Crowds - The thread of Australian whining

It would be foolish (IMHO) not to examine the rugby situation to compare and contrast. From it we can learn lessons and seek innovation. I'm talking ticket prices, ticket fees, food prices (believe me these won't change as they are set by the contractor but I guess feedback to stadium may be worthwhile, just maybe), parking, timing of games, everything.

In Aussie some places have free public transport to and from the stadium on game days for ticket holders. Maybe the club should look at doing a deal with Tranz Metro, making them sponsors in exchange for discounted travel for season ticket holders.

Are casual and first time football fans chanting? Are families?
Football might be a way of life for some people but for the people we need to get to 12000, it's just entertainment. Let's face it, it can get pretty damn cold in the stadium and the football can be sh*t (Perth I'm looking at you), people are going to want some hot food or coffee.
Two adults and three children spend $62 on tickets, $25 on fees, $30 on parking and $30-$40 on food.
They shouldn't obviously, but the point is, first time and casual fans aren't going to know all these prices are going to hit them, and that's not going to give them fond memories of the game.
Ticket prices don't need to drop, but these associated costs need to go down or be more easily avoided.
The club tickets thing is great, but not sustainable.

It annoys me that he has said we have the cheapest tickets in the league when we actually don't. Fact is if we want to get right down to it, through looking at relative incomes I guarantee its relatively cheaper for an Aussie to go watch their team compared to a nix fan.

if they turn the nix into some travelling circus no way im supporting them. 

so do westpac, when I bring the wife and kid along we pack a smorgasboard of foods for him and as long as it's not sold at the stadium the security guys don't care. We always take in stuff from NW too,

They do that for big games in Auckland, but that's because we're trying to increase public transport takeup up here. I get the feeling the authorities in Welly already think enough people take the train.

Parents of the Year award has been recalled from Brandon and awarded to you Sir.

In that case doesn't this somewhat diminish the effect of stadium food prices on crowds?

That said, Brandon did say Dunedin has the best pies in the League, and would be back for thirds. ahmad2012-01-23 11:54:16

Those pies were bloody amazing. words cannot describe them.

Bovril OK, Thermos no

Nom,nom,nom??

No thermos, no bovril (cold bovril NOT OK).

Hey yuuuuuu, goooo an git me a Bovril....

I've said it before but there needs to be much more flexibility around season tickets.

In fact, I think you should be able to buy any number of games in advance, at any time in the season, with a sliding scale of discount according to how many games you buy. Everytime you swipe your ticket at the stadium it simply deducts one game of your card.

However, I'm told this would require a change in the technology used by the stadium. Would still be looking into though as it would benefit other sports selling stadium season tickets as well.

Not sure if it is the same since I moved, but in the past you could get 'stadium pass' tickets on the train for $7 from Paraparaumu on event days. Imagine it is similar on the other lines.

"FOOTBALL VIOLENCE WILL NEVER END!... "

If they have dietary requirements they are probably better off eating packed food from home which is allowed in than rubbish food from the stands with who knows what in it.

Edit: Sadly no thermoses. aitkenmike2012-01-23 13:13:45

$12 for stadium ticket on the trains from Upper Hutt. Just pointing out its another hidden cost for going to the games, compared with games in Aussie.

A Nix sponsorship with Tranzmetro and the major bus companies would be a fantastic initiative for next season, where free or half price fares available for each pre-purchased ticket (or season ticket) shown to the driver or ticket person.
$10 parking at the stadium for the season by producing prepaid ticket or season ticket  too.


By making it pre-purchased tickets(or season tickets) only encouraging more people to plan early and get tickets before the game.

Anybody got PAX for the Heart game ?? I desperately wanna see what numbers its upto !

I think we are all missing the most crucial element: Fridge magnets, season pins, lanyards.

Until the club takes these trinkets seriously how can it expect to pull in more than just the chronically tragic punters?

