jared_7 wrote:Tickets ranging from $20-$250. $60 just to stand on a bank.rowan wrote:Close but no cigar for the Reds in Samoa today, with Aussies still looking for their first win against the Kiwis after 21 Trans-Tasman encounters in this year's Super Rugby competition.
In a country where the minimum wage is $1.70 an hour.
They couldn't even half fill a stadium that only fits 8,000 people.
Another piece of Blues genius, although it shows the issue of having games in the islands.
Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu puts in his two-cents worth:
Former Samoan international Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu has labelled the Blues "ignorant and "arrogant" following their historic clash against the Reds in Apia.
The reality of the first Super Rugby to ever be held in Samoa fell flat on expectation with estimates suggesting the 8000-capacity stadium was well less than half full.
Opinion: Super Rugby's 'historic' night in Samoa was a giant ripoff
As it happened: Blues vs Reds
A second tier ticket to the match cost $150, the equivalent to a ticket to watch Manu Samoa take on the All Blacks in Auckland on June 16.
While the ticket prices have been criticised, Fuimaono-Sapolu said it was the Blues' half-baked approach to the match that led to the poor turnout.
"The Blues just showed up the day before which was seen as really insincere," Fuimaono-Sapolu told Andrew Gourdie and Jim Kayes on Sunday Sport on RadioLIVE.
Tana Umaga
Tana Umaga giving a team talk before kick-off (Getty)
"This occasion obviously wasn't to try and spread the game of Super Rugby and to go in and expand global rugby, it was obviously just here to make money and I think people saw that."
Last week, Blues chief Michael Redman told Jim Kayes the match "cost well north of half a million" to host in Samoa.
Cancelling their weekly media obligations owing to the Lions' arrival, Fuimaono-Sapolu said the Blues' work on the ground in Samoa also left a lot to be desired - particularly when compared with the Reds who arrived in the country a full five days before the game.
"They probably could have sold a lot more tickets had they done a bit of work like the Reds did," he said. "The Reds had an open training session, they also held a clinic and they also went and visited our only safe house for women and children, victims of sexual abuse and violent abuse.
"They went and did a lot around Samoa and were seen a lot in the community which is why most people wanted the Reds to win."
Buses not running and the match coinciding with a public holiday were also factors in the small crowd, Fuimaono-Sapolu added.
Failure to do basic Samoa research doomed historic Blues' Super Rugby clash: Eliota Fuimaono-Sapolu
Above all, it were these fundamentals and not the cost of the tickets that doomed the match.
"They obviously had not done any research at all and just thought that 'Samoans love rugby and they'll accept any rubbish that we give them'. They gave us this completely ignorant, arrogant game without doing any research to what works and the market here.
"The thing is, we have that money, we paid more to watch the All Blacks, but you're not the All Blacks and you haven't done anything. The whole 'not even coming to Samoa to spend some money in our economy' thing - who are you, who do you think you are?
"It is really really arrogant and that came across."
The Blues declined the opportunity to respond to Fuimaono-Sapolu's comments.
http://www.newshub.co.nz/home/sport/201 ... apolu.html
Who do you think's going to have the last laugh here??
