Waikato Rugby Union break season ticket sales record

The Waikato Rugby Union (WRU) has already broken its record for season tickets, having sold about 3500 for next year.

The big increase at such an early stage can be put down to the demand for tickets to the British and Irish Lions' match against New Zealand Maori at Waikato Stadium on June 11.

In a scramble to avoid disappointment in the over-subscribed public ballot for tickets to Lions' matches people have snapped up the season tickets, which guarantee seats to the Maori game.

WRU marketing manager Pat Mellsop said the cutoff for season tickets that included the Lions match was tomorrow -- in line with the cutoff for the public ballot.

"We'll have season tickets for just the Chiefs and Waikato matches only after that," Mellsop said.

Waikato had a record 3000 season ticket holders this year and Mellsop said there had been about an 85 per cent renewal up to a couple of days ago, with the union following up those who had not renewed.

"We're a long way ahead of our normal season ticket schedule because of the Lions match."

Mellsop said those who had bought season tickets would have a huge advantage over those banking on getting a ticket to the Lions-Maori match through the ballot.

"We know the Lions match is going to be a sellout because the game here is already over-subscribed in the ballot."

Once the final season ticket figure is known tomorrow night and the final New Zealand Rugby Union requirements are known a final figure for the number of seats to go into the ballot would be determined and Mellsop expected it to be between 10,000 and 12,000.

Nearly 75,000 members of the public have registered for the ballot for an estimated 150,000 tickets available to the 11 Lions matches.

But it is understood 13,500 people, each with a maximum entitlement of two tickets if successful, have nominated the Maori match as either their first or second choice, making for 27,000 demands on less than half that number of tickets.

"So it's going to be a sellout and there will be a lot of disappointed people in the ballot, which is what we said would happen all along," Mellsop said.

- NZPA