(maybe hot bovril sold at the matches too)

the trouble with proposing discounted transport tickets if you prepurchase your game ticket is that someone has to wear the cost - ie the club, which at the moment can't really afford to do so - given they aren't making a profit on gameday. If everyone who was cliping the ticket on gameday weren't then the actual cost of attending would be ok? ie free train, no ticketek fee, bring your own food - so pay $25/adult and $15/child. Would that increase attendance? I have my doubts. theprof2012-01-23 13:33:14

I think its a factor lots of people particularly with young families consider. The Ticket price is what it is. But the cost of getting there AND keeping the kids occupied, food with child/health friendly options available too.
(my realists view here..idealists don't have kids or haven't looked after them in the last 10 years!) ... then the game time is considered (earlier afternoon, 3 or 4pm latest, esp. Sundays) ..weather...it all becomes too hard.

FIRSTLY make it as easy and affordable as possible to get to every Nix game.... best possible price to get biggest possible crowd...where's the happy medium for this calculation?
NEXT Tell the whole bloody World how good it is !! ....and especially everyone in Wellington, by whatever means...and keep telling us repeatedly every week.It will take a while but it will sink in.
RedGed2012-01-23 13:50:42

The stats and sales experts amongst us might see it differently but I think a discounted fee via all the transport networks on matchday could be of interest to those transport companies if something else was on offer...what about the ability to communicate with us Nix supporters about your full range of services?
My thinking is along the lines of... easier and less expensive for the transport companies to retain an existing customer than enrol new ones and easier to appeal to a loyal customer of the Wellington Phoenix who joins forces with them.
There's 43,645 likes on the Wellington Phoenix Facebook site.. there's some serious Social media leverage potential too.

Good point on the social media. It's cheap and easy to do promotions on Twitter in particular where things are spread quickly and it wouldn't be that hard for the Phoenix to get a 'trending topic' going that's linked to a promotion.

+1. I believe their facebook and twiter is far underused. Im hooked into the Arsenal page and every morning there is about 10-15 messages from the club. Most of it is a bunch of nothing, but its in your face all the time. There is no way for you to forget when the next game is. To be fair, the nix usually have good coverage on game day. But the week leading up to a home game, there is not mention of until about an hour prior. They almost need something hourly, or comment heaps on more well know fans pages.

I'm starting to miss the old park with its cheap entertainment.

The Stadium along with the Basin may have cheap tickets to get in. BUT once you add everything up. Food, Drink, Travel to and from venue, it costs far too much for a day out.

Why is food and drink so expensive when you've got a crowd trapped in your venue??
2 hours at RoF for nix match and they want to squeeze every last dollar out of you that they can.
What happened to the old punnet of chips and hotdog on a stick at the park with can of coke :

Dunno whether to read much into a tweet like this, but crowd caps really work don't they. Just look at Gold Coast, a negative move like capping crowds certainly ain't going to get Gareth anything more than lower numbers at games.

LOL this is why I love you

The club should get the Stadium to let people brings flags and banners in without being made to feel like a criminal.

I think flags and banners like this add to the atmosphere of football matches. They are a part of football fandom the world over. They are part of what makes being part of a football crowd different to going to other codes. That is not to say that other codes don't have flags and banners. I am just saying that they are an integral part of football fandom. SOME other codes in New Zealand certainly do not embrace or have a history of this sort of thing. They should be a differentiator that is part of the Phoenix identity.

They help build crowds by adding to the atmosphere, adding to the sense of belonging to the experience. They add to the competitive efforts of rival fan groups to out do each other and earn a reputation as the best, lodest, most colourful and demonstrative crowd in the league. In doing this they encourage people who have not experienced the passion of a football crowd to come along and get involved.

The Cove do it:









The Roar fans do it:









Even the revolting evil Tards fans do it...

Maybe the social media thing can be over estimated at times.Think you will find there are also a lot of us fossils who dont use the new medium.
Rather than go to twitter maybe they should also look at some of the other avenues.Or maybe just do some decent