2012 Friendly Discussion

Alright, let's represent this with (completely fabricated) numbers.

Let's say 13,000 (X+Y) people would go to a Saturday match, and 6,000 (X) would go to a Wednesday match. The difference of 7,000 (Y) includes anyone who won't travel to Albany, won't come up from Auckland, etc. So you're complaining about 7,000 people missing out.

That's still 6,000 people who get to go to a match. You complain about 7,000 opting out (those who wouldn't go on Wed), yet the only alternative is 13,000 people miss out (those who would go + those who wouldn't go on Wed).

NZF has no control over the venue nor the date. Eden Park is impossible. Saturday is impossible. The only options are "play a match under mediocre conditions" or "don't play a match at all".  As one of the 6,000 - I'm happy with the decision.

The last time the All Whites payed a mid-week game here 16,000 people turned up (vs Paraguay in Wellington).

I would think NZF would be happy with that as a turn-out in Auckland.

Are we really saying that we don't expect Auckland to get at least 15,000 for this game, regardless of the venue?

Anyway, the All Whites need to get games against CONCACAF opposition takes priority. If this was a friendly against mid-tier Asian opposition I might feel differently, but this is a good decision NZF.

Mate, i think/hope your maths is really out because I would call it' a disaster if 10k turn up to this game rather then 6k. If 6k turns up then the entire board of NZ football should resign

If you want to do numbers look at dunedin. Ahmad gets 15k for a preseason game

He then gets thrown a hospital pass for a a proper league game and gets 4

FFS its not that hard to drive over the bridge, thousands of Aucklanders do it everyday. Rush hour traffic will be over by the time people come, and actually rush hour isnt so bad these days. There is plenty of parking in the area, it is a stadium where you are close to the action (far closer than Mt Eden or Mt Smart), if you buy your ticket beforehand you can stroll in. 

Didnt you read above about the limitations in scheduling
.??
Havent seen such rubbish in a while. Dont come if you dont want to, stay at home and moan

 

I'll be there mate but thousands won't be and NZ football and you no doubt will be the ones moaning

Let's see what they and you say after the game

Look here mate, you wont see me moaning about a thing, before or after  (except if Smeltz misses a sitter. )

From a "grow the game", "capitalise on the World Cup successes", and "learn from the mistakes of '82" point of view, I tend to agree with AucklandPhoenix.

Yep, I'll be there.

As for Gareth - the Nix have a lot more flexibility about choosing the venue and the date for a Phoenix game than NZF about playing an All Whites game here in New Zealand.

I'm dumbfounded - so having the All Whites play decent opposition at home is somehow going against all these things? How exactly?

Need to remove barriers and perceived barriers to attend and bolster crowds with as many casual fans as possible and let them ride the bandwagon.

The hardcore will be there regardless.

If the All Whites play at a half empty ground and no casual sports fans who have modest interest in football are there to watch it, did it really happen in the minds of general sports fans who might be swayed towards football?

Mate, my math was perfect. 13,000 - 7,000 = 6,000. And 6,000 > 0.

And the real math behind my point?
Where X > 0
and Y > 0
(X+Y) - Y > 0.

The numbers I gave were, as stated, completely made up. They were not intended to represent any estimation on my part.

Double the numbers if you absolutely must. 26K for Saturday, 14K for Wednesday. 14,000 is still more than 0. 12K miss out, but the alternative is 26K missing out.

You complain about a quantity of people who won't attend. You propose no realistic alternative that would allow them to do so. The only known alternative is that a greater number are unable to attend.


As for Dunedin - there were good reasons for the second match to get less than the first. Just as there are good reasons for Jamaica to potentially get less than Honduras. Both exist outside of ideal circumstances. The Phoenix have already stated that they'd consider playing in Dunedin again next season - and hopefully if they do, they won't have to deal with poor conditions imposed by the FFA and their own mistakes. Just as NZF would consider having the All Whites play at home again - and hopefully not deal with the poor conditions imposed by Eden Park and FIFA.

