September 18, 2025 • 10 mins
The season ticket prices for the Crusaders 2026 Super Rugby campaign have been announced, with four of the seven home matches being played at the new One NZ Stadium once the construction has been completed
People aren't happy though as some ticket prices have raised 40 percent, despite the first three games still being played at Apollo Projects Stadium.
D'Arcy spoke with Crusaders CEO Colin Mansbridge to discuss the price hikes and the different membership packages on offer.
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcy Wildergrave
from news Talk z'd.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be today Colin to the Darcy, how am mate.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm good, maybe slightly better than new blokes. You're under
a wee bit of fire for the pricing of season
tickets next year for Takaha, So can you just tell
us what the progress has been, what the process has
been around the selling of these seasons passes and just
how big this is.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yes, so probably start off at Darcy.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
The first thing is we've had to go a bit
early because we've got a super Round which is coming,
so that's compressed some of their planning. Obviously going to
the new venue, you've got stadium venue builds. In terms
of technology and ticketing you've got to do so we've
made a bit of progress on that, but we're a
bit compressed with a timeline because we want to give
members of opportunity to buy their seats before the super
(00:58):
Round and guarantee their seats for super Round inside their
membership package.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
So that's probably one of the time constraint issues we've got.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
We you know, thinking about in hindsight, we probably should
have just completely thrown out the old naming conventions and
started afresh, because I think what people have seen is
they've seen going from X to Y, seen the same
name and some of the pricings different. But we've got
some new categories in the new venue which come with
food and beverage and a high premium offerings which don't
(01:29):
exist in the old venue. So yeah, I think people
are seeing that and they're going, oh, my goodness, you know,
my ex has gone from X to Y and I'm
paying twice, whereas an actual fact, the opportunity is probably
a little different. You know, they probably need to get
it and have a good hard look at the packages
of the year, and that was a bit of.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
A miss on our behalf.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
I've actually had probably i would say eight times more
positive feedback than I've had negative as well, so into
the direct feedback, and we're selling memberships like crazy at
the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So yeah, there is a bit of balance the story,
I think.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
So how do you position the pricing for this methodology?
Did you go through to determine what the pricing was
going to be? As you mentioned to cards and new stadium,
there's plenty of new stuff going on, So how did
you sit in the place you've sat with these new passes,
and what's the range? You see, you can get a
cheaper memberships and season pass, so just tell us what
(02:24):
the range is.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, so look off the top of my head.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
And of course I don't have an information in front
of me because, as you know, Dusk, I'm out at
the office.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
At the moment.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
But there's you can get, you know, for twenty six
dollars a seat all the way up to significantly more
than that where you're paying for food and beverage. But
there's a family pass for twenty six dollars a seat.
And the process we used was we actually sat down,
we had a look at our old packages.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
We said, where would people move to in the new venue?
What might that look like?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
And let's make sure that the jump that they've got
is not too significant. So we took an old versus
new approach. We then compared it with other codes and
with other stadiums. So we've had a few people point
out to us that that, oh, you know, I can
get a seat for such and such a price at
such as such a stadium, and they can, but they
can't get a covered seat close to food and beverage outlets,
(03:15):
close to all of the other amenities they've got at
the same price, so we're not making a light for
light comparison. So I think that's the issue is that
we've you know, we're getting people comparing the cheapest offering
that they can get somewhere else to the most expensive
or a more expensive offering than they can get at
one New Zealand stadium. So we did a bit of
analysis of competitive events codes and prices and we made
(03:40):
sure that there wasn't it wasn't too difficult to go
from old to new in the new venue.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So you can still get a membership a season pass,
but not for three times the price, which is what
the narrative is coming out. Now that the prices have triple,
they're still possible to get a season pass and not
pay through the nose for is that what you're saying?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (04:00):
So that again probably the seating convention, because we tried
to bring across people have a custom review of what
it should look like, and so we started afresh for
the new venue. Said right, that was platinum, premium or
don't get me to quote you all of the numbers
off the top of my head, but go through these
different categories and we have similar We have less categories
(04:23):
but some similar names in the old venue.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
So people have just gone I'm going from X to Y.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
We're an actual fact that they will go from X
to probably something quite different.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Sorry, they won't go from X to X. They'll go
from X to Y in the new venue.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
And the difference is the new venue has less that
there are very very few compromise seats. They're all significantly closer.
