Arsenal has announced it will not be making any ticket price increases next season. This will be the sixth season since the move to Emirates Stadium 10 seasons ago that prices have been held. The club will continue offering a range of discounted tickets for young fans and for the Capital One Cup. This can amount to as many as 300,000 tickets for as little as £5 ($7.57) (Arsenal). ... Tennis fans "preparing to flock to the Australian Open have been urged to buy tickets before the first ball is served" to avoid being stung with an added A$5 ($4.11) expense. A "tournament fee" of A$5 "will apply to any tickets bought at the gate or online once the grand slam event starts at Melbourne Park on Monday." The cost of ground passes have also risen from A$34 last year to A$39 for the first week of the tournament and are up A$5 to A$54 for the middle weekend (HERALD SUN, 1/16). ... The Int'l Cycling Union (UCI) confirmed that the men's and women's Rio 2016 Olympic road race course has been adapted and will now start and finish at Copacabana beach. With a combination of steep climbs and descents, and long flat coastal sections, the road race will pass through Ipanema, São Conrado, Barra da Tijuca, Grumari, and Vista Chinesa. The total race distance will be 256.4km for men and 130.3km for women (UCI).
NINES FANS MISS OUT: New Zealand Rugby League CEO Phil Holden wants the NRL's 16 clubs to "return to promotional community activities at next year's Auckland Nines tournament." Holden is "disappointed the clubs have dramatically wound back their commitments to local clubs during this year's event, set for Eden Park at the end of the month." At last year's inaugural tournament, "all teams visited clubs and communities around the city during the build-up" (STUFF, 1/16).
ORGANIZERS DEFEND PRICES: Duco Events CEO Martin Snedden has defended the "sharp rise in ticket prices" for this year's Auckland Nines. Last year the price of a gold ticket for the two-day event was NZ$229, this year it's NZ$303 ($236), while the bronze tickets have jumped from NZ$99 to NZ$153. Snedden: "Last year was really cheap, that's the truth of it. Part of that was to get the thing off the ground and get it started. This year the prices have gone up" (STUFF, 1/16).
