Scalpers have no place at Cup, Snedden says

Martin Snedden says VIP tickets will be limited, and if his wife wants to attend a game, she will have to pay. Photo / Mark Mitchell

Ticket-scalping will incur a fine of $5000 under a new law created for the Rugby World Cup, but organiser Martin Snedden says ordinary New Zealanders trying to offload tickets for face values will not be affected.

All Blacks fans, for example, who spend thousands on multi-pack tickets when they come on sale next April and later find they will not be able to make some of the games will have nothing to fear.

Mr Snedden told the Herald they need not be worried about offending against the Major Events Management Act.

He said it was intended to put an exception on the ticketing terms and conditions so that they could be on-sold at face value or below in reasonable circumstances.

"People trying to offload tickets for reasonable reasons are not going to get caught up in this," Mr Snedden said.

"But if they try and sell tickets at double the value, they will get done."

Mr Snedden said the Major Events Management Act created some control over scalping.

Currently, tickets to popular events such as the Wellington Sevens, which are not covered by the act, are sold at a profit on Trade Me.

Mr Snedden said he had received an assurance from Trade Me that it would not facilitate the scalping of Rugby World Cup tickets.

He said VIP tickets for each game, including the final, would be limited to 250 in a bid to make as many tickets as possible available to the public.

Mr Snedden said he would get a ticket, "but the bottom line here is, if my wife wants to come to a Rugby World Cup match, she'll be paying for her ticket".

He said Prime Minister John Key would get a VIP ticket, and some would be saved for world leaders, who often made last-minute appearances.

At the last final, in Paris, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the South African President at the time, Thabo Mbeki, and French President Nicolas Sarkozy were all present.

Mr Snedden said Prince William and Prince Harry would also get VIP tickets.

He said no discounted tickets would be made available to any games, even if they did not sell out, as it would not be fair to those who pre-purchased tickets.

Making 25,000 tickets available in a draw to the semifinals and the final was better than the number for the 2005 Lions tour, when only 5800 went on general sale.

Mr Snedden believed New Zealanders would try to get to whatever games they could just to be involved in the Rugby World Cup. "It is a oncer."

He could not discount that the saturation coverage on up to six television channels at once would have some impact, but believed that people's desire to be inside the grounds would overcome this.

The coverage would add to the excitement of the tournament and the "Stadium of Four Million" feel.