ARU caught short by Melbourne Lions demand
June 7, 2001

The Australian Rugby Union has admitted it underestimated the Melbourne rugby market when 14,000 public tickets for the British Lions Test sold out in just 18 minutes.

The game against the Wallabies on July 7, will be held at the 52,000 seat Colonial Stadium rather than the 100,000-strong Melbourne Cricket Ground.

While fans will go away disappointed, one party that will be thrilled by the response will be those involved with Melbourne's bid to host a potential fourth Australian Super 12 side.

The ARU employed market researchers to ascertain Melbourne interest in the Lions, and found they were less recognised than South Africa, which drew just 35,000 to Colonial last year when they played Australia.

"We took the Springboks to Melbourne last year and got our nose bloodied a bit because only 35,000 people showed up," ARU spokesman Strath Gordon said. "With the benefit of hindsight we might think, `gee maybe we could have done better', but Colonial is a fantastic stadium for rugby, it's a very intimate ground and we're happy to fill it.

"We had a very good negotiation with Colonial that did a good deal for us and that's important as well. We went with Colonial ahead of the MCG on a number of criteria, one of which was the commercial deal, another was the market research on awareness of the British Lions."

Another significant factor in the unexpectedly high demand was the spill over demand from disappointed fans from traditional rugby heartlands Brisbane and Sydney.

A further 2000 standing room tickets were expected to go on sale on Friday.

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