Of course we'll blame Auckland if the fans don't turn up. I'm sure Wellington would pull a decent crowd mid week and if Christchurch had a stadium I'd put my bottom dollar they'd pull more through the gate than the super city. It's really up to the fans to turn up nobody else. (To be fair I live in rural Canterbury and know f**k all about Auckland rush hour traffic but there you have it.)

Regardless, if we lose a bit of money over this exercise is it not worth it to qualify for 2014 and bring home another $13m?

Do you understand how hard it is to get any decent team to come and play the All Whites here at any given time? And now NZF manage to organise such a game, it's not good enough because some people may not be able to go? Do you realise that the All Whites have not played in this country for 16 months? So you're saying that it is better for All Whites not to play in NZ for an even longer time? What good is that going to do for anyone? If people don't see the team playing here, how much more likely will they be to take a day off and watch them play the next time they're scheduled to play here on a Wednesday night? Or why would NZF even bother trying to organise another game if this is the prevailing attitude?

Jesus you'd have thought that the game is being played on a remote mountain top that requires a 4-day trek to get to, while having to brave snow blizzards and fight off ravenous wolves with bare hands.

There are 35 or so friendly internationals being played that day along with a host of qualifiers and confederational tournaments. I wonder how many people around the world are complaining about a home international because it's on a Wednesday?

I didn't realise that it is impossible for a weekend fixture to ever be arranged (can someone confirm this?).

In that case this is understandable and we'll just have to make the most of it.

Schools/clubs need to be offered "friends of football" concessions. Clubs in Hamilton and whatever is driving distance North of Auckland should be offered the same.

TRANSPORT should be bundled and organised to make it possible for people to reasonable attend. In particular families. As much as possible (IMO) there should be a push for families to attend. Kids are the future of the game and "pester power" will lead to kids asking their parents to bring them back next time.

For adults/students there should be promotions to encourage early bird sales. Stick to your pricing and don't piss people off by dropping ticket prices if sales are disappointing in the lead up.

All the points raised about why this is a bad idea are useful - they allow Auckland a checklist of things they must tackle to make this a huge success.

Come on Auckland, Come on Auckland!

Sorry Ahmad, but the biggest barrier to attendance would be to not have a game at all.

The World Cup is not going to be played at NZ's convenience. It is a fixed length of time away and we need to make the most of opportunities like this one in between now and then.

Yes, of course NZF will make all the usual noises about needing a big crowd and "Auckland's last chance" etc etc but AucklandPhoenix is making all sorts of assumptions about the finances behind this and what sort of crowd is necessary to break even (and even whether NZF can afford to take a loss on this just to get the AW's playing).

Let's just all hope it's at Mt Smart then eh??

Terminator, in terms of your reference to mid week crowd numbers the game you quoted was held in wellington which could handle a mid week game

If you check my history you would see I am all for having games in Auckland and proposed a long time ago a game for the nix at Eden park which would pull 20k. If this game was in the right window (which is not difficult), on a saturday and at Eden park it would pull minimum 25k

If new Zealand football is happy to run this game at a loss then fine. if however they start mentioning crowd figures and the word break even then someone needs to be fired

Let's see what they sayAucklandPhoenix2012-01-21 19:14:52

What window would that be then, give us the date.

Early June, check the beginning of the thread

Like I said earlier, they are going to say all that stuff regardless of the real story. I don't think anyone needs to be fired just because a few Aucklanders are sensitive about the possibility of a small crowd.

Akld.  You have been given an international game.  Wgtn and the South Island haven't.  Deal with it.

I see that, in the middle of the off season, in the winter here, in the rugby/league seasons.

I thnk that with 6 weeks to market it there will be a good crowd. Dont panic...

It's not like this will be the last game the All Whites ever play. I'm all for having a weekend game in June but it's obviously not a case of one or the other.

