The Handa Prem final involving an Auckland team got a crowd of 2k (admittedly on Sunday and at unpopular Albany). Half the crowd looked like ES club youngsters bused in for the occasion. Good on ES for doing so.
The Nix v Victory game (admittedly on a Fri night at Eden Park) got a crowd of 23k. Just having the Handa Prem as highest level of the sport in NZ would be shark.
Losing NZ’s sole A League team would be a massive massive blow to football in NZ, and it’s profile here.
With the AWs barely playing of late the Nix, is pretty much the only Kiwi football that is consistently newsworthy.
NZF need to wake up to this and try and help Phoenix out in anyway they can. They still have $7M in Cash Reserves. Qualifying for WC 2022 which looks likely to be 48 teams and direct Oceania entry, is worth $14M.
Christ giving NLWG $500k a year for the next few years would in some way be justified, if that helped the Nix to survive. Without the Nix, Herbert and Co, there would have been no WC 2010 cash windfall.
NZF just blew $250k on a review and another $400k paying out Heraf and Martin. Not saying $500k would ensure Nix’s survival, but what money Nix bring to the table (or lack thereof), seems to be one of issues the Aus state federations are raising. Anyway NZF should be using whatever resources they have to support the Nix, the club is too important for football in this country to just do nothing.