Great stuff Niall. I was at a cricket game for my team on Saturday. I
can;t play due to a broken collar bone, but was scoring. While we were
fielding I was sitting with the other team. They were avidly discusiing
the last and upcomming rounds of the EPL, in some detail, and with some
more sophisticated than average analysis and insight.
After 10 -
15 minutes of this, with me wearing my hoopy and a Phoenix cap, I said;
"You guys are obviously into football. Do you go to Phoenix games?" THe
answered ranged from "No, not really" to "Yeah, occasionally - maybe 2
or 3 times a season."
I explained that there had been quite a bit
of discussion amongsat the Yellow Fever about what would help get
crowds along to the Phoenix. And I asked them, what was it that got in
the way of them going?
There reasons, in order were as follows:
1.
The stadium is WAY too big, and you are so far from the pitch. The
Yellow Fever do their best to create a bit of atmosphere, but honestly,
it is lost amongst the cavernous emptiness of the cake tin. It's a crap
venue for watching football. If only they had gone ahead with the Petone
Rec. redevelopment I'd have been there every week.
2. The food
and beer at the stadium is awful, and way over priced. (I pointed out
that they have recently massively improved this, and urged them to give
it another go, and they said that was great news, and that they would.)
3.
The Yellow Fever desperately need some new chants. I told them they
were in luck, that in the off season a big effort had gone into new
chants, that there was a new dedicated Chants section on the Yellow
Fever website, including YouTube videos of the chants, with lyrics, and
the new chants available in the new Yellow Fever app. They said they
would check that out too.
I thought it was interesting that they
didn't even hint at anything to do with results, quality of the A
League, or quality of the Nix team, which seems to have been the
conventional wisdom amongst the invested fans as the things most likely
to affect whether the marginal football fan would attend or not.
These are all bollocks. They are just Euro snobs with no interest in local football.
I hope you told them they were all a bunch of glory-hunting c*nts and they should go and mutually w@nk themselves every Sunday or Monday early morning in front of Premier League Pass.