The NRL have been forced to apologise to South Sydney Rabbitohs members after a technical error saw them unable to buy tickets for this week’s sudden-death finals clash with old foes the Sydney Roosters.
The NRL sent an incorrect promotional code to Rabbitohs members, which meant that Souths members were locked out of the ticket purchase when it went live at 10am. It was nearly an hour before the situation was fixed.
The Sydney Morning Herald has revealed that the South Sydney club took over 500 calls in that time from furious supporters demanding to know why they couldn’t purchase tickets.
“It was really disappointing for all our members and the club that we couldn’t buy tickets when we should have been able to,” club CEO Blake Solly told the Herald.
“Hopefully the delay hasn’t stopped people from getting online to get tickets. To be fair to the NRL, they called us to apologise and confirmed they would send an apology email to all our members this afternoon.
“The NRL said they would put additional bays on hold for Souths members. I’m still confident our passionate members will be the majority on Sunday.
The NRL has also addressed the issue.
“The error was rectified quickly and tickets were made available,” an NRL spokesperson said.
“Additional seating holds were placed to ensure that any affected members have still been able to access seating within the ticketed members window timeframe.”
It’s believed the mix-up occurred over an error that has become a constant for the Rabbitohs and the NRL – with confusion between the terms ‘Rabbitohs’ and ‘Souths’, and which one is being used.
It’s not the first time the issue has caused headaches, with nearly every South Sydney game of the regular season spawning multiple hashtags on social media. The tags are regularly promoted by the NRL.
The elimination final between the traditional foes kicks off at 4.05pm Sunday, September 11.
