Growing concerns about ’empty’ Ellis Park for Springboks
· The South African
The Springboks’ high-profile Nations Championship opener against England at Ellis Park this Saturday increasingly looks likely to be played out in front of a disappointing crowd in Johannesburg.
According to Rapport, only about 21,000 tickets had been sold by last Wednesday, leaving plenty of seats available at the 62,000-capacity venue.
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With ticket prices ranging from R950 to R3,000, attending the Test has become financially restrictive for many households, and again it has left fans questioning the lack of affordable ticket prices.
SA Rugby believes economic pressures have contributed to the sluggish sales – citing global geopolitical tensions and a change in spending patterns – but the governing body is hopeful of a late surge before kick off.
It also comes at a time when many of the Lions’ games at Ellis Park have seen extremely low support turnouts due to the fact that Ellis Park is located in a notoriously dangerous part of town.
Springbok fans point out Ellis Park problems
SA rugby continues to drop the ball 🏉❌
— Koshiek Karan (@iamkoshiek) June 29, 2026
the Springboks play England this weekend facing possibly the emptiest Ellis Park stadium in 18 years
vast majority of tickets available are priced at R1,750- R3,000… out of reach for most loyal fans pic.twitter.com/T879cI6WkG
I know it’s tomorrow’s problem, but good luck filling those stadiums once Rassie steps down. He’s the glue holding South African rugby together and driving its growth. SA Rugby is becoming greedy and increasingly ignorant of who its audience is, and who actually buys its…
— Captain Springbok (@CaptSpringbok) June 28, 2026
Disappointed that Ellis Park will not be sold out for Springboks v England on Saturday.
— Will Kelleher (@willgkelleher) June 28, 2026
Depressing sign of the times? Not great for the Nations Championship. Despite expensive tickets and a flood to the local market, gotta sell out big Tests.@TimesSporthttps://t.co/n19NXBul55
SA Rugby: Now blame the low ticket sales on the Iran war and not the pricing pic.twitter.com/24pXSel0WI
— Boet Spencer 🏆🏆🏆🏆 (@Spring_n_Boks) June 28, 2026
a) It has nothing to do with the Iran war, unless they’re hopeful that all the ANC cadres getting money from Iran were going to attend.
— Captain Springbok (@CaptSpringbok) June 28, 2026
b) Make tickets cheaper.
c) Stop playing games at Ellis Park.
d) Time to close Ellis Park. https://t.co/NDDv9e8D2t
Almost like it's a bad idea to give JHB 3 tests in one test season and think the same people will come out and pay R3500 3 times
— Suffering Sharks Fan (@CapeSaakie) June 28, 2026
SARU deserves this https://t.co/FB5fJl74z4
R950 for a ticket is extortionate. No wonder the sales are poor. SARU must learn from this. https://t.co/AlIt8XtP0d
— Andrew Fraser (@Arfness) June 28, 2026
Ticket prices again in question
Last month, the Springboks opened their 2026 season against the Barbarians front of a crowd of 26 398 in Gqeberha, and again there were numerous empty seats across large parts of the stadium.
Many fans took to social media to suggest that they had been priced out of purchasing due to the fact that many tickets were only available for around R1000 for this ‘warm-up game’.
For the inaugural Nations Championship Tests in South Africa, there had been a reassurance from SA Rugby that there would be a larger number of ‘affordable’ tickets.
Tickets, priced from only R450 (England Test), R375 (Scotland Test) and R250 (Wales Test), went on sale in early April. However, those also disappeared in the blink of an eye, and many fans have once again had to fork out serious money to watch the Springboks live this year.