You would think if major promotion of the opening game was done,
and I'm sure that will be done then the stadium should at least be
half full for the season opener. The worst thing would be for
someone to say "I didn't know they were playing". The message has
to get out there on free-to-air, SKY, newspapers incl your own Dom,
the Manawatu Standard, Daily Telegraph or Hawkes Bay Today, BOP
Times, Waikato Times, Granny, The Press, ODT etc. Spread the world
baby!
There will be lots of fans making the trip down, or up,
from all corners of the country I am sure especially for this
first game. I'm not a fan of freebie giveaways as they never work.
Tried at the Kingz many times, Knights, Waikato FC...just a waste
of time and the club needs the money at the gate bigtime. Playing
in a full stadium with bugger all paying customers will only lead
to people expecting to get something for nothing...and sadly that
seems to be the typical trait of people within the NZ footballing
community. Make it user pays and if the product on the field is
right then the sidelines will look after themselves. If the Phoenix
can pull a crowd and win that first game then who knows what will
happen. I can recall the Kingz v Carlton in the first NSL game of
the 1999/2000 season. A big crowd for that home game and they lost
3-0. The crowd just gradually fell away. No secret I lost interest
too, especially as the kiwi player content kept dwindling as more
and more journeymen hacks came and went. We'll be wanting some more
kiwis to be added to the squad. Ben Sigmund seems to have been
missed or overlooked. He was Auckland City FC players player of the
year and he is now in Melbourne hoping to get in with the
Victory...
