{"id":15046,"date":"2025-09-18T13:16:40","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T01:16:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=15046"},"modified":"2025-09-18T13:16:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T01:16:40","slug":"crusaders-fans-cry-foul-over-40-ticket-price-hike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/?p=15046","title":{"rendered":"Crusaders fans cry foul over 40% ticket price hike"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Crusaders fans are questioning their loyalty after prices for the next season at the new stadium revealed a 40 percent increase.<\/p>\n<p>The memberships cover three games at the old Apollo Projects Stadium and 4 at the new One NZ Stadium (Te Kaha).<\/p>\n<p>But some fans say it is no longer affordable, with platinum memberships going from $380 to $575.<\/p>\n<p>One supporter said their family membership was tripling &#8211; $1400, up from $550.<\/p>\n<p>A membership which guarantees reserved seating was going up from $140 to $450.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Was always going to be an increase, but wasn&#8217;t expecting that much given nearly half the season is at Apollo Stadium,&#8221; one fan said on Facebook.<\/p>\n<p>Fan Dick Tayler told\u00a0<i>Midday Report\u00a0<\/i>some fans will balk at the price hikes and spend money on a bigger TV to watch games at homes instead, saying live games were now only for &#8220;corporates&#8221; instead of &#8220;Joe Bloggs&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Which is sad because this is genuinely what&#8217;s happening with sport, and we never want it to happen.&#8221;<\/p>\n<div class=\"block-item\">\n<div class=\"c-play-controller u-blocklink\" data-uuid=\"36d91726-a462-4775-a54d-49b0710e260e\">\n<div>\n<article class=\"@container\/queue-media relative w-full h-screen max-h-[calc(10rem*var(--base-multiplier))] min-h-[calc(6rem*var(--base-multiplier))] bg-off-white\">\n<div class=\"flex h-full\">\n<div class=\"@container\/queue-media-content h-full w-full\">\n<div class=\"flex h-full w-full flex-grow flex-col justify-between overflow-hidden p-3\">\n<div class=\"flex items-center justify-between gap-2\">\n<div class=\"ml-auto flex h-full items-center gap-2\">\n<div class=\"relative -top-2 right-1 h-5 w-5\">Some fans were sanguine, however.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>&#8220;We are fortunate to have the best rugby team in the world,&#8221; one wrote on Facebook. &#8220;They have the best set up and academy out there, it doesn&#8217;t come cheap. Yes it&#8217;s sad when people can&#8217;t afford to go, I get that, but if we want class we have to pay for it, that&#8217;s the sad reality of life.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Crusaders chief executive Colin Mansbridge\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.thepress.co.nz\/nz-news\/360826862\/crusaders-fans-angry-membership-fee-hiked-new-stadium-season\">told local paper<\/a>\u00a0<i>The Press\u00a0<\/i>there were\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.membership.crusaders.co.nz\/packages-2025\">a range of price points<\/a>, including a silver membership which would work out to $26 a game.<\/p>\n<p>He justified the new pricing by comparing the new One NZ Stadium to a Ferrari and the old venue to a Ford Cortina.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re not driving the same vehicle. The experience will be unrecognisable. This is the best venue in the southern hemisphere.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Source: RNZ<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Crusaders fans are questioning their loyalty after prices for the next season at the new stadium revealed a 40 percent increase. The memberships cover three games at the old Apollo Projects Stadium and 4 at the new One NZ Stadium (Te Kaha). But some fans say it is no longer affordable, with platinum memberships going [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":15047,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15046","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15046","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15046"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15046\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15048,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15046\/revisions\/15048"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/15047"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15046"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15046"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thebuzz.apnanetwork.co.nz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15046"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}