You know, when you take the pitch of the stadium,
of the stands and you take how close they are
to the action and how close the amenities are. There's
significantly different seats than what they were in the old venue.
And I think that's the other thing that people are
(04:59):
assuming that, you know, something that might sound like platinum
in the old venue is a platinum in the view,
whereas maybe gold might be quite equivalent, if not better.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Well, it's a platinum venue, isn't it. Previously you are
at a tin venue with.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
All due respect, But Colin, what about the situation where
there are going to be three games under this membership
at the old Apollo projects and four at one in
z Is this going to adjust dramatically when all of
the games are at one end Z to.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
See that the disparity there between two very different grounds.
How do you justify that?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
No, So we went through a process of trying to
build a membership offering that which is stained through the
new venue. So again what's happened is that we've put
on more hospitality. It's not of the same standard as
what you'll get in the new venue at the old
venue in partnership with Addington Raceway, so we've tried to
make it look and feel as closer than you.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
As we possibly can. That's the first thing we've done.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
The second thing we've done is we've done some analysis
to say how little can we get away within year two.
So we have done very little on ticket prices in
the last three or four years, and we would be
looking to do as little as possible in year two.
In fact, we're not planning on an increase in year two.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
When you look right across the ranges and the prices,
and you mentioned that that low price, are they many
memberships available at that price? Because all very well and
good saying they're there, but how many are there?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Well, it's actually interesting that higher priced ones are selling
like hotcakes at the moment. So I think we've had
lots of people come in at higher values, significantly high
values that then they paid at the old venue, and
so yeah, there is availability. And look, we don't know
what the new venue is going to how it's going
to land, and it might be that there are people
(06:49):
who we might need to just adjust some of the
areas a little bit around the edges, but I don't
think it's going to be substantial.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
There's plenty of capacity for people.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
At the moment, based on the demand that we've had
in the last few weeks, for the last few days.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
So people just had to brace themselves the fact that
this is a new stadium and it is going to
cost more.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Are you are you.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Like dealing with some of the costs from two car
Is that why you've you've lifted your prices. Are you
trying to make some money back.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Or I think that's the thing. It's actually not going
to cost that much more, Darcy.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
There's if you look across all of the categories and
all of the options that you go through from old
to new, it's actually not that significant. I think what
you do is if you take something that's called X
now and you convert it to xer than you and
you make the assumption that you're getting exactly the same
product and service, then yes.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
It might look like it's more expensive.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
But it's not. If you do if you go in
and do the work on where would you like to
be and what would it like to look like? Remembering
it is a it's a Ferrari versus a Cortina stadium.
If you take that into account, I think you'll find
that the difference is not that significant.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
How dare you underplay the strength of the COURTEENA Colin
Mansbode meant it for good that they spend at least
time in the garage in a Ferrari. I'll tell you that,
hey's one last thing for your common things for your time.
How do you know this new pricing regime is actually
going to work? Are you throw it out? And you
said they're selling like hotcakes? But what needs to happen
in order for you to say, hey, we were right
(08:22):
or maybe we short sold it? Do you see what
I'm pushing out here?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
I don't think we're going to be perfect on this
anyway downcy. I think that's the thing we've tried the hardest.
