North Island is Best Island?
(Yikes, first blog in almost a year! Not going to pretend to be a regular blogger this season, but will post thoughts on here when they occur to me. Apologies for the outdated state of this blog)
Today, the Wellington Phoenix announced plans to play two regular-season matches outside of the Wellington region, facing Brisbane in Student City Dunedin during the university holidays, and Adelaide United in Auckland, sometimes referred to as “The City That Football Forgot”.
…don’t worry, this blog won’t be THAT negative!
Firstly, my policy on taking matches away from Wellington. I’m all for it, albeit within reason. I very much support the idea of the Phoenix being Wellington’s team, catering to Wellingtonians first and foremost. However expansion of the brand and bring the team closer to our many fantastic fans outside of the capital is a wise move, and can be afforded without overly compromising our Wellingtonian credentials.
Personally, I believe the best system may be rotation. In odd-numbered seasons, a match each in Auckland and Dunedin, in even-numbered seasons, a match each in Christchurch and Hamilton. That would offer easier access every year for fans outside of the Lower North Island, whilst not taking too many matches away from the Ring of Fire. Couple this with pre-season matches in regional centres (a senior-team visit to Napier is well overdue) and we have a reasonable spread.
So at the base level, I have no problem with the Phoenix allocating a home match to Auckland. The Dunedin match is perhaps even better due to it being a designated neutral-venue fixture. No loss for Wellington there! However, looking at both fixtures closer, I am somewhat skeptical.
Dunedin’s 15,000 pre-season attendance was brilliant. The city certainly deserves a regular season match, and I’ll be investigating heading down myself. The local crowd and the stadium itself drew rave reviews from every Wellingtonian who made the trip. However, I see a worrying parallel between this fixture allocation and the infamous “Ring of Dirt” match in Palmerston North. Whilst it was never going to be a sell-out, scheduling a match during university holidays is not necessarily the best move for a city largely populated by students. Dunedin is bigger, but could see the same problem. Throw in the midweek nature of the match and the FFA has placed a significant barrier for the attendance of out-of-towners. Obviously this involves anyone from outside the region, including travelling Wellingtonians, but I’m certainly aware of the impact this will have on our significant Christchurch fanbase. That city has earned the title of WPFC’s second home, and it wasn’t until Lancaster Park was declared too damaged that club management cancelled a third fixture in as many seasons. One could suggest that no group of citizens outside of Wellington has a right to see the Phoenix nearby, but Canterbury’s fans make a pretty good argument against that.
It should, however, be pointed out that this is a blunder on the part of the FFA, not Wellington. I mean seriously – a midweek fixture to be specifically allocated outside of the fanbase of either team eligible to host it?
Secondly, Auckland. Anyone who knows me on Yellow Fever already knows the negative points I see regarding this, so I’ll start with the positive. The Phoenix are not the Knights, nor the Kingz. Nor do the anti-Phoenix moaners associated with Auckland City FC represent all of Auckland (nor, for that matter, ACFC’s fanbase). Auckland has done a bit to earn a reputation of being an anti-football city, but is this reputation fair? I’ve met plenty of fantastic supporters of the region, both those travelling down for matches and the many who interact with me on Twitter. Upon my visit to Albany for the All Whites’ match against New Caledonia, I, along with a couple other travelling Wellingtonians, were warmly adopted i nto a group of Bloc 5 members (Bloc 5 being the supporters group for the Kingz/Knights). The All Whites friendly against Honduras drew a larger crowd than the following fixture in Wellington – and whilst I maintain Wellington’s attendance vs. Paraguay was a better result given population base and the midweek scheduling (excuses, excuses…), Aucklanders certainly came out in force. It has also been suggested that a large proportion of supporters at the Ring of Fire on one particular November night in 2009 were Aucklanders. Perhaps it is not Auckland who failed the A-League, but the A-League who failed Auckland. Would a well-run Knights be as successful as the Phoenix have been? (Recent ownership-related issues notwithstanding…)
To be honest, I can’t really say. I never had any involvement with Auckland-based professional football . All I can really say regarding Auckland itself is that, as the largest city in our country and as the capital of our economy, it would be insane to not even consider a fixture there.
My only criticism of this move is not to do with Auckland itself, rather to do with the ignoring of a far more deserving candidate. Dunedin won hosting rights partly through the fantastic showing for their pre-season fixture. Before that match was played, the pre-season success was Hamilton. 9,000 fans – a number certainly contributed to by fans travellington from Auckland and the Bay of Plenty – cheered the Phoenix on against the Roar in one of New Zealand’s best football stadiums. So how does the club thank them? By letting Auckland jump the queue. I have no problem with Auckland hosting a match. However I do feel Dunedin and Hamilton should have been higher prioritiesed, with Auckland immediately next on the list. A match in Hamilton would have rewarded that city for their homegrown support, while still providing Aucklanders a chance to see the Phoenix relatively nearby.
One last thing. The decision to play in Eden Park ahead of North Harbour Stadium is, as far as this Wellingtonian can tell, the best move. I’ve attended sporting fixtures at all three major stadiums in Auckland, and I certainly agree that the location of North Harbour Stadium does pose travel issues for locals. The only problem I can see with Mount Smart Stadium is the lack of a decent bar nearby, but from what I can ascertain it too is less than convenient. I have not been to Eden Park since the re-development, but the key here is location. A large factor of Wellington’s success is that the Ring of Fire is the best-located stadium in the country in terms of reachability. My only concern with Eden Park is the risk of a cavernous atmosphere robbing fans of the best part of a match-day experience. Westpac Stadium has this issue as well, however this is taken into account through the roping off of the northwest quarter. If tickets at Eden Park are allocated in order to seat patrons closely together, perhaps involving the roping off of upper tiers, this could be mitigated. Throw in facilities staff as good as we have in Wellington, as opposed to the abysmal staff present for the Honduras match, and we could have a cracker on our hands.
Attendance predictions?
Dunedin – Less than ten thousand.
Auckland – More than ten thousand.
Gold Coast – Less than ten.
Wow, it’s been exactly a month since I last made a post…