Instead if complaining about the timing of the game I'm going to man up and take on rush hour in both Hamilton and Auckland, get a good nights sleep the night before so I'm still good for work on Thursday and generally just deal with whatever stadium it is. Anything is worth seeing my favourite team play.

Auckland:

I say fly up White Noise instructors to teach drinking and chanting 2 or 3 days a week until the game...

and yep- some transport direct to and from downtown would be a winner you would think, though the reality is if you live in suburbs west south or east of Auckland the travel time there and back is over an hour, and the stadium isn't as good I think. But if I lived on the Shore it'd be more convenient.

Jamaica gotta be saleable right? Something a bit different. Get Ifill out- is there a Barbados/Jamaica rivalry? Uncle Bob football? Specials for football clubs, kids families pre-purchase etc?

Also which All Whites are confirmed?

And, who, exactly, are you going to play? Early June window has AFC/CONCACAF/CAF/CONMEBOL World Cup qualifiers, and of course EURO 2012 starts then also. Not to mention that New Zealand will be involved in the OFC Nations Cup around that time also. So who are you going to play? One of the teams knocked out of Asia by then? Pakistan? India? Sri Lanka? Yeah, those teams are really going to attract a massive crowd on a rainy day in June...

By the way, I would appreciate if people brought some basic knowledge of the way international football works to this thread before moaning their arses off.

I thought most people loved to moan

Sorry I didn't realise knowledge was needed to post in this thread or forum. The posts I see from day-to-day must have given me the wrong impression about the pre-requisites.

But in all seriousness there really is no need to get so up tight when people are ignorant of the facts which you are in possession of.

Tell us. Move on. As above - you point it out. I was educated.

I think there is a Jamaica vs Rest of the WIndies rivalry.  Sort of like Akld vs NZ.

Ha forgot Warner too- get Iffy and Warner leading the chants at the park...any famous Jamaican players?

That is my plan from the Waikato too. I have no time for anyone living in Auckland saying it is too far to travel(except those with small kids.)

To me this game is more about giving the AW,s a game against the sort of opposition they might come up against in the WC qualifiers. Absolutely brilliant for NZF to arrange this match. It shows they are being totally professional in giving the team the right buildup to the WC. So they might make a loss, thats their call. But its an investment in the future. The better prepared the team are the higher the probability they will qualify for the next WC and deliver NZF another $10 million payday.

El grap, noted on the June window and fair point

However in the last 16 months there have been plenty of opportunities to do this friendly right. If nz football start talking before or after about breaking even on this game then they have no one else to blame for the f$&@k up then themselves (and those that support them)

Let's see what the crowd is and their reactionAucklandPhoenix2012-01-24 21:41:38

This is what I'm trying to explain to you - there aren't plenty of opportunities for NZ to get decent opposition to play friendlies in NZ.

You're really looking at the February and August friendly windows (both are midweek, and February is a better option because of the weather), and a select few windows in a 4-year cycle when there is decent opposition available (September/October windows in a World Cup year when CONMEBOL teams are usually free). The June window in the year following the World Cup is a possibility for European teams (it's a EURO qualifying window, but not all European teams like to schedule what may be important games at the end of the season), so you may find an available team or two, but then you'd still have to convince them to trek half way around the world at the end of the season to play, for them, a meaningless friendly. Not an easy task, that's why we have to embrace each and every friendly game the All Whites get to play here as you never know when the next one may be.el grapadura2012-01-25 13:10:33

f**king A.

I'm just stoked that there is a game at all.
Wednesday-Schmensday, better than nothing.

Traffic won't be that bad, as I'm guessing it will be a early evening kickoff when rush hour has died down.

Can't wait for this game!
michaelme2012-01-25 14:28:44

http://www.nzfootball.co.nz/index.php?id=11&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1560&tx_ttnews[backPid]=10&cHash=09ed161e8a

wow this came out of no where.  Playing Honduras and El Salvador in May both games in the USA.

Edit: Hang on it is April fools day this could be a joke



George Costanza2012-04-01 08:33:20