We did do a lot of work early on of
doing comparisons between other codes, other events, other stadium both
here and overseas, but mainly looking at ones in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
We did a lot of work on that.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
We've did a lot of work on trying to make
it as easy as possible for people to go from
A to B. The reality is it is a three
quarter of a billion dollar venue as well, whereas the
old venue is not a three quarter of a million
dollar venue. So you add all of those things in
and we've got change and I'm not sure we won't
we won't do really really well in terms of capacity utilization.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So I'm hoping, well, the thing will be full at
least for.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
The first one and maybe the next two days of
super around, and then we'll see what happens after that.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
What do you need to achieve? Colin? Though? Do you
ever a lit or one you want to know it's
a success to go, oh my god, we completely over
prices because only X or Yeah, we've got it about
right because of X or Hey, maybe we can lift
it more. What are you relying on there?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Well, I think that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Well, at the moment, we're targeting eighteen plus thousand plus
in the new venue on average.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Now that's what we've targeted.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Now we think it'll be slightly more than that, and
you know, invariably you get a honeymoon in year one
and two when you go to a new venue if
you look at four Bar and sky Stadium. But yeah,
we're sort of thinking eighteen to twenty would be an
awesome number. But we you know, we'd like the thing
to be full of this seat and if we could,
if it was simply a pricey Leicester's they of demand.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You remember your economics one oh one.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
If as simple as that, Darcy, you just go right
these prices and this is a result you get.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
But it's not as simple as that.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
You want to bring people from the old place of
the new and make them feel like they belong, and
you want to make sure that the transition is as
seamless as possible.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Eighteen thousand per event. What about the amount of memberships you'd.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Like to sell?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
What's your target there?
Speaker 4 (10:24):
So we've traditionally had about four and a half to
five in the last few years, and it was declining,
so we reckon, we'll do better than that this year.
And the perfect world that would be eighteen thousand. Now,
we don't think it'll be eighteen thousand, but we think
it'll be more than four or five.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
For more from sports talk, listen live to news talks.
It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcy Wildergrave
from news Talk z'd.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Be today Colin to the Darcy, how am mate.
Speaker 3 (00:15):
I'm good, maybe slightly better than new blokes. You're under
a wee bit of fire for the pricing of season
tickets next year for Takaha, So can you just tell
us what the progress has been, what the process has
been around the selling of these seasons passes and just
how big this is.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Yes, so probably start off at Darcy.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
The first thing is we've had to go a bit
early because we've got a super Round which is coming,
so that's compressed some of their planning. Obviously going to
the new venue, you've got stadium venue builds. In terms
of technology and ticketing you've got to do so we've
made a bit of progress on that, but we're a
bit compressed with a timeline because we want to give
members of opportunity to buy their seats before the super
(00:58):
Round and guarantee their seats for super Round inside their
membership package.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
So that's probably one of the time constraint issues we've got.
Speaker 4 (01:05):
We you know, thinking about in hindsight, we probably should
have just completely thrown out the old naming conventions and
started afresh, because I think what people have seen is
they've seen going from X to Y, seen the same
name and some of the pricings different. But we've got
some new categories in the new venue which come with
food and beverage and a high premium offerings which don't
(01:29):
exist in the old venue. So yeah, I think people
are seeing that and they're going, oh, my goodness, you know,
my ex has gone from X to Y and I'm
paying twice, whereas an actual fact, the opportunity is probably
a little different. You know, they probably need to get
it and have a good hard look at the packages
of the year, and that was a bit of.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
A miss on our behalf.
Speaker 4 (01:47):
I've actually had probably i would say eight times more
positive feedback than I've had negative as well, so into
the direct feedback, and we're selling memberships like crazy at
the moment.
Speaker 2 (01:58):
So yeah, there is a bit of balance the story,
I think.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
So how do you position the pricing for this methodology?
Did you go through to determine what the pricing was
going to be? As you mentioned to cards and new stadium,
there's plenty of new stuff going on, So how did
you sit in the place you've sat with these new passes,
and what's the range? You see, you can get a
cheaper memberships and season pass, so just tell us what
(02:24):
the range is.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, so look off the top of my head.
Speaker 4 (02:27):
And of course I don't have an information in front
of me because, as you know, Dusk, I'm out at
the office.
Speaker 2 (02:31):
At the moment.
Speaker 4 (02:31):
But there's you can get, you know, for twenty six
dollars a seat all the way up to significantly more
than that where you're paying for food and beverage. But
there's a family pass for twenty six dollars a seat.
And the process we used was we actually sat down,
we had a look at our old packages.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
We said, where would people move to in the new venue?
What might that look like?
