Hundreds of rugby fans queuing to buy tickets for the weekend's Super Rugby final. photo / Mark MItchell
26,000 tickets were sold in less than a minute for the Super Rugby final and lines of fans queued the streets in Wellington.
Rugby fans were then furious when some tickets suddenly appeared on Trade Me.
The Herald
looks at five other ticket fiascos from sport.
1. Bradford City in this year's FA Cup
Bradford surprised everyone, including themselves, to reach the quarter-finals of this year's FA Cup. The side from League One - English football's third tier - beat Premier League Champions Chelsea and then Sunderland to reach the last eight but the extra demand for tickets was something the club did not handle well.
They were allocated 6000 tickets for their trip to Chelsea and only fans with season tickets and a ticket stub from their previous FA Cup game, were eligble to purchase tickets. Fans queued for hours on a freezing cold winter's morning unsure if they had any chance of actually getting a ticket.
Given the demand, some fans unfortunately missed out but still queued for hours without any luck. Supporters heavily criticised the club for its poor organisation.
They were at home in the next two rounds where they adopted a ticketing policy which meant season ticket holders could buy as many tickets as they wanted.
It worked first time around for their 2-0 over Sunderland but backfired badly for the quarter-final with Reading. Tickets sold out much quicker than expected which resulted in some season ticket holders initially missing out on tickets. The club's chairmen admitted their approach was "naive."
2. 2012 London Olympics
Purchasing tickets online should be simple in theory but when thousands and thousands of people all try to buy the same tickets at the same, problems can occur. The website, run by Ticketmaster, simply couldn't cope with the demand from the eager British public and organisers had to explain why they hadn't created an efficent enough system.
"Technical issues" will resonate with everyone and more questions were asked when fans came across events that were back on offer after the initial glitches. The website hadn't updated correctly and tickets that were "available" had actually been sold already. It was total chaos.
3. Super Bowl 2015
Hundreds of NFL fans were victims of buying Super Bowl tickets that had already been sold. Fans spent thousands and thousands of dollars buying tickets from brokers and resale sites, only to discover they'd purchased tickets that weren't available.
Some fans of the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks arrived in Phoenix for the event expecting to collect pre-purchased tickets. They instead arrived to find that brokers hadn't fulfilled their promises while the NFL claimed no responsibility for what happened in the secondary ticket market.
4. 2007 Champions League Final - AC Milan v Liverpool
Fans with valid tickets were stranded outside Greece's Olympic Stadium before the game because local police refused to let anyone else inside. They said the ground was full to its capacity and Liverpool fans were forced back by riot police.
Tensions were high as thousands of fans were reportedly allowed inside with fake tickets and trouble ensued with more reports of overcrowding and fans snatching tickets from touts.
A UEFA spokesman blamed Liverpool fans for the problems while the local Greek authorities and UEFA were also deemed to be culpable for their inability to handle a major sporting event.
5. 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics
Fans in Sochi had it tough when they wanted to get hold of tickets because of a shortage of personnel at ticket offices. Local reports said workers were unhappy with working conditions and huge crowds of fans lined the streets waiting for tickets.
Major media in Russia didn't report on the problem and organisers said they'd sold 92% of their tickets but empty seats were still visible at early events.
Security was tight and checks were very stringent while Russian fans also have a cultural habit of arriving at events at the very last minute.
A spokeswoman from the Olympics committee said: "I think during the first days people are really working out the timing, how long it actually takes them to get to the venues, how long it takes them to cross the security barrier etc. So it is not an issue of security per se but of logistics."
Pierre Hamelin is the key cog between Liam Lawson and the rest of his team.