Are the Sevens losing its appeal?

The Herald reports:

Going cheap – a ticket to the Wellington Sevens (costume not included).

With four days to go, the rugby tournament has not sold out – and bargains are available as many fans try to offload spare tickets at well below cost price.

Increased competition from the likes of the newly established Auckland Nines – to be held at a sold out Eden Park the following weekend – has led to a fall in demand this year.

In previous years, tickets to the annual sevens tournament have sold out in a matter of hours, with scalpers able to command inflated prices to those who missed out. …

Sevens Wellington general manager Marty Donoghue said only about 1750 tickets remained, and they would be sold by Friday.

That’s astonishing. I recall some years the tickets all going within 20 minutes or so. To have almost 2,000 unsold the week before the Sevens suggests that demand is greatly reduced.

I’m still a big fan, and would go if I could. However I’m tramping the Tongariro Northern Circuit this weekend. Incidentally that means there will be little blogging from Thursday to Sunday.