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Cape Town - The unprecedented demand for tickets to the HSBC Cape Town Sevens was underlined once more when 34 428 registrations for 163 424 tickets were received for the two-day event at www.capetown7s.com by the closing deadline.
SA Rugby thanked the public for their support as the second phase of the ticket allocation kicked in on Thursday. Interest for the event was widespread with individuals from 35 countries signing up during the two-week registration window.
SA Rugby again warned the public against buying tickets from online agencies. There are no official re-selling agencies; they have no official access to tickets and they charge significantly above cover price for tickets which they do not have and frequently do not deliver.
No fewer than 19 950 registrations were received for the loyalty programme - which is aimed at devoted fans who have attended the South African leg of the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series tournaments in Cape Town, Port Elizabeth and George and plan to do so again - while there were 14 478 registrations for the ticket lottery.
“We’re very grateful for the massive response and the positive way in which supporters embraced this new ticketing registration system,” said Jurie Roux, SA Rugby’s CEO on Thursday.
“The biggest complaint about the event in the past was the ticket purchasing experience - which ended up being concentrated into a 44-minute window last year.
“Those tickets were snapped up by just 7 000 purchasers. This year we’ve been able to get 23 543 individuals to the starting line and we expect considerably more than 7 000 to be ticket holders by the end of the process.”
Some 10 885 supporters registered for both the loyalty and lottery programme. After the allocation of contractual tickets to event partners and stakeholders, 104 426 tickets (including hospitality sales) will end up in the hands of the public over the two days. Stand tickets range in price from R195 to R400.
All registrants will now receive an email explaining the process. It will be followed by a second email confirming whether they have been successful and with a unique link to select and purchase their tickets over a two-week period.
SA Rugby, and ticketing partner Computicket, will only send out the links once it has matched requests (for specific stands and days) against the demand.
“Due to the massive numbers of registrations we’ve received, we unfortunately cannot guarantee tickets,” said Roux.
“Many thousands of fans failed to get tickets using the ‘regular’ route over the last few years, and this new system was designed with fairness in mind and to get as many people as possible in with a chance. But we haven’t got enough seats to satisfy the entire demand and, unfortunately, some people will miss out.”
