The top-priced ticket for next year’s Rugby World Cup final will exceed £1,000 for the first time in the tournament’s history.
A category-one seat for the 13 November showpiece at Sydney’s Stadium Australia is on sale for A$1,950 (£1,035).
The equivalent ticket at France 2023 cost 950 euros (£823 at today’s exchange rate).
Japan 2019’s most-expensive final seat cost £717, with England 2015 and New Zealand 2011 coming in at £715 and £545 respectively.
However, organisers have defended their pricing strategy, saying the most expensive tickets are in line with other high-profile sporting events and help ensure more than a million tickets can be offered for less than A$100 (£53).
“There’s a lot of work that goes into developing our ticketing strategy, and we’re really keen to provide as many tickets as we could at the bottom end,” Rugby World Cup 2027 managing director Chris Stanley told the Sydney Morning Herald, external.
“So, to make it accessible, like all major events, there is an element where you have to charge more at the top end.”
The cheapest adult seats are A$40 (£21), with A$20 (£11) child tickets available for all games, except the semi-finals and final.
Tickets are also sold at set prices, in contrast to the dynamic pricing system adopted for some matches at football’s men’s World Cup in the USA, Canada and Mexico this summer.
All of Ireland’s pool-stage campaign – against Portugal, Scotland and Uruguay – are showing as ‘high demand’ on the tournament’s ticketing website, suggesting a repeat of the large numbers who followed the team four years ago in France.
Full ticket prices were revealed at the start of a two-week window during which fans can secure their seats at matches across the tournament.
The window closes on 2 June, with oversubscribed fixtures being allocated by a ballot system. Fans will be notified of the outcome of their application on 23 June.
More than 750,000 of the tournament’s 2.5 million tickets were sold in a pre-sale phase.