The ticket price isn't as much the issue as I think the promotion is. A lot of people could be mistaken for not realising a test match was on last night, considering that the ARU hasn't exactly done a great job promoting the series. I haven't seen one FTA TV commercial (granted, I would watch little to no TV during the week) and only the rare sports section bottom of the page ad. France is never going to automatically sell out like a Lions series (which the ARU also did a piss poor job of promoting) and it doesn't have the natural built in rivalry like a Bledisloe Cup match.
Maybe a sell out wasn't realistic, but 40,000+ for a test match in Brisbane, the only city in the country where neither the AFL or soccer have much of a reach, should be doable. The RG-era Reds have been pulling in more than 33,000, and I'd estimate the crowd last night was made up of many of the same folks. The ARU have the most promotable sports star in the country in Folau, a team with a fairly squeaky clean image, a new coach and are coming off an EOYT that was all sorts of successful. The selling job should have been done much earlier and much more effectively to get bums on seats.
Price is still an issue. $220 is a lot of money to take a family to the rugby, and it comes much closer to $300 when you factor in Suncorp's exorbitant food and drink prices. Hopefully last night's performance gets some Melbournians on seats and Sydneysiders a week later, because that was the most attractive and exciting game of rugby I've watched all year.