The Australian Football League (AFL) has warned fans to be aware of tickets being sold at inflated prices by ticket scalpers for the finals series.
The warning follows a number of reported busts with authorised ticketing officers removing more than 70 listings for the resale of tickets to week one of the AFL finals in Victoria.
Tickets were found on secondary ticketing platforms such as Viagogo, eBay and Gumtree. The qualifying final between Geelong and Collingwood, which took place on Saturday, was sold out but tickets were listed on secondary sites from A$500 (£295/€342/$340) compared to the original value of A$350.
AFL spokesperson Jay Allen told Sky News Australia that fans should only purchase tickets via authorised ticketing agents to avoid being ripped off. He said: “The AFL strongly encourages fans to only purchase tickets for the two MCG finals this weekend through the authorised ticketing agent Ticketek.
“It was a fantastic first week of finals with over 263,000 fans attending and four of the best games of the season. Tickets go on sale this morning [Monday] with competing club members to get first access to tickets and again we strongly encourage all fans to only use the authorised ticket agent – Ticketek.”
The Victorian Government has cracked down on ticket scalpers through the amendment to the Major Events Act 2009 earlier this year. The legislation made it illegal to resell any ticket for a major event for more than 10% above face value.
The Government also introduced ‘ticket cops’ in 2018 to stop live events fans from being ripped off.
The AFL announced a prize freeze for the finals series across weeks one to three. Prices have been frozen since 2019.
Elsewhere in Australian sports, fans of rugby league side South Sydney Rabbitohs were left unhappy when they were sent the wrong code to access priority tickets to a major clash against Sydney Roosters at Allianz Stadium.
Members were given priority but the National Rugby League (NRL) sent out the wrong code which resulted in fans seeing an ‘error’ message. The NRL updated the code but many of the tickets for the match had already been snapped up.
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