2016/17 Phoenix Fixtures - Saturday Night Fever

Huawei definitely want the club to have a presence in Auckland. That's a 'don't bite the hand that feeds' scenario.

Is it a good way of increasing Sky viewership numbers? Honestly, I have no idea. But I appreciate that the club have to do something about it one way or the other.

And yes, I think you're right about the Cricket World Cup final - it was definitely on while there was a game on at Westpac (know this because I remember seeing McCullum get a duck at the Stadium bar). Not sure if it was the play-off game though, I'd have thought that the cricket wouldn't have been on in April?

I don't disagree with any of that - guess it just goes to show that it's not exactly an enviable situation to be in, and that Welnix are trying their best to make sure we continue to have a club in this competition. Whether those efforts are misguided only time will tell.

You're on fire Surge!

Gallop wants derbies and markets in the millions, not hundreds of thousands. More sense Auckland than splitting Brisbane, or a 3rd Sydney/Melbourne team. Nothing left, except old NSL clubs. Would love that, but think it's less likely than Auckland.

Not necessarily. Eden park - yes. Which is why they moved to NHS.

But most of the time a local council is underwriting the operation. So the Phoenix don't lose money on those Christchurch/Napier/Dunedin games. Which you can see why they could be attractive.

Auckland franchise is good for Wellington Phoenix:

= Kiwi derby

= more reason/easier/more efficient for FFA to spend their marketing $ promoting the league in national market than regional market

= fresh ownership >>> new marketing approach in Auckland market could/should boost game more than current efforts from grassroots clubs, ASBP, All Whites/Ferns

= nationwide/media interest in at least 3 games a year

= biggest immigrant population growth area and overwhelming proportion of that population has football as their first game

= Nix keep all games at home (or at least south of the bombays)

Alternatively, 'NZ Nix' failing in Auckland will fudge chance of Auckland franchise in my lifetime.

It's quite clear that no-one is running the A league.

Mega lolz

Nah it was a regular season game.  I remember because it was the one Nix regular season game in Wellington I missed because it was our first time in the World Cup final.  It may have even been the last game of the regular season, any A league team would have been fudgeed though because of it being a NZ AU final.

What if the entire country was renamed "Wellington"?

ALL home games would then be played in Wellington making this argument fudge off once and for all!!!

I'd be interested if the club broke even last season?

Bet we wont find out.

What if the entire country joined "Australia"? 

ALL A-League teams would be in the same country making these license-related issues fudge off once and for all!!!

Also, never again could one take offence at being mistaken for an Ozzie when abroad.

The Huawei Auckland Rangers v The Wellington Phoenix.  Derby game. If our sponsors love Auckland that much, easy, set up an application for another go with the ffa and getting one up there. To quote another brand...... Just do it.

Didnt they say Auckland games basically dont cost them to run so anything they sell is all for the club.In saying that they seem to shtye loads of tickets away or sell them bloody cheap would ne nice if they repeated this for Wellington games.

Dont care what they say the effort they have put into promoting games in Wellington is poor.Bet Ernie is going to be rapt that in an important year the team is going to be kept away from home again.

Not the same country though? Oh wait they wanted to stay.

No, seriously though, the U.K. isn't a country.

It's similar to a state based system though with each state having it's own parliament and ability to make laws.

From Wikipedia:

The UK consists of four countries: England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.[14]

Although Wikipedia could be wrong as I don't think Northern Ireland is a country anyway.

I don't really know what your point is... but from the same wikipedia article: 

Although the United Kingdom, as a sovereign state, is a country, England, Scotland, Wales, and to a lesser degree, Northern Ireland, are also regarded as countries, though they are not sovereign states.

The point is that if NZ ever joined Australia we would still hold our identity and would want to be considered Kiwi's and not Australians.

The Nix have provided this information in the past for premium season ticket who attend the annual club members meeting. Can't see why they wouldn't do it this time around.

Point conceded, I don't really know what my point is either.

Nice one Dave (Hatter) will be sending mine off this afternoon i sure hope others who have voiced their objection to the increase in home away games do the same. For good measure will also be voicing my thoughts to Huawei  on their support for a WELLINGTON sports team and insisting they play in Auckland. Will be saying i look forward to their insistence that the Canberra Raiders also move some of their home games.

Plus Mt Smart is actually a decent ground - the NHS is just a sharkshow.

Yeah maybe wrong comparing different markets but sorry dont agree just because we are smaller market we should be moving games to suit them.

Come on Surge you can make anything out of any number of posts if you choose to only select bits in isolation

I sometimes wonder if the FFA and the Welnix guys have actually spent time and looked at attendance figure for other sports fixtures in NZ.I just dfont get why they both expect us to be pulling much larger crowds on what we have been served up at times.Seems they under value the support that has stayed loyal to club despite what has been served up both on and off pitch.

It seems at times as if they just think all they have to do is put a Football on and people should turn up.They dont seem to give any thought at times to game time and other events that might be on or the poor form of the team.There just seems to be they this expectation that by the both of them that people should turn up.

It does seem at time over the years that we have had a few things happen that have sadly had an affect despite what people say.It could be bad timing weather turning to shark.Or as it was at the Hutt Rec a combination of weather and the team playing like shyte,dont get why people expect the casuals to turn out on the back of some of the rubbish we have been served up.

Also dont get why they dont run the specials at home on a regular basis  like they do for the away games.There seems to be heaps of tickets given away and specials run on Grab One etc that just dont get repeated at home.

I feel like they usually do throughout the year.

Someone who knows better/has paid actual attention to this may correct me, but I've been under the impression that there have been quite a few giveaways/special deals/cheap tickets for Wellington games over the last few years?

The thing is I feel like most people wouldn't disagree with you.  But would lay most of that blame on the FFA not Wellnix.  FFA give us fixtures, FFA demand more, FFA held our nads to the flame to the point where we had to take what we got, etc.

I think the bulk of the people that disagree with your overall sentiment is the people who accept that its probably this or nothing, and would rather have this.

If we still have the Nix in 10 years it could be any kind of a beast, but I still want the Nix to exist.  It would be sad to see the Nix become the NZ Nix (like the NZ warriors and the NZ breakers) but if it was a this or nothing again I'd take it, because I want me Nix to exist.

If we had huge TV numbers, then Huawei probably wouldn't ask for the 2 AKL games because enough eyeballs would be on their logo via the TV, but as it stands there aren't enough eyeballs on the TV for Sky to pay more than a pittance and for the large sum of cash they are putting into the club they want more of those eyeballs.  If either way we need to attain that then Huawei's "demands" may not be any different to what they would have tried anyway.  The roadshow is clearly to attract more viewers and fans, if we had those things then they probably wouldn't care.

last season you could buy $10.00 tickets after every home game for the next home game, not really sure how many of these were actually sold though