Tickets for Ireland’s forthcoming Guinness Six Nations home games against England and France are being resold on websites for vastly inflated prices.
One website is selling more than 600 tickets for prices ranging from €700 for seats in the upper tiers to €2,481 each for lower tier seats. These tickets also range in batches from four to 20 for the Ireland v England game at the Aviva Stadium.
Tickets are never sold directly to the public but rather through clubs and provincial branches.
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In response to this reselling of tickets at a huge mark-up, the IRFU issued the following statement, when contacted: “Under legislation, Aviva Stadium is a ‘Designated Venue’ and Six Nations matches are ‘Relevant Events’, and therefore reselling, above face value, to external ticketing providers is prohibited by law.
“Where appropriate, the IRFU will be liaising with the gardaí in relation to tickets being offered for sale at prices above face value for this year’s home Six Nations fixtures.
“The IRFU’s terms and conditions associated with match tickets for the Aviva Stadium specifically prohibits the resale of match tickets to external ticketing providers, and if evidence of specific tickets (block, row and seat number) can be verified, then these tickets will be cancelled, in line with our terms and conditions.
“The IRFU has the right to remove any individual, club or organisation to whom the tickets were issued in good faith from future ticket allocations.”
It’s worth noting that tickets for Italy’s Six Nations game against Ireland on St Patrick’s weekend – the sale of which by the Italian Rugby Federation has been suspended in apparent response to tens of thousands being bought from Ireland – require ID to be entered for the ticket purchases, which must then be supplied to enter the game grounds on the day.
It is understood that some Irish clubs have sold the bulk or all of their allocation for Six Nations games at the Aviva Stadium, and while this is an invaluable source of income in difficult times, this reselling assuredly contributes to the subdued and corporate atmosphere at the stadium on Irish match days.
Ticket touting and the practice of reselling tickets above face value was banned in 2021 after the Sale of Tickets Act was brought into force by then-tánaiste and minister for enterprise Leo Varadkar.
Under the law, venues can apply to be listed as designated venues if the operator is of reasonable opinion that it will hold events that will give rise to overpriced secondary selling. The Aviva Stadium is listed as a designated venue.
The law bans the resale of tickets to live events, matches and concerts in designated venues at prices above face value.
The Act includes fines of up to €100,000 or possible prison terms of up to two years for the above-cost selling of sports tickets.
