kbob88

I'm looking for some advice on getting tickets to an AFL match and a rugby match while we're in Australia in July and August. We don't know much about rugby, and nothing about Australian rules football, but the family is interested in checking out some matches. However acquiring tickets is not easy.

There's an AFL match on July 26 between Hawthorn and Essendon in Melbourne that fits with our schedule really well. Tickets are on Ticketmaster, but it appears that they are either sold out, or only available to all sorts of various Inner, Club, Premium, and AFL members or something. We're not familiar with the terms, and there's not much explanation on the website. When I click on those links it asks me to input a barcode, so I'm guessing those are for people that have signed up for some sort of membership. It's not clear whether the public tickets are sold out or just haven't gone on sale yet. Will public tickets be released at some later point? If not, is it possible to buy them from third parties (scalpers)? Here in the US there are lots of websites doing that (e.g., StubHub); not sure if that's even legal in Oz.

Then there's a match between the Wallabies and the All-Blacks on Aug 17 in Sydney. Looks like tickets haven't gone on sale yet. But the website (rugby.com.au) says that they're only available to Australian residents. Is this true? Or easily circumvented? If not, how is a visiting American to buy tickets?

Any advice for us clueless sports fans is greatly appreciated!

annhig

kbob,

after checking out what you'd said about buying tickets for the Wallabies v All Blacks [I would beg borrow or steal to see that match] which turned out to be correct, [sorry but I felt it sensible to check first] I went to the site of the venue, which says that tickets will be available soon:

http://www.anzstadium.com.au/Events/Event_Calendar.aspx

aussie cricket seems to have the same procedure; there is a club for aussie residents which gives them priority booking, but I'm hoping I can get tickets through the ground shortly thereafter.

if you can get tickets for the Rugby, forget about the Aussie rules - you'll never see a better rugby team than the All Blacks and the Haka is worth the price of admission by itself!

which reminds me....

margo_oz

Wallabies vs All Blacks should be great - it usually is. Tickets?? Probably won't sell out.

(Wallabies beaten last night by the British-Irish (or as Mucky says, the Welsh) Lions )

Don't skip the AFL because you're going to a rugby match - it's a far different game and really spectacular in its own right. Like nothing you've seen before. Tickets may not be on sale yet. Hawthorn is top of the table currently (I think!)

margo_oz

Especially different if you're coming from the US. Absolutely nothing like American football!

dottyp

And as a Kiwi I say definitely DO NOT miss an AFL game - it's a fast skilful game, nothing like rugby. I am a real convert, even being involved in teaching it to children some years ago!

LakesideChick

For pretty much all AFL games you can buy tickets online about 3 weeks (ish, I think) before the game. Unless it is a 'big' game like finals or ANZAC Day, it is very unlikely to be sold out. If you call ticketek / ticketmaster they can give you on sale dates.

kbob88

Thanks for the info, folks. I'll just keep checking back on the website. Definitely looking forward to both these matches!

kbob88

Just wanted to close the loop on this in case someone stumbles on it someday and wonders how it all worked out.

We never were able to get tickets to the Essendon v Hawthorne AFL game, but that was OK as it ended up conflicting with my wife's work scheduled. Instead we went to see the Western Bulldogs v West Coast Eagles on a different day, and had no problem getting tickets online. That's probably because those two teams weren't doing nearly as well as Essendon and Hawthorne, but we couldn't tell the difference.

By the way, AFL is awesome, and we all really enjoyed the game. It's a much more action-packed sport than rugby, and quite easy to understand as there appear to be very few rules. Highly recommend it.

We also saw a rugby league game in Sydney at ANZ stadium, the Rabbitohs vs the Dragons. That was quite fun as I'd never seen rugby league, only rugby union. Again, no problem getting tickets online.

I tried to get the concierge at our Sydney lodgings to get the Wallabies vs All-Blacks tickets for us, but they said they couldn't do it. (pretty lousy concierge) Anyway, I did it online, put in the address for the hotel when I registered on Ticketek, and it went through with no problems, even though I used an American credit card with an American billing address. The game was great, although the Wallabies made too many mistakes and lost, yet again.

annhig

The game was great, although the Wallabies made too many mistakes and lost, yet again.>>

I know - shame, wasn't it?

I have also had success getting tickets for the opening Ashes match in Brisbane in November. it took a bit of searching and persistence but i got there in the end.

margo_oz

Thanks for getting back to us kbob. You saw a good cross section of football.

The Wallabies played a marginally better, but no more successful, game against the All Blacks in Wellington last night.

I know the All Blacks are the best team in the world, but...don't they have an off day occasionally! (Come to think of it...didn't the English beat them last year at Twickenham?!)

annhig

(Come to think of it...didn't the English beat them last year at Twickenham?!)

yes we did - and though I was there I still can't work out how we did it.

kbob88

They put the game statistics up on the scoreboard at the end of the game, and the Wallabies had dominated in most categories. Unfortunately, they made a bunch of bad mistakes, and the All Blacks were quick to capitalize on those mistakes, mostly for tries. Hard to win when you keep giving up the ball only 10 meters away from the All Blacks tryline.

margo_oz

hard to win....

Exactly! Thank you Quade Cooper at al