Tend to agree. As long as AFC ain't completely hopeless results wise, can see them averaging crowds around 10-12K in their first season. Novelty factor, is NZ's biggest city after all, and just it being sooo long without a pro football club in the 09.
What will be very interesting, is how they do their marketing and whole match day experience compared to the Nix. From memory Foley said he would be bringing over some staff from his LA Golden Knights NHL organisation, and as the saying goes 'America does sports well'. Certainly looking now & again at the Twitter feeds of MLS clubs like Vancouver, Portland and Minnesota they do that whole match day pre game experience impressively. And Foley ain't short of moolah, so be interesting to see what they come up with.
I've only been to Mt Smart once, but from memory there is a no 2 playing ground alongside where you can pitch tents pre game, have lots of pre match promotional stuff for kids etc etc. You can't really do that with the ROF
But at the end of the day, results will be the main driver to how big crowds are. Though yeah as AP says above, even in a season where the Warriors are a lowly 13th (of 17 teams), every home match has been sold out. Helps with the marketing that each NRL club gets over $22M from the NRL! Compare that to the $500K pittance A League clubs are getting from the APL. But yeah expect Foley to not skimp on the marketing
What will be very interesting, is how they do their marketing and whole match day experience compared to the Nix. From memory Foley said he would be bringing over some staff from his LA Golden Knights NHL organisation, and as the saying goes 'America does sports well'. Certainly looking now & again at the Twitter feeds of MLS clubs like Vancouver, Portland and Minnesota they do that whole match day pre game experience impressively. And Foley ain't short of moolah, so be interesting to see what they come up with.
I've only been to Mt Smart once, but from memory there is a no 2 playing ground alongside where you can pitch tents pre game, have lots of pre match promotional stuff for kids etc etc. You can't really do that with the ROF
But at the end of the day, results will be the main driver to how big crowds are. Though yeah as AP says above, even in a season where the Warriors are a lowly 13th (of 17 teams), every home match has been sold out. Helps with the marketing that each NRL club gets over $22M from the NRL! Compare that to the $500K pittance A League clubs are getting from the APL. But yeah expect Foley to not skimp on the marketing