per match. Some people missed out and others declined to take up their offers.

Mr Snedden last month said that reaching the World Cup's sales target of 1.35 million would be challenging but achievable with a hard slog.

"Event history tells you an awful lot of tickets sell once the tournament starts," he said. "[In some cases] you will be able to rock up and buy tickets at the gate. It's unrealistic to expect we will sell out everything around the country."

Meanwhile, Transport Minister Steven Joyce and Rugby World Cup Minister Murray McCully toured Auckland yesterday to be briefed on transport issues.

An operations centre has been set up in central Auckland to monitor traffic around key World Cup locations, including stadiums and arterial roads, for police and other traffic agencies. A screen showing a panel of live footage from dozens of CCTV cameras around the city was demonstrated.

Asked about his impressions of the screen, Mr Joyce said: "I've seen that sort of stuff before."

He said that different agencies and networks working well together in setting up the hub was the important thing.

The ministers were also briefed on train passenger traffic from Kingsland to Britomart.

Britomart will be set up for a one-way flow of spectators arriving on trains from Eden Park, with the main Queen St side as the designated exit and the new eastern entrance the only place to walk down to the platforms.

The stairs and escalators at the exit are projected to cope with 510 people per minute, clearing the platforms in time for trains arriving an average of five minutes apart.

A contingency plan allows for trains to be unloaded outside the tunnel into Britomart at the old train station.

SELLING NOW
* A limited number of tickets to the Rugby World Cup semifinals and final have been released.
* Tickets are available to anyone who applied for them in previous ballots.
* They will be on sale until 5pm, June 8, or until the tickets sell out.
* You can choose from the cheapest $300 semifinals seats to the most expensive $1300 final seats.
* Ticket purchases are limited to four for each semifinal and two for the final.