The Vodacom Bulls decided to keep a portion of their tickets at R25 to try and alleviate the financial pain and are hoping to match the allowed capacity of 25 000 fans this coming weekend for the Vodacom United Rugby Championship quarterfinal against the Cell C Sharks.
The Bulls say that ticket sales have slowly been ticking up, and while they have a cap from the government on the amount of tickets they are allowed to sell, they hope to reach 50% capacity before Saturday’s kick-off.
Arrangements have been made with Affies, the neighbouring school to move their derby match forward that fans can attend both games and the Bulls are hopeful of getting a capped capacity crowd for the game.
“Over the last two days there has been a massive pick up. We’re getting close to the 20 000 mark and obviously capacity is 25 000 for this one, and if the increase overnight sustains then we will get very close to, if not to the 25000 mark,” CEO Edgar Rathbone said on Wednesday.
“We have to say thank you to Affies, who are hosting Menlo Park, but they managed to move their fixture until 12.20.
“The area around Loftus will have a lot of rugby on Saturday so we’re hoping for a big crowd.”
Rathbone said that they had extended their R25 tickets to help alleviate the financial stress that fans have at the moment with the increases in fuel and other costs and want to try and make it “as affordable as possible” to attend a game.
“Tickets still begin at R25 and there are enough tickets in that category and it goes all the way up to R250 for the best seats. Interestingly the more expensive tickets sell fastest and then it fills up from there,” he explained.
“Our outlook has always been to reward our supporters, we need to make it affordable for the fans to come to Loftus. We all see what is happening with the petrol price and how everything gets more expensive. We understand it is an expensive outing for a family, and we want to make it as affordable as possible.”
Rathbone said the Bulls understood that times were tough and were hoping to offer some joy back to their loyal fans this weekend.
“It is very easy to understand the struggles that our fans have, we all live in South Africa and we all understand it. If we look at the next few weeks and what could be in the pipeline - in terms of tests and playoff games, our staff have worked without fans for more than two years and it is a very empty feeling for people who are used to work with fans, especially if you can’t give someone an experience.
“So for us it is a privilege to have that chance to give people the chance to experience a game at Loftus.”
Tickets are still on sale for the fixture at Ticketpro and the game kicks off at 1.45pm and will be live on SuperSport.