Brilliant night at the football

P.S. Tony P, if you're reading this, you laughed when I asked you to bring the Phoenix down to Christchurch, thing is I wasn't joking, please bring them.

You know, the Nix could pre season a few friendlies before the official preseason comps involving A League teams. Play local selections. CHCH, AK, Whangarei, Tauranga, Dunedin, New Plymouth, Napier, Nelson.

Phoenix vs NZFC teams would be awesome. Pre-season tour playing the 7 non-Wellington teams, would be enough to make me want to rent a van!

P.S. Tony P, if you're reading this, you laughed when I asked you to bring the Phoenix down to Christchurch, thing is I wasn't joking, please bring them.

As long as it was just friendlies or warmup games. The real season's games stay in Wellington. Period.

The real season's games stay in Wellington. Period.

Yep.

By the way, if anybody wants to buy the before mentioned sock (previously owned by Tony Lochhead), go to this link

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Sports/Soccer/Apparel/auction-136064727.htm

I agree with that. If Christchurch got a team I would be disgruntled (to say the least) if I payed for a season ticket and then they played a game in Invercargill

Agreed.

This is a slighter larger issue (in this instance if you want to take the point of view I am speaking)

The Wellington city has absolutely put the Aucklanders to shame when it comes to supporting the professional franchise in terms of football playing in Australia. No doubt. But is the support for the Phoenix strictly Wellington based? No.

As with any club, the more people through the turnstyles, the more the club is a success off the field, which invariably translates into results via support on the field. If the nix had an average crowd of 2000 turning up, they would be getting rubbished everywhere. As such they only get rubbish by the ignorant (i.e. rugby heads) because by and large, they have been a success to those that follow the sport.

So how do you get more fans. Take the product to the masses.

It was a delight hearing Stu Scott and Mark Sorenson talk about the Phoenix pre-season and saying how cool it was to go along and watch. I'm making the assumption that these guys aren't ardent football supporters, but they are examples of people that have turned up, said 'oh I like this' and have embraced it. How many other cities could this happen in. Chch? yeah possibly. Auckland? most likely nothing to blow people away, but you have to try grow a fan base.

In England, the clubs don't take home games away because they have 1 team for each city. We have 1 team for the country against 7 Australian outlets. So what is to stop the nix trying to grow the fan base and taking the team on the road at home? If you can get say 13000 turn up in Chch, you would have to view that as a success because the average crowds in Wellington are slightly less (I believe).

There is merit to the idea, but only if played out correctly.

I'd like to see some pre-season matches played out of Wellington, but not too far. Places like Palmy and Napier where we are likely to attract new fans who can/will make the trip down to Wellington for regular season matches. Matches in places like Christchurch and Auckland are likely to be a novelty more than anything, we can't really expect most Cantabrians/JAFA's to come to Welly on a regular basis for the Phoenix, as the people who do are sadly a minority. A totally awesome minority who do deserve the convenience of seeing us play Christchurch, Auckland, Pukekohe etc...but a minority nonethless.

I wouldn't mind seeing the Phoenix play in other cities...to promote local football there. Phoenix vs Auckland, with the aim of getting more fans to ACFC/Waitak matches and hopefully some more TV viewers. But I think first and foremost should be building a fanbase who'll be in the stands, and there'd be more success targeting cities in the Hurricanes province (forgive the rugby metaphor!)