Six week stadium loss.

Take that back! it's a beautiful cricket ground.

Admittedly no good for A-league football though.

So only one person has even mentioned QEII.  I figure if we want to play 6 games in Aussie, 5 if we're mercifully given a bye, where we'll probably get very few points then that'll be a horrible time for Phoenix supporters.  We need the odd home win to punctuate poor away form.  I'd say one in Auckland at whatever free stadium they have, and one at QEII.  Or, one at either of the previous two mentioned and one bye.

Gold Coast have only played 4 games with two byes in the first 6 weeks on the competition. And if there is a FIFA international window, we could possibly only play 3 games in that period, all away.

This does depend if next season is 11 teams (Rovers/Jets looking dodgy), otherwise no byes and all 6 away with a run of 6 games at home later in the season.Bullion2010-09-17 16:49:09

As someone has said, if they play away for the entire period, then there will be a run of home matches later in the season.

The positive from this is that if the team maintains its home form, having a home game each week (instead of every second week) could see an increase in crowd sizes. This would offset losses from the RWC. wolfman2010-09-17 17:21:52

1900 and yes, nice stand. Hard News2010-09-17 17:22:30

No more trotting and greyhounds there?

This is gonna be a nightmare. I think wherever we go we'll be playing in front of a small crowd. Could have been quite cool if some of the foreign rugby supporters could have taken a break from Rugby and gone and seen some football here.

I hope we get an international window, 2 byes and three away games. But I think there will be at least one game at home.

Alternatively, I wonder how fast we could get a purpose built, Phoenix owned football stadium up by.

If there's only one then Mt Smart of QEII wouldn't be too bad, along with Carisbrook. But what about Stadiums that only host two RWC games? It would never happen, but Nelson for example, if they can get 11,000 to a Tasman Makos game, I can guarantee you'd get the same for an A-League fixture. Same goes with any smaller city in NZ.

Queenstown?

Largest suitable venues not in use for RWC:

Mt Smart (30,000): would have to work around an NRL schedule as well possibly.
QEII: Big enough (20,000 capacity) but not the greatest viewing experience, (scale down Rustenburg stadium where we played Slovakia to get a general idea.)
Carisbrook:29,000 capacity. Possibly last major sporting event to occur there. England rugby team is also based in Dunedin for the RWC, so good potential to get a good amount of those supporters along. Plus the students.

Bring the A-League to the deep south!

I was reading an article about this for the ITM Cup Final. They are favouring Palmerston North because they only have to give the venue up 10 days before the game starts. Which means the Nux could probably use Palmerston North up till the 18th September and use it following the last game in Palmerston North on October 2nd. Egan2010-09-17 17:52:13

request 3 games away during that period, then 3 home games to be played at.......um.......

to be honest, Porirua Park is all right.

There is also rumours that the A-League season might start in October. If thats the case there is no issues.

By the sounds of things Palmerston's stadium is horrendous.  Personally, I think that a few home games around the country could do alright due to foreigners here for the World Cup, whether the locals would bother, though, is another matter entirely.  I like the Carisbrook idea, actually.

What about temp seating on the otherside of Newtown Park? The ground could end up jammed packed with a massive atmosphere.

Would be a trip that I would make for sure.

Oath.I'd feel duty bound to show my support.Stand up

I think a few people are over-estimating how much people will actually care about the phoenix around world cup time. A huge amount of football supporters, even the most committed fans, will get fully involved in the rugby during this time, and it wouldn't surprise me if nix crowds suffer enormously. To be completely honest, I probably fall into this category. I love the phoenix, and I would pay to watch them over the lions, canes, or even most all blacks games anyday, but the RWC is potentially the largest sports tournament this country will ever host. The fact that somewhere like porirua park only has a 2000 capacity might not even matter, as crowds may well be this small anyway. That's why I think 4-6 games in a row across the ditch wouldn't be so bad, especially given the consecutive home games we would get. I also think that holding out hope that overseas visitors will be drawn to the football is wishful thinking at it's finest.


The only other thought I had was will the Phoenix receive some sort of compensation from the NZRU? It wouldn't surprise me if they didn't do too badly

Would prefer away matches in all honesty.

With the RWC on, no other sport is going to get within earshot.
No one will care except die hard fans, and even half of them will want to go to a couple games at the stadium, which are not cheap. Don't think it matters where in NZ they would play a home game the crowd would be very low.

im for away games personally. but dunedin would be all good..!..

if for some reason there are more than one home game played putside of Wgtn I want a discount on my season pass........6 weeks will mean potentially three of these games, I'm sure many fans won't be able to attend.....hopefully there is a solution in Wellington, P-town looked pretty good in the preseason games.

Timing it so that only away matches happen in the period would be good. Maybe asking too much - although no more bizarre than the way the draw works right now with the GCU bye situation.

Best compromise is one (away)home game at either QE2 or Mt Smart (or even Dunedin). Best venue would depend on timing and the ability to complement what is happening RWC-wise in respective cities.

As others have stated, because there will be wall-to-wall RWC coverage, maybe not such a bad thing for Nix to lie low for a month and a half. And then when it is all over the general punter will either be so heartily sick of rugby, or deflated through yet another AB early demise, or left with a "that was it?" feeling, that a good old Nix home game will be like a breath of fresh air.

Not all bad at all.

If we play a home game a few days after the rugby wc semi finals, we will get a bumper crowd as the whole country will hate rugby after seeing us choke again.

How has nobody brought this up! Rugby is doomed

Providing we make the semis of course.

Big time this. There is no point even discussing playing games at some poxy little Wellington park, just so the game is in Wellington. Might as well share the love, get a bit of exposure and expand the fan base. Admittedly this will be difficult as all the public's and media's attention will be on the rugby, but we might as well make the most out of what is a sh*tty and unfortunate situation.

It is quite possible some of the dates will coincide with the later stages of the RWC, so larger venues may be available to be used (NHS, Hamilton). I haven't looked at the dates because I'm lazy and I've had a long day - forgive me!

In order I'd like to see games at (excluding those that may become available later on):
Mt Smart
Carisbrook
QEII
Queenstown

Carisbrook ftw! last game in the stadiums' history. Screw dorkland, take the game down south!

Nice mate. Real mature.

If we were able to get into Palmerston's showgrounds straight after their last WC game, then those fences will still be down giving a clear view of the pitch. I am presuming RWC won't allow the bloody things to be up. That seemed to be the only negative about the place to me last time. I know soem moaned about the pitch but I thought it looked alright. AND its only 2 hours from me..... 

another thought, some of those grounds are likely to be training venues for RWC teams and not available either.

Might as well have it in Napier... I'm keen!

No dirt tracks please. That's you out too, Tauranga.

I'd very much love this to happen.

If we're playing Perth they could run Sprintcars at the same time and run some of them over.

Has floodlights, Rotorua and Hamilton about 1 hours drive away, Taupo and Auckland about two hours so could get football fans from those areas in.
No RWC games in Tauranga so there will be accommodation available...

And I can walk there from my place

damn, first season where I might not consider buying a season pass. No way we can afford to travel to these 'home' games unfortunately.

The point someone made about other grounds being handed over to RWC teams for training is true. Porirua park is definitely booked for RWC and i would not be surprised to hear that other parks such as QE11 and Carisbrook and maybe even newtown and Hutt park are out too.