Comments on: Heineken Cup semi-finals: 5 things we learned

By: DanD

DanD — Wed, 30 Apr 2014 04:43:18 +0000

It says that when they say audience, they mean TV audience, where the real big money is on a regular basis.

By: Jonny

Jonny — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 16:20:54 +0000

Part of the issue is that Saracens don’t have a particularly large fan base. They’ve got big crowds to Wembley, but that is normally playing against another London club, around the holidays, and its a date in the diary for many months and can be marketed as such.

I was at the Ulster quarter final last year at Twickenham, and genuinely thought that their fans outnumbered Saracens fans. Hopefully the final will be well attended, can’t see many neutrals backing the men in black though.

By: ro

ro — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 16:10:13 +0000

Dazza, I believe the tickets for the semi final were £15. Is that not good value for a HC semi final? As for the final, I have two tickets I wont be using and are available at face value. I also believe there will be many more coming available over the next week or so.

By: ro

ro — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 16:06:49 +0000

re the empty seats disaster. What does this say about the usual excuse that the English and French attract the biggest audience? There are teams that would have filled Twickenham for that semi final unfortunately not many (if any) are English or French.

By: Dazza

Dazza — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 16:03:05 +0000

I think the problem with so many empty seats lies in the hands of the organisers. I’m a Saracens fan and for Premiership semi’s and finals we can claim our tickets at a discounted price because of certain agreements the clubs have with the RFU etc. These agreements are not in place with ERC so the tickets are sold at full price even for those who are season ticket holders.
I can also tell you that the ticket allocation for the HC final for Saracens is 5,000. Now I’m assuming that Toulon would receive the same allocation? That means only 10,000 tickets are allocated to the two clubs for the final.
Now I know Saracens do not have that many season ticket holders, and Toulon probably don’t either. But in a 72,000 seater stadium, 10,000 tickets for the two sets of fans is pretty crap! This means that up to 62,000 seats could be sitting empty!!
So why not do a deal like they do for the Prem play-offs etc and let season ticket holders from each club buy more tickets for friends etc at a slightly discounted price and get more bums on seats. That way the ERC make more money, the stadium owners get more money, and it creates a better atmosphere.

By: RuckingGray

RuckingGray — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 13:33:59 +0000

Absolutely. I called it an excellent display of refereeing at the time. Thought it was a try, went straight to the guy who would have seen it best, awarded it. Absolutely no reason for a TMO, good call from Barnes.

By: Callum

Callum — Tue, 29 Apr 2014 12:32:43 +0000

With the Zebo try, the touch judge had told Barnes no reason not to award the try. He was in a better position than any camera and if you can’t trust the assistant ref when he unequivocally states a try has been scored then whats the point of them being there?