2016/17 Phoenix Fixtures - Saturday Night Fever

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 . 

I tend to agree with this. As long as out of town games aren't getting smaller crowds than Wellington, and aren't losing money, I think they are successes. To me the positives of the club being representative of the whole country, in terms of attracting a broader base of support, sponsorship and aspiring players far outweigh the moans of Wellington-based fans who don't get to attend every home game. 

From experience I can say that the travelling circus is hotly anticipated by fans in other centres. Provided that the crowds in these places are comparable with Wellington, I think its entirely fair that these places get an occasional taste of live professional football from the Phoenix. Its good for these fans and good for the club (in terms of revenue, existing etc.).

The point is why take the whole kit and kaboom let on the road when crowds are only a little better than average crowd that would be expected at home ?

What happens if it is a shark day in Auckland and 7k turn up?

I've been to most of the games in NZ away from Wellington and would guess that travelling Wellingtonians are in the 100s at most

[Side issue: we are usually battling to have a properly allocated Fever Zone where standing up is not a cause of bemusement/conflict with the locals. ] 

Yep, I think it'd be in the 100s. Maybe occasionally we crack it over a 1000, but don't think that would be the norm.

The travelling Wellington fans are not the priority in boosting attendance, so Welnix has to look to the locals to boost crowds over and above Caketin attendance or get financial backing/guarantee from the host council. The latter option seems to be the current MO for home'n'away games and hope they get a reasonable crowd.  This seems to be a necessary evil for our licence extension, so really is a minor irritant.. to me anyway 

Yes. I think there were only 2 or 3, including the Jest playoff in 2010.

But that's where doing it on a consistent basis would build a tradition, and allow people to book in advance with some confidence 

Would be heavily dependent on the FFA and Fox playing ball.

yeah, which they won't. Even though it's exactly the sort of thing the FFA should be doing. 

Fever Tent city ftw

Done once.. needs momentum.  And also kick off time was too close to the last game.

Doloras is right, So let's analyse the Crowd attendances for the Kingz and Knights to see how real Auckland crowds get behind their teams....

Good point. Nothing has changed in 10 years after all. JAFAs were, are, and always will be useless.

It's not just us going on the ROADIE

Is it too much to hope for that in our 14 games in NZ we can actually wear Yellow Stripey? If we have to be travelling circus, we dont have to look like one!

11 outfits

Wow, a Hudson family reunion.

On that Doloras I agree with you completely and some!

The Phoenix have attracted larger attendances than their first game six times:

7 March 2010 - 32,792 v Newcastle Jets Westpac Stadium

21 February 2010 - 24,478 v Perth Glory, Westpac Stadium

19 November 2011 - 20,078 v Adelaide United, Eden Park

30 January 2010 - 19,258 v Adelaide United, AMI Stadium

30 November 2007 - 18,345 v Adelaide United, Westpac Stadium

1 February 2014 - 18,056 v Adelaide United, Eden Park

The top two were the finals games and the other Westpac game was the weekend of the LA Galaxy match where a ticket to the Galaxy allowed free entry to the Adelaide one (I think).

Thanks for the votes up on this on guys. I dont understand why teams need an away strip, which normally turns out to be a piss poor horrendous one. But we have a home strip, lets wear the bloody thing. EVERY time . There needs to be no exceptions.

If anyone is after a desktop pic with the fixture list on it.

Fixture for @WgtnPhoenixFC season 16/17 now complete. All four available at https://t.co/14Xm5L5AgE. #aleague pic.twitter.com/S3RejMl5Wm

— Mr Alesich (@MisterAlesich) June 15, 2016

So I was right. Only 3 times did we exceed the first game's crowd at the RoF, and 2 of those were in the playoffs. 2 of the other 3 times were in that horrible place Dorkland where no-one likes football and no-one goes to games.

Eden Park holds the record for biggest crowd at a Nix regular season game.

Truth be known, conceivably, the Nix could move to Auckland and make more money than if they stayed in Wellington

Because that worked so well the last two times?

Yeah, let's make a profit for a season with novelty crowds before getting booted for drawing a second season average attendance of 37.

You mean like the Kingz & the Knights?

It would be different now days, especially if the ownership group has enough money to fund it properly.

High risk, low reward.

You aren't going to start one for the for the football, either. So why would one start a football team here anyway?

Sorry dont get how people think a football team in NZ should be able to make money.There arnt many clubs worldwide who turn a profit and many of them have a shark load more resources thrown at them than us.

Yet for some reason Welnix and some on here think it should be possible despite  the lack of support from many in so called grass roots football.The so called national game in some areas struggles yet many think just because we have a so called professional club they should be able to be making money.

Would love to see a breakdown on the freebies and cheap seats on those high attendance games outside Wellington but they wouldnt let those out.Any way the club has said before its not that important the attendance figures in Auckland as most of their costs are covered by others.

With the stadium development all of you Travelling Circus fans should be happy as they have a ready made excuse to take even more games away. 

For the first time since the Phoenix were announced i rarely couldnt give a toss about the upcoming season,hoping i get my enthusiasm back.But sadly in a season which should be a celebration like some others i have spoken we feel as if we have been shafted  for our loyalty. 

It seems our ten years in existence is going to be ignored or become a non event. Yep, the enthusiasm is waining and the club have only themselves to blame for this. Last season i  our season of need, so many did so much to make sure we did as much as we could as fans and I think the club are and have been taking it for granted for far too long. 

Right now, the club should be banging on about being here for ten years and not a dickie to be heard. Perhaps we shall be rewarded with more games being played out of Wellington. I see 2 now becoming 4 is a great way to reward said fans. Next year I propose we have 6 games away from Wellington and we can use the threat (and that is exactly what it was) that if fans did not turn up we will move games away.

I get the frustration. But I think we have to look at it in context. There is no way there was going to be home games over the December-ish period due to the surface re-laying. Nothing can be done about that. As for the other games, while they seem to be unnecessary, I reckon the FFA has had a word in the ear of WelNix. Remember the whole NZ Phoenix thing? It's something the FFA might not have stopped thinking about, without realising that most of the other major centres don't harbour much support for NZ football. If this is the case (and I'm confident it is, why else would WelNix take four games away) then the FFA are delusional if they think high AKL and 'high' Chch attendances are anything other than the novelty factor. Hopefully we've only had four due to the RoF pitch and FFA, and we'll return to two (or maybe even one? Pipe dream?) in 2017/18.