Crowds - The thread of Australian whining

we need to increase our wages, salaries and conditions to match Australia- I propose bringing in an award system comparable to there so that more people have extra discretionary income which will allow them to indulge in the luxury (for the uninitiated) of watching an organised sporting contest at the ground.

Excuse my ignorance but what do you mean we aren't a football club and what change would make us one (and what difference would that then make to crowds?).

Also this would probably be a good place to post about/suggest/throw into the hat, the "3 game passes" or whatever that I've seen the Brisbane Roar promoting on their Facebook (yes I Like the Brisbane Roar... ).

They offer x number of consecutive games (much like the Nix Summer Six or whatever it was called) for a discounted price.

I'm unsure how discounted they are but this would certainly be a reasonable idea (or do you think that this would discourage sales of Season Memberships as an undesired side effect?).

If anything it would help offset the hideous (personal opinion) ticketing fees that Ticketek charges (to be fair other ticketing outlets are similarly shocking), because you wouldn't have to pay a ticketing fee to each of the three games.

Also, another suggestion which I made after the Jest semi-final in 2010 deserves an encore airing.

Is there any leeway to offer (slightly) discounted Season Memberships to people that present their semi-final match tickets when they buy the membership? Build it into the pricing of the Memberships if you have to but incentivise it, and make it only available for "early-bird" membership purchases.

Sure it will only make a small difference but 30,000+ attended that game and even attracting 1% that would have been 300. Just a thought anyway, and of course I'm getting ahead of myself talking about home semis ahmad2012-01-22 23:28:50

I'm pretty sure neither of those statements from Gareth are right...

As for the club vs franchise thing? 99% of the fanbase or potential fanbase don't care about that and those that might are almost certainly season tiickets holders anyway.

Red herring.

People can join, and play for football clubs.

Football clubs have club rooms that members can use the facilities in. Football clubs have teams that members play for, and try to win championships for. Football clubs members wear the club's shirt, not just because the senior team wears it, but because THEY wear it in THEIR games when THEY play for the club.

Franchises on the other hand, play in a professional league, and market themselves to people who they want to buy their merchandise.

The Phoenix is not a football club. You can't join the club. You can buy a season membership, but you cannot be a club member... and if you could be a club member it would just be being a season ticket holder with a different name. Season ticket holders have to choose whether to buy a ticket again the next season, because they are not members, they are customers. Members belong to the club, and buy into it.

Where in the world has that model for the top league sides Brandon? That's an amateur football model not a professional side.

As I said that would have no impact, in fact probably risks alienating people as most of the regulars have a club allegiance, if they played against a Phoenix side on Saturday they are less likely to support the A-League side on a Sunday if the club are rivals.

Classic example being people who wouldn't follow Miramar in the old national league for exactly that reason despite them being Wellington's only side.

Why aren't those playing the game buying into the Phoenix? Honest question.

A huge part of the 15,000 crowd to the Dunedin match was thanks to initiatives taken encourage local clubs (junior clubs in particular) to sell tickets in block bookings to their "football families" which ended up packing out the family stand (Upper North).

I am unsure what happened with senior clubs, and whether there was similar encouragement to senior football players to come along with their clubs.

Same thing happened again in December, but weeknight kick-off at 7:30pm with school the following morning, and Christmas not very far away surely had a significant role to play in the hugely decimated attendance from a junior football family point of view.

But this does prove that it is possible to engage football players. The trick is how we do this on a consistent basis.

What's the story in Wellington regarding football participants and Nix attendance?

Without going too off topic, you can support one amateur side and play for another.

For example, i play for North Shore and support Birkenhead.

I get what you are saying about club allegiance, but sometimes you can have it both ways.

Membership is already at a very favourable rate per game, why would it make sense to further discount it?

If someone had attended a semi and felt motivated enough to go to more matches the following season then the option is to go to a few and pay full price less any promo deals, or sign up for membership and get a lovely plastic card (but no lanyard or fridge magnet).

As for 'thinking caps on'...sign a few players, there's a good start for you Gareth.

Maybe the Phoenix should be an actually club system. That anyone can play for. Just get lots of fever volunteers. Occasional appearances at club days by players etc.
Buy Wellington United or something.
That would make the Phoenix part of people's lives.
No idea how expensive that would be, probably quite a silly idea but it would be interesting.

Gareth is not a numpty. He's quite astute. You don't get to where he has got to in business without having a few clues...

I think he's being deliberately provocative to get us ( a ) stirred up, ( b ) engaged, and then ultimately, ( c ) contributing to the debate. Even if he doesn't get a slam dunk idea out of us (hopefully he will) he might get to understand what we think, and what makes the fan base tick.

We liked Tony P being involved in the forums. I think it is great that Gareth is going direct to the fans. Be positive, and enjoy that fact that the ownership is engaging directly with us, and that you can talk directly to the ownership. Use it. We like angsting in the forums and wishing the club would do this, or that. Now you have a chance to do more than just blow hot air in the forum... tweet to Gareth.

Does the "cheap" price take into account exchange rate and better wages in Oz..just by way of comparison.  I think price is a determinate..and also performance.

