Minister for Tourism and Major Events, George Souris today joined legendary former Australian Rugby player Nick Farr-Jones and newly appointed Chief Executive Bill Pulver to officially announce tickets for the 2013 British and Irish Lions Australian rugby tour will go on sale tomorrow.
18 February 2013Mr Souris said the Lions tour is one of the most significant sports events in Australia this year and demand for tickets will be extremely high. It is the peak combined touring representative team of the “home countries” England, Scotland, Wales and all-Ireland.
“This is the 125th anniversary of the first British and Irish Lions Tour and the first time since 2001 the Lions will play in Australia,” Mr Souris said.
“The NSW Government, through our tourism and major events agency Destination NSW, successfully secured three of the nine Lions tour matches of Australia including the prized final Test in Sydney.
“These matches will start on Tuesday 11 June at Newcastle’s Hunter Stadium with a match against Combined NSW-Queensland Country, then on Saturday 15 June at Sydney’s Allianz Stadium against the NSW Waratahs, and on Saturday 6 July at Sydney’s ANZ Stadium against the Qantas Wallabies for the third and final test match of the series.
“This most anticipated tour will bring about $50 million in new money to NSW and an army of at least 20,000 international visitors. These visitors will make trips to regional NSW and take in many tourist experiences and attractions on offer.
“There will be strong interest from Australian and international Rugby fans, so I urge everyone to purchase tickets early to this rugby experience of a lifetime to avoid disappointment.”
“Last time the Lions came to Australia in 2001, tickets to all three Lions Tests sold out in a matter of minutes - Ticketek reported more than 2.1 million hits on their website during the 20 minutes that Sydney Test tickets were on sale. Recent ticket pre-sales have also proven Lions tickets are high in demand with many fans rushing to secure their seats”.
Mr Souris said the Lions tour complemented the State’s line-up of major sporting events on the 2013 NSW Events Calendar including the annual Bledisloe Cup Test, 2014 FIFA World Cup Asian Qualifiers, an Australian exclusive match between English Premier League giants Manchester United and the Australian All Stars team, and two rugby league State of Origin games in Sydney. These will be interspersed with great NRL rugby league club clashes, Waratahs in Super 15 rugby, big encounters in AFL Aussie Rules and our own FFA football clashes.
“It will be one of the greatest ever football winters in NSW”, Mr Souris said.
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