Speaker 4 (02:52):
And let's make sure that the jump that they've got
is not too significant. So we took an old versus
new approach. We then compared it with other codes and
with other stadiums. So we've had a few people point
out to us that that, oh, you know, I can
get a seat for such and such a price at
such as such a stadium, and they can, but they
can't get a covered seat close to food and beverage outlets,
(03:15):
close to all of the other amenities they've got at
the same price, so we're not making a light for
light comparison. So I think that's the issue is that
we've you know, we're getting people comparing the cheapest offering
that they can get somewhere else to the most expensive
or a more expensive offering than they can get at
one New Zealand stadium. So we did a bit of
analysis of competitive events codes and prices and we made
(03:40):
sure that there wasn't it wasn't too difficult to go
from old to new in the new venue.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
So you can still get a membership a season pass,
but not for three times the price, which is what
the narrative is coming out. Now that the prices have triple,
they're still possible to get a season pass and not
pay through the nose for is that what you're saying?
Speaker 2 (03:59):
Absolutely?
Speaker 4 (04:00):
So that again probably the seating convention, because we tried
to bring across people have a custom review of what
it should look like, and so we started afresh for
the new venue. Said right, that was platinum, premium or
don't get me to quote you all of the numbers
off the top of my head, but go through these
different categories and we have similar We have less categories
(04:23):
but some similar names in the old venue.
Speaker 2 (04:25):
So people have just gone I'm going from X to Y.
Speaker 4 (04:29):
We're an actual fact that they will go from X
to probably something quite different.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
Sorry, they won't go from X to X. They'll go
from X to Y in the new venue.
Speaker 4 (04:37):
And the difference is the new venue has less that
there are very very few compromise seats. They're all significantly closer.
You know, when you take the pitch of the stadium,
of the stands and you take how close they are
to the action and how close the amenities are. There's
significantly different seats than what they were in the old venue.
And I think that's the other thing that people are
(04:59):
assuming that, you know, something that might sound like platinum
in the old venue is a platinum in the view,
whereas maybe gold might be quite equivalent, if not better.
Speaker 3 (05:10):
Well, it's a platinum venue, isn't it. Previously you are
at a tin venue with.
Speaker 5 (05:14):
All due respect, But Colin, what about the situation where
there are going to be three games under this membership
at the old Apollo projects and four at one in
z Is this going to adjust dramatically when all of
the games are at one end Z to.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
See that the disparity there between two very different grounds.
How do you justify that?
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (05:35):
No, So we went through a process of trying to
build a membership offering that which is stained through the
new venue. So again what's happened is that we've put
on more hospitality. It's not of the same standard as
what you'll get in the new venue at the old
venue in partnership with Addington Raceway, so we've tried to
make it look and feel as closer than you.
Speaker 2 (05:56):
As we possibly can. That's the first thing we've done.
Speaker 4 (05:58):
The second thing we've done is we've done some analysis
to say how little can we get away within year two.
So we have done very little on ticket prices in
the last three or four years, and we would be
looking to do as little as possible in year two.
In fact, we're not planning on an increase in year two.
Speaker 3 (06:16):
When you look right across the ranges and the prices,
and you mentioned that that low price, are they many
memberships available at that price? Because all very well and
good saying they're there, but how many are there?
Speaker 2 (06:28):
Yeah?
Speaker 4 (06:28):
Well, it's actually interesting that higher priced ones are selling
like hotcakes at the moment. So I think we've had
lots of people come in at higher values, significantly high
values that then they paid at the old venue, and
so yeah, there is availability. And look, we don't know
what the new venue is going to how it's going
to land, and it might be that there are people
(06:49):
who we might need to just adjust some of the
areas a little bit around the edges, but I don't
think it's going to be substantial.
Speaker 2 (06:56):
There's plenty of capacity for people.
Speaker 4 (06:58):
At the moment, based on the demand that we've had
in the last few weeks, for the last few days.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
So people just had to brace themselves the fact that
this is a new stadium and it is going to
cost more.
Speaker 2 (07:10):
Are you are you.
Speaker 3 (07:11):
Like dealing with some of the costs from two car
Is that why you've you've lifted your prices. Are you
trying to make some money back.
Speaker 2 (07:18):
Or I think that's the thing. It's actually not going
to cost that much more, Darcy.
Speaker 4 (07:23):
There's if you look across all of the categories and
all of the options that you go through from old
to new, it's actually not that significant. I think what
you do is if you take something that's called X
now and you convert it to xer than you and
you make the assumption that you're getting exactly the same
product and service, then yes.
