AFL warns fans on unauthorised grand final tickets

Shayne Hope |

The AFL has warned fans against buying unauthorised tickets for the Sydney-Brisbane grand final.
The AFL has warned fans against buying unauthorised tickets for the Sydney-Brisbane grand final.

AFL chief executive Andrew Dillon is convinced the league has avoided a ticketing disaster and has warned fans against purchasing unauthorised tickets for the sold-out grand final.

At least 1000 corporate hospitality tickets for Saturday’s Sydney-Brisbane decider were illegally downloaded this week, forcing the league to cancel the barcodes on impacted tickets.

The scheduled delivery of those tickets was delayed on Tuesday, with replacements set to be issued.

“We’ve been able to deal with that swiftly” Dillon said on Wednesday.

“We now know that all the affected parties, and it was a very small number of tickets affected, have been advised of that.

“The message from us here at the AFL is that grand final tickets sell out, and if you’re looking to purchase tickets now, you’ve got to be careful about that because there’s every chance that they won’t be authorised tickets.”

Victoria Police and the AFL’s integrity unit are investigating the unauthorised access to the corporate hospitality tickets across the AFL Event Office platform.

“It’s a very small number of corporate tickets, so it’s no general admission tickets. It’s in the small four figures,” Dillon said.

“We alerted Victoria Police as soon as we became aware of it.

“It’s through a third-party provider who looks after some of our corporate hospitality packages.”

The AFL said customers impacted were those holding tickets purchased from the event office for hospitality experiences Before the Bounce; Crown Grand Final Breakfast; Grand Final Plus Pass; The Hassett Room; Ultimate Nobu and; Ultimate Suite.

The AFL said club, AFL, MCC and Medallion Club members, as well as corporate suite holders and September Club were not impacted.

AAP