Leinster Team Talk Thread (Love you Furlong time)

Yep and it’s culture is not aligned with SA rugby

Sorry but this punter did not welcome Nienaber.

An obvious stooge type for Rassie.

SSales look dire lately for rugby fixtures. If you can't sell out a home champions cup semi final, something's gone wrong big time!! Munster suffering too in Thomond

Multiple reasons why Aviva isn't selling out.

Cost

The last few years have shown that EPRC are out of touch. The idea that Q/F and S/F games should justify a premium price is stupid. From a fan/customer perspective it's the same experience as a good URC game.

Also, people are feeling the squeeze. Cost of living has gone up for us all. I'm certainly more conscious about spending money on tickets this year than I was previously.

When you look at last year, Leinster had 3 CC knock out games, 3 URC knock out games, all at home, plus the URC final. For a family of four, with the cheapest tickets, you're looking at nearly €1000 of you were to attend those games. People can only afford so much.

Performance

Reality is, that watching Leinster currently is not as pleasant experience as it was. Under Lancaster, I couldn't get enough of watching them live. Unfortunately, we lost some big games (finals) by narrow enough margins but my god were we a joy to watch. Playing some outstanding rugby.

You definitely think twice about it at the moment.

Jordie Barrett

It was a privilege watching JB play last year. I'm sure a large part of signing him was to help put bums on seats at a time os the season when provinces are shorn of internationals and to help pay for renting the Aviva while RDS was being done. There was a game v Glasgow I think in Champions Cup. Myself and my son were at it but JB was sensational that night. We went a few times afterwards just watch him. I'm sure some others would've done the same.

Fatigue

See above re knock out games.

It’s a semi final in the pinnacle European competition. €85 is not an unreasonable amount for that in my opinion.

35-40k is good going. Not many clubs can draw that amount of supporters, it just looks a bit lost in the Aviva. The bank holiday doesn’t help things. Of the 50 or so in my office, over half are going down the country or abroad today for the long weekend. No doubt this is replicated across the province and affecting sales.

I've lost track of what is or isn't good value for tickets. I've given up on going to sports, cultural events and resturants since things became more expensive after covid. Just can't afford to do it all anymore. I've no idea if many other people are in a similar position.

I feel it doesn't bode well for businesses that are relying on the higher prices. An economic shock could really damage business like leinster and the Champions Cup itself.

Cost is not putting anyone off.

Glad you've peered into everyone's bank account to make this determination, cheers.

 and cost is definitely a contributing factor.

It depends what we're talking about. If it's the cumulative cost of going to all the games, possibly with kids, to the R16, QF and SF, then fair enough, it does add up. What the solution to that is, I don't know.

But 33 quid is not an expensive ticket, it's about as low as a major sporting event is ever going to be in Ireland.

Even the 2 "BIG" semi finals versus Toulouse in 2022 and 2023, were something like 42k. which is pretty good, but not a sell out.

But I do think the atmosphere with Leinster stinks this year, I find they put me in bad form a lot of the time. I'm almost dreading if they win, because then I will want to go to Bilbao, and I wouldnt rate their chances against Bordeaux at all.

And it's the third one in 4 weeks or whatever it is.

I made that exact point four posts above. I also said I don't know what the solution is. Dropping ticket prices can't really impact it.

The only alternative I can see is not making the knockouts, or having to play away matches. I don't think either of those are better.

I'd say the other 75% of the provinces would love to be having this conversation.

Well obviously if you can go 'abroad for the bank holiday weekend or go down the country' 85euro isn't a great amount. Other people might think differently.

This is the biggest issue. €33 for a ticket iss not bad value. But a family of 4 it's €100 before travel and anything else. But at the knock out stages of both competitions it's too many €100s. It's just too frequent.