You must have been snoozing the last 6 odd months. It's been mentioned from the very start that this comp was going to be played in 5 'hubs'. With NZ only getting the one hub, Auckland was the obvious choice.
Do some plane spotting research and you will see that the likes of Honiara, Port Vila etc ain't easy to fly into. Limited flights per week, and for NZ they all go out of Auckland (a Pacific gateway).
It's also not easy I understand to fly within the Island countries, ie getting from Papeete to Port Moresby not that straight forward (likely via Aussie).
The hub concept is all about keeping expenses as low as possible while this baby league tries to stand up and survive.
Sure you lose some gate revenue, as no one is going to turn up to watch SIU verus Tahiti in Melbourne - but the big travel savings will easily compensate for that.
Sounds like SIU will be undertaking some sort of South Island travelling roadshow next month - presumably with a friendly game or two - in a bid to try connect with the SI football community.
Hopefully after this first season the League can move to a proper H&A round robin league. Need an Airline sponsor! Or at least that ChCh/Dunners gets a hub. But baby steps for now.
Edit - and as others have mentioned the best parallel sporting comp is probably the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), 202/20 cricket league. The 6 teams travel around the Caribbean together playing 10 league games each, at 6 different locations, as hubs. A bit like Oceania travel between different Caribbean Islands not so straight forward with their small populations, and spread out nature. But yeah all 6 teams do get to host a hub.
Do some plane spotting research and you will see that the likes of Honiara, Port Vila etc ain't easy to fly into. Limited flights per week, and for NZ they all go out of Auckland (a Pacific gateway).
It's also not easy I understand to fly within the Island countries, ie getting from Papeete to Port Moresby not that straight forward (likely via Aussie).
The hub concept is all about keeping expenses as low as possible while this baby league tries to stand up and survive.
Sure you lose some gate revenue, as no one is going to turn up to watch SIU verus Tahiti in Melbourne - but the big travel savings will easily compensate for that.
Sounds like SIU will be undertaking some sort of South Island travelling roadshow next month - presumably with a friendly game or two - in a bid to try connect with the SI football community.
Hopefully after this first season the League can move to a proper H&A round robin league. Need an Airline sponsor! Or at least that ChCh/Dunners gets a hub. But baby steps for now.
Edit - and as others have mentioned the best parallel sporting comp is probably the Caribbean Premier League (CPL), 202/20 cricket league. The 6 teams travel around the Caribbean together playing 10 league games each, at 6 different locations, as hubs. A bit like Oceania travel between different Caribbean Islands not so straight forward with their small populations, and spread out nature. But yeah all 6 teams do get to host a hub.