Richmond and Collingwood fans have expressed anger at Ticketek after being left without tickets for Friday night’s hotly anticipated blockbuster preliminary final at the MCG.
Tigers and Pies club members bought the 40,000 tickets made available this morning in just over one hour, meaning the sale of tickets to the general public scheduled for 2pm on Monday will not now happen.
Tickets for the Richmond v Collingwood Preliminary Final are exhausted. The general public on-sale for 2pm today will no longer go ahead. If further tickets become available from unused Club or AFL allocations they will be released via Ticketek at 2pm on Thursday September 20.
— Melbourne Cricket Ground (@MCG) September 17, 2018
However, Melbourne Cricket Club members were able to buy reserved seats and one guest pass each from midday, and AFL members will have an opportunity to buy tickets from 9am on Tuesday.
AFL spokesman Patrick Keane said the history between Collingwood and Richmond played a part in the frenzy for tickets. “This weekend’s final will be the first match they have played in September since the 1980 grand final and, as two of the largest-supported clubs in the competition, they have around 180,000 members between them competing for approximately 50,000 tickets sold into the member sections of the ground.
“The other sections of the ground are primarily taken up by AFL members – also members of clubs – and the MCC members, meaning this match attracts interest well beyond the approximate 100,000 we are able to cater for this weekend.
“We expect there will be many fans who would like to have attended, if there was greater capacity, but this match will be at capacity at the largest sporting venue in Australia,” Keane told Guardian Australia.
The rush for tickets comes after the first week of the AFL finals was attended by 283,148 people at three stadiums in three states, up 20.3% on the 2017 week one finals.
On Friday night, the MCG saw a third consecutive finals crowd of more than 90,000 when 90,152 watched Melbourne beat Hawthorn.
With both Friday’s Richmond versus Collingwood game and Saturday’s West Coast versus the Demons match forecast to be sell-outs, the AFL is on track to break its all-time attendance record for a single season, having already beaten the home and away season record for a second year running.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan thanked those who went to matches.
“Regardless of the team they support, our fans embraced the highly competitive and unpredictable season,” McLachlan said.
“The game will always be for the fans, and we are extremely proud of them in breaking this record.”
Some Collingwood and Richmond supporters camped out since Saturday to buy tickets on Monday morning, with many saying they did not trust online purchasing.
Barrie Cassidy, the host of ABC’s Insiders program, said the ticket agency had “screwed up”.
Ticketek have screwed up again.
— Barrie Cassidy (@barriecassidy) September 16, 2018
Some blamed a rival code as well as Ticketek.
Is @ticketek selling NRL tickets now too???? Still can’t get on!!!#AFLTigersPies pic.twitter.com/FOQpapEb7x
— Cheryl Critchley (@CherylCritchley) September 16, 2018
But others took a more humorous view of whether Ticketek’s hardware was up to the task.
Ticketek to buy second computer to cope with demand for Richmond Collingwood tickets#AFLFinals
— The Front Bar (@thefrontbar7) September 16, 2018
And at least one fan took a dislike of both Richmond and Collingwood to extremes.
I’ve been spending my morning clogging up the Ticketek site because I hate Richmond & Collingwood so much #AFLFinals #AFLTigersPies
— JoeAvo (@JoeAvo) September 17, 2018
Regardless of who wins on Friday night, with ticket sales like this the AFL is the ultimate winner.