Pretty sure NEwcastle have the cheapest tickets.

Stop making us play on Sunday afternoons at 5pm all the time.Stop Ticketek ripping us off on game day with additional game day Fees for roll up ticket purchasers. oh and from others i've spoken to the stadium and services are an issue too mainly the food and prices for food  plus parking. not everyone wants to take the "bus replaced" train service to and from the game. neither do they want to pay $30 to park at the stadium on game day (i did enjoy the $10 parking over xmas/new years) then see Spotless charge $6.00 for a soggy microwaved pie or similar for rock hard fish and undercooked chips.

I don't get all this complaining about the food prices? If that is an issue how hard is not eating for 90 minutes?

It is an issue if your trying to encourage families to attend.

It's the over all experience, little things like food prices  stop people coming. you can't take your own food with you and if you take 2 kids they want/need to be pacified meaning food and drink then you have to walk forever to get to you car in the central city

Oh yeah, kids and their chips.

New initiative: Kids eat chips free! (in association with Paul Ifill's Elite Health and Nutrition)

Or you could just take a teaspoon of cement and learn how to parent properly. Or is your goal to have obese kids?

My friends bring their kids to the games. They drink water and eat slices of apples. Chips and donuts are a treat not an entitlement. If you have not established that you've made a rod for your own back in my opinion.

Well done you and your friends here you go have the  parents of the year award  

We bring in a few lollies and fill up with water at the stadium. If it's cold I will lash out and get one or two pottles of chips.

Jnr Jnr has taken a liking to bovril. It would be good to bring in a thermos of this. I feel my kids are missing out on one of football's rich cultural experiences.

Parent of the year award?  Shouldn't that be for something really outstanding, rather than just an everyday normal part of being a decent parent?

This.

I honestly do not understand why people feel the need to eat at a football match. It runs for close to 2 hours all up. Eat before hand or wait till afterwards. Do you also take a football to a restaurant and while you are waiting for the main course to be cooked break out an impromptu kick about? I doubt it.

You go to football to sit (or stand), watch the game, support your team, then go home. Where eating fits into that equation beats me.

No, but it was better than calling you a sanctimonious a/hole  now how do we get more people along to the phoenix home games 

I eat. But don't tend to buy food at the stadiums.

Sometimes it's not possible to eat before due to timing so I'm sympathetic. Also kids don't tend to last 2 hours but that's been covered by Brandon.

Actually it is an issue for young kids - some have particular dietary requirements and some need an enticement to stay for 90 mins.

Hence it is an incentive/disincentive for those families who want to attend.

I agree that for young families having lower prices for parking might encourage them to attend as it means that there is more money to spend on food/drinks.

Luckily for us we are a bit older so doing the walk and chomping a few fruit bursts are enough.

Food prices is just an easy excuse for not coming, people who complain about the food weren't coming anyway. At the end of the day a ticket aint that expensive if you want to come, as for us having the lowest crowd numbers I think Gareth needs to look at Gold Coast's numbers and also consider the lack of away fans we get.

Dunedin allows you to bring non-commercial home made food in. What about Westpac?

True somewhat. As giddyup said - look at the whole package. It's one extra cost to include on top of transport and tickets.

We are getting more people alomng to games. As I said last night there have been more presales, in fact FAR MORE presales for the Heart game than for any previous home game. That's great news.

We're working on getting stadium approval for flags and banners and things too. They, and the FFA, have approved the Brazilian flags for Sunday's game so we can mark Daniel's 100 games for the Phoenix. Hopefully that can be developed so we can set up a flags and banners dedicated bay, perhaps in the opposite corner to the Fever, so that people who want to wave flags and display banners can do so in a bay that is identified as being for that purpose, so that people don't complain that their view is being blocked... the idea being - if you don't want your view blocked, don't sit in the one bay identified as being for this purpose... there's plenty of other places to sit.

Most importantly, as Ahmad says, we all should TALK about the Phoenix to everyone we can. Word of mouth is the best way to grow the home corwds. I aim to talk 3 people every home game week into coming to Phoenix game.

Bovril!!!

Do it Westpac.

I reckon we are getting ripped off by Ticketek

That's what i'm doing, actually i reckon we all do that and have been since the nix kicked off.The problem i've found is, if people haven't already been to a game they find every excuse not to go, it's trying to take away those excuses for not coming  that will hopefully get them along. it's not the football that keeps everyone away it's the services associated at the game too

I agree that the stadium could do a LOT better. And Tiketek just piss me off too...

Tweet this to Gareth. Get the club to lean on Tiketek. It is the only way this will change I think.

Better yet get the club to ask Ticketmaster what they would do to get the business... and THEN lean on Tiketek...

At the risk of being lynched can someone tell me how it works with RUGBY in terms of families/food/stadium parking etc.

Do they do it different or are rugby people just harder?

Rugby crowds need the food more, because they are not singing or chanting, so they need a pacifier to put in their mouth to keep them quiet. So they don't mind the high prices as much because they need it more.

they have had their own problems with crowd numbers too that may change this year given the world cup win etc. parking and food prices are pretty similar. they used to get 30,000 to super rugby now lucky to get 7,000