Really? Define "decent". The first AKL game got 20,000 and people said that was sharkhouse because Auckland is 4 times the size of Welly and thus only 4 x an average Welly crowd would be acceptable - which would be more than a sell-out at NHS. There seems to be some bad faith involved here.
As far as I'm concerned, enough JAFAs (or Tronians, or Naki types) turning out to make a profit greater than would be attained at the RoF = job done, but you'd expect me to be biased.
The main problem is that there is no NZ city, Wellington included, that can provide the crowds that Welnix and the FFA want/desire/expect.
Touring one-off games around the country will generate a crowd, as football fans outside of Wellington and 'event-attenders' will add up to a good crowd for one or two games a season. However, this is not a sustainable crowd. The AFL experiment in Wellington proved this, with a huge initial response then a quick drop-off
The model has to be based on much lower figures than currently expected by Welnix and FFA. This is not a problem restricted to football, all major NZ sports face the dilemma of requiring a smaller stadium for club/provincial games but having no financial source/desire to build such a stadium,
The only way to generate significant increase in crowds, is to win consistently. The Breakers over the last 10 years are the perfect NZ example of winning increases attendance, when crowds have increased and decreased based on winning Championships, not just winning games. The Breakers also provide a great example of the parochialism of fans, where some North Shore fans wouldn't attend games at the Vector, believing the Breakers should play all games at the North Shore Events Centre, even though the Breakers started in Waitakere and Manakau
Let's embrace this season's Phoenix games in Wellington, Auckland, Hamilton and New Plymouth and enjoy being part of the A-League for the next few seasons at least .