Auckland's general stadium policy has been bad for ages though. As you say, the city's essentially three or four separate areas. There's no one good stadium in Auckland.
Mt Smart is well overdue a much needed rebuild and upgrade, I'd choose it just because it's a genuine rectangular stadium. You'd have to do pre-match at Ellerslie as it's the nearest bars on the Southern Rail line, but that's manageable.
Eden Park was upgraded for the 2011 World Cup but even if its CEO is aggressively pursuing things, it's because the stadium is oversized for what its used for. Shame they didn't build a new stadium back in the later 2000's tbh.
Albany was never properly finished, and has now been butchered to make the baseball ground work there. The busways are very good and they go all the way to Albany now (or very soonish, making it pretty fast).
You couldn't do games at Kiwitea, the pitch & parking render it almost impossible and trying to upgrade that ground would involve rarking Sandringham's nimbys. The Trusts has got that god-awful running track around the outside.
A decent ground needs
- nearby pubs etc
- preferably on the train line to reduce car traffic
- capacity that means 10,000 people won't feel like an empty ground
And that, to me, is an upgraded Mount Smart.
But, being realistic, the new Christchurch Stadium is probably going to be the last big new stadium project in New Zealand this side of 2040 - and it's a rectangle, roofed to keep the noise in, 30,000 capacity. You'd love to start a new team in a big shiny new stadium like that aye, like the Wanderers in Parramatta.
Mt Smart is well overdue a much needed rebuild and upgrade, I'd choose it just because it's a genuine rectangular stadium. You'd have to do pre-match at Ellerslie as it's the nearest bars on the Southern Rail line, but that's manageable.
Eden Park was upgraded for the 2011 World Cup but even if its CEO is aggressively pursuing things, it's because the stadium is oversized for what its used for. Shame they didn't build a new stadium back in the later 2000's tbh.
Albany was never properly finished, and has now been butchered to make the baseball ground work there. The busways are very good and they go all the way to Albany now (or very soonish, making it pretty fast).
You couldn't do games at Kiwitea, the pitch & parking render it almost impossible and trying to upgrade that ground would involve rarking Sandringham's nimbys. The Trusts has got that god-awful running track around the outside.
A decent ground needs
- nearby pubs etc
- preferably on the train line to reduce car traffic
- capacity that means 10,000 people won't feel like an empty ground
And that, to me, is an upgraded Mount Smart.
But, being realistic, the new Christchurch Stadium is probably going to be the last big new stadium project in New Zealand this side of 2040 - and it's a rectangle, roofed to keep the noise in, 30,000 capacity. You'd love to start a new team in a big shiny new stadium like that aye, like the Wanderers in Parramatta.
EP has recently attracted good sized to large crowds to Nix games, far above anything achieved in Panmure or Albany. The central location trumps the large size issue, which again you mitigate by closing off areas of the ground. Sure Mt Smart in Sandringham would be great, but it’s in basically an ugly industrial estate.
You want to train/pub-walk-game within 15 mins. That’s the winning formula
Sadly as a Jafa/Waikato boy, I think those crowds are because those are novelty games.
If an AKL team is not top of the league, I can see a repeat of the Kingz/Knights crowds. Given I was a fan and season ticket holder of both sides, I'd like for one of those names to be reused (history).
Sadly I think NZ's apathy to sports attendance generally (not the Nix thankfully), will prevent another team anywhere ( and CHC is too rugby for the numbers needed to survive).
While attendance isn't everything, active support makes a match so much more fun for newbies, children and the flakies. Also means more revenue for the club to prevent what happened to the Knights.
With a new Auckland A League team, the absolutely last thing you’d use is Kingz or Knights moniker, associated with 2 abject failures from the ancient past. It would be a shiny brand new venture, targeting as someone else said the entire Auckland football community, based centrally at EP.
I think that same other mentioned going for a meaningful NZ Maori name, like the basebase side Tuatara. Great idea.
The 2nd last thing you’d do is go out to an Albany base again.
NZ Cricket has turned their back on Auckland (though that won't last). The city is currently crying out for quality fun, summer night time sport in the Sandringham entertainment precinct.
But without a very wealthy investment group, involving at least one football tragic any bid still seems years off.