Each year Cardiff University students rush to secure tickets for the Welsh Varsity between Cardiff University and Swansea University. The competition will be held this year on Wednesday 22nd of April in Cardiff. The competition usually alternates between Swansea and Cardiff as hosts, but Cardiff Student Union made a statement on their website which stated that “Due to significant construction and redevelopment work currently taking place at Swansea’s sports facilities, Swansea University is unable to host the 2026 event.” This meant another year on home turf, as Cardiff hope to defend their title of Welsh Varsity Champions.
Surrounding the competition, the community and the chaos, is often disappointment with the ticketing system for students, whether this be getting tickets on the Cardiff Student Union website or by having to pay above the odds for resale tickets which are not legal to do in the eyes of the Student Union. Many will go missing out on Varsity this year and feel pressured to overpay to find a way into the coveted Welsh sporting event.
Last year, for the 2025 Welsh Varsity the tickets for an all day pass with no rugby access were £27 and a ticket with rugby was £34.50.
This year, for the 2026 Welsh Varsity, tickets for an all day pass with no rugby are £27.50 and with rugby are £35. On top of this, YOLO varsity tickets (which are sold separately) in 2025 were £7.50 and this year they will be £8. This demonstrates a 50p increase in all ticket prices for the Welsh Varsity.
These prices are unheard of in Cardiff. Overheard, a Cardiff University community page for students. On there, ticket prices are hiked up where students attempt to re-sell tickets and maximise their profits.
Those last year who were putting posts out trying to sell their tickets had prices that had more than doubled face value. This is even worse for YOLO varsity tickets with people reselling tickets that were under £10 for over £50! However, the University does not condone this method of reselling.
Gair Rhydd’s head of news got in contact with the Students’ Union and asked what they felt they could do about this and their thoughts on the matter regarding disappointed students and the reselling of tickets. A Student’s Union spokesperson told Gair Rhydd that: “We know that Varsity is one of the biggest sporting moments in the student calendar, and demand for tickets this year has once again been incredibly high. Thousands of students attempted to secure tickets when they went on general sale, and all available tickets were sold within the hour.
While we appreciate this means some students will be disappointed, capacity is set in line with safety and operational requirements to ensure the event runs safely for everyone attending. It’s great to see Varsity remain as popular as ever within the student body.”
The queuing system, which was launched last year, was brought back to manage demand. In previous years, high traffic caused the website to crash during sales. The queuing system is designed to provide the fairest and most transparent way for students to access tickets, and we are pleased that there were no site issues during the release this year.”
We are aware of concerns around ticket resales. We strongly advise against students reselling or repurchasing tickets between themselves. This carries risks and we make the potential issues clear in our FAQs. Tickets purchased outside official channels may not be valid, and we cannot guarantee entry in those cases.”
Despite this, tickets for 2026 Welsh Varsity went on sale on February 4th, there have already been 19 posts about selling or buying Varsity tickets, with offers already increasing to £40- £50 for non-rugby tickets (as of February 16th), with some posts having up to 20 comments trying for a place at the sporting event.
So, the issue is ongoing with almost half of these posts being uploaded on February 4th, the date the official sale was ran, with people posting that they feel “desperate” already. This is where the issue lies, supply and demand, even when the use of tickets that have been bought via avenues such as Overheard could possibly be invalid, the fear of missing out creates impulse purchases and a culture of overpaying and possible disappointment all over again.