Seeing your nation playing a game of rugby can be very exciting. It can be excillerating to see your favourite player/s live and in person. However, nowadays it can be difficult. The tickets can get sold out very quickly, depending on who's playing. However, the main reason is the high prices of tickets. The enormity of it has caused some public outrage.
South African rugby fans are used to packed stadiums whenever the world champion Springboks play at home. During the mid-2025 test series against Italy, thousands of seats went unfilled. In the first Test at Loftus Versfeld (Pretoria) on 5 July 2025, television cameras caught large stretches of empty seating, an astonishing sight given the Springboks’ iconic status.
Many supporters point to a clear culprit: ticket prices starting around R900 even for the cheapest seats. Such prices, they argue, have put attending live matches out of reach for ordinary South Africans. The public backlash over "exorbitant" ticket costs has been swift, sparking a nationwide debate about affordability, accessibility and the financial realities of rugby in South Africa.
This discontent is a sharp contrast to just last season. In 2024, fresh off a World Cup triumph, all six Springbok home Tests sold out in euphoric fashion. Big-name opponents (New Zealand and Ireland) and the post-World Cup buzz saw fans flock to stadiums despite some grumbling over prices (some Cape Town attendees reportedly paid up to R4 000 for All Blacks tickets).
2025’s less glamorous incoming series (against the Barbarians Italy, and Georgia) has tested the limits of fan loyalty. SA Rugby set a nominal low-end price tier of R250–R350 for these mid-year matches, yet only a few thousand such budget tickets were offered and they sold out instantly. The vast majority of seats were priced between roughly R850 and R3 000 each. In practical terms, around R900 has become the new "cheap" ticket, a price many fans argue is simply unaffordable in the South African context.
The sad reality is that many South Africans are often priced out of the stands.
After SA Rugby announced the Springboks' opening match of the international season when they host the Barbarians at the Cape Town Stadium (28 June) in early May, fans immediately started slamming the ticket prices online.
Tickets went on sale at 09.00 on Tuesday, 6 May, exclusively via Ticketmaster. Only a limited number of tickets were priced at R250 and R350, which quickly sold out. The next best price ranged between R850 to R3000 per ticket.
The tension between financial necessity and rugby’s cultural meaning remains unresolved. Rugby in South Africa is more than a game; it represents unity, resilience and the ongoing story of a nation finding itself.
The effect has been visible in the stands. Unlike 2024’s full houses, the 2025 Tests have seen noticeable gaps. Loftus Versfeld was only about 80% filled (approximately 40 000 fans in a 51 000-seat venue) for the first Italy Test, highly unusual for a Springbok home game. A week earlier, a Springboks vs. Barbarians exhibition in Cape Town also struggled with attendance (weather was a factor, but large sections behind the posts remained unsold).
Normally, Springbok Tests are near-instant sell outs, so this dip in turnout has raised alarms. Loyal supporters, it seems, are thinking twice when faced with triple-digit rand prices and lower-profile opposition.
For many South Africans, being priced out of the stands feels like a betrayal of rugby’s core values. Fans, who once saw themselves reflected in the team’s slogans of unity and resilience, now watch from a distance.
The latest showdown over ticket prices has inflamed ongoing conversations about who really gets to experience the thrill of a live match and what sport means in a society wrestling with rapid change.
According to SA Rugby’s new Test match model, season tickets do not include Test matches.
Edgar Rathbone, CEO at the Bulls, informed suite owners at Loftus Versfeld they need to buy Test tickets for their own suite at the stadiumor clear it out so SA Rugby can sell the suite for the Test against Italy.
Under the new Test model, it has been agreed that all Test venues would get a share of revenues (even in seasons they don’t have a match) to an agreed value).
Over the past 10 years, prices to watch the Springboks, Proteas and Bafana Bafana at home have changed but not in the same way. Top-end Springbok tickets are over 11 times more expensive than Bafana Bafana’s and 3 times more than the Proteas'.
SA Rugby chief executive, Rian Oberholzer, has defended the current ticket prices for Springbok matches following recent criticism from the public. South Africans have turned to social media in recent months to vent their frustrations, with many hesitant to spend their hard-earned money to watch the double world champion Springboks.
Oberholzer maintains that domestic ticket pricing is fair and necessary to keep the sport afloat in South Africa.
"We feel that we are fairly priced," he said during a media briefing, where Hyundai announced they had expanded their collaboration, which will now also include the Springboks and all other national teams, with SA Rugby.
"We have to look after the whole ecosystem of rugby in South Africa — from the Springboks right down to the youngsters starting out at the age of nine. We generate our own funding. We don't receive any funding from elsewhere. We rely on sponsorships and broadcast rights…and a new income stream we have tapped into is events — owning our own events — which benefits more than just the unions hosting the Test matches. There’s now a bit more money to go around."
The ticketing model for Springbok matches has changed in recent years, with SA Rugby now managing the events directly, rather than selling them off to host unions.
Previously, unions would pay SA Rugby a fixed fee and determine their own ticket prices, while also earning revenue from food and beverage sales at the venue. Now, SA Rugby runs the entire matchday operation and retains full control of the Springbok brand.
"[It’s about] controlling your own product," Oberholzer explained. "The Springbok is our biggest income generator. Test matches were previously our smallest income from that brand."
"If you compare it to England and Ireland, where nearly 50% of their income comes from Test matches, ours was around 20%. So, we had to adjust our models to fund our programmes — and more importantly, our unions."
"Previously, most unions received no income from Tests — only those hosting them. Our new model ensures that every union in South Africa benefits from Springbok matches played in the country."
Nevertheless, Oberholzer admitted that ticket pricing would be reviewed at the end of the year, particularly in relation to seats behind the poles, which were once the cheapest but are now almost as costly as prime seats along the touchline.
"We used, as a base, last year’s pricing," he said. "We looked at the ticketing system used in Cape Town for the All Blacks Test and at other unions, where we felt prices had been set too low. There are now four ticket categories. We have a top category and a fourth category, which are our cheaper tickets, to make matches accessible to people from across the board."
"We’ll review the system. Perhaps we made a few mistakes in terms of where the ticket categories were placed. Maybe a category two ticket shouldn’t be behind the goalposts. These are things we are actively working on."
He concluded: "We do believe our pricing is fair. If you look specifically at category one tickets, they’re the first to sell out. But we’re learning from this year, and hopefully by next season, we’ll have the pricing structure exactly right."
All this smells like greed to me. It seems to me that SA Rugby doesn't care about the fans. They are just worried about themselves. If you look at local football and cricket matches, they are thriving. This is all at a minimal ticket price.
As far as I know, those prices barely change. As such, I don't see the need for an increase. I doubt they will change anything that favours the fans. They will just think as to how they will benefit from any possible changes.
As a result, less and less fans will attend matches and instead watch from home, friends etc.. If all this happens, SA Rugby will definitely have egg on their faces.