Speaker 2 (07:42):
It might look like it's more expensive.
Speaker 4 (07:44):
But it's not. If you do if you go in
and do the work on where would you like to
be and what would it like to look like? Remembering
it is a it's a Ferrari versus a Cortina stadium.
If you take that into account, I think you'll find
that the difference is not that significant.
Speaker 3 (08:01):
How dare you underplay the strength of the COURTEENA Colin
Mansbode meant it for good that they spend at least
time in the garage in a Ferrari. I'll tell you that,
hey's one last thing for your common things for your time.
How do you know this new pricing regime is actually
going to work? Are you throw it out? And you
said they're selling like hotcakes? But what needs to happen
in order for you to say, hey, we were right
(08:22):
or maybe we short sold it? Do you see what
I'm pushing out here?
Speaker 4 (08:26):
I don't think we're going to be perfect on this
anyway downcy. I think that's the thing we've tried the hardest.
We did do a lot of work early on of
doing comparisons between other codes, other events, other stadium both
here and overseas, but mainly looking at ones in New Zealand.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
We did a lot of work on that.
Speaker 4 (08:42):
We've did a lot of work on trying to make
it as easy as possible for people to go from
A to B. The reality is it is a three
quarter of a billion dollar venue as well, whereas the
old venue is not a three quarter of a million
dollar venue. So you add all of those things in
and we've got change and I'm not sure we won't
we won't do really really well in terms of capacity utilization.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
So I'm hoping, well, the thing will be full at
least for.
Speaker 4 (09:08):
The first one and maybe the next two days of
super around, and then we'll see what happens after that.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
What do you need to achieve? Colin? Though? Do you
ever a lit or one you want to know it's
a success to go, oh my god, we completely over
prices because only X or Yeah, we've got it about
right because of X or Hey, maybe we can lift
it more. What are you relying on there?
Speaker 2 (09:27):
Well, I think that's the thing.
Speaker 4 (09:29):
Well, at the moment, we're targeting eighteen plus thousand plus
in the new venue on average.
Speaker 2 (09:35):
Now that's what we've targeted.
Speaker 4 (09:37):
Now we think it'll be slightly more than that, and
you know, invariably you get a honeymoon in year one
and two when you go to a new venue if
you look at four Bar and sky Stadium. But yeah,
we're sort of thinking eighteen to twenty would be an
awesome number. But we you know, we'd like the thing
to be full of this seat and if we could,
if it was simply a pricey Leicester's they of demand.
Speaker 2 (10:00):
You remember your economics one oh one.
Speaker 4 (10:02):
If as simple as that, Darcy, you just go right
these prices and this is a result you get.
Speaker 2 (10:08):
But it's not as simple as that.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
You want to bring people from the old place of
the new and make them feel like they belong, and
you want to make sure that the transition is as
seamless as possible.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Eighteen thousand per event. What about the amount of memberships you'd.
Speaker 2 (10:22):
Like to sell?
Speaker 3 (10:23):
What's your target there?
Speaker 4 (10:24):
So we've traditionally had about four and a half to
five in the last few years, and it was declining,
so we reckon, we'll do better than that this year.
And the perfect world that would be eighteen thousand. Now,
we don't think it'll be eighteen thousand, but we think
it'll be more than four or five.
Speaker 1 (10:44):
For more from sports talk, listen live to news talks.
It'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Cardiac Cowboys
The heart was always off-limits to surgeons. Cutting into it spelled instant death for the patient. That is, until a ragtag group of doctors scattered across the Midwest and Texas decided to throw out the rule book. Working in makeshift laboratories and home garages, using medical devices made from scavenged machine parts and beer tubes, these men and women invented the field of open heart surgery. Odds are, someone you know is alive because of them. So why has history left them behind? Presented by Chris Pine, CARDIAC COWBOYS tells the gripping true story behind the birth of heart surgery, and the young, Greatest Generation doctors who made it happen. For years, they competed and feuded, racing to be the first, the best, and the most prolific. Some appeared on the cover of Time Magazine, operated on kings and advised presidents. Others ended up disgraced, penniless, and convicted of felonies. Together, they ignited a revolution in medicine, and changed the world.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.