Great concept.Wrong location.
Worst possible location in the area. Has Gareth ever been to Petone? Hutt Park Raceway is begging for a stadium and training facilities and is a miles better location.
I respectfully disagree RR.
Vacant land and easy parking does not (solely) a good location make... and there's bugger all else going for it.
Me too. Miles from train links, miles from any decent pubs and one of the worst places to be in Wellington with either a Southerly or Northerly blowing.
Mate what are you talking about?
It's about as close to Ava Station as Westpac Stadium is to Wellington Stadium.
There aren't a lot of good pubs on the concourse, but there are a handful on Jackson Street with more opening all the time.
This is the best idea the Phoenix have had in years.
This
Those stadium photos are sooooo sexy I have just had to change my underpants.
As for Petone local bars, cafes etc I think you will find that the whole match day experiance will be totally different than what we have seen in the past. Gareth mentioned family areas and catering etc. This will be more like you see in Europe. The fans go to the stadium hours before the match and do their prematch drinking at the venue. There will be bars and a wide range of food options at the stadium. The club gets a big cut of the beverage and food spend which helps to defer match day costs. In many countries the earnings from food and beverage are a vital part of clubs revenues.
I can remember last year going to see PSG play Montpellier. I arrived at the stadium 2 hours before kickoff.... you could smell the barbeque from 500 metres away. The area in front of the stadium was like a wine festival. You could get a huge range of food...BBQ steak sammies, chorizo sausages, chips, ethnic foods etc. There were beer and wine stands everywhere and live bands. It was a great party and the atmosphere was amazing. The whole thing was run by the club and they took the profit. If they do that sort of thing at the new stadium then we are in for a new experiance.
The reality is that in NZ our sports match day experiance has hardly moved on from what you got in the old days at Athletic park.....shit food, shit beer and shit service. This new stadium could move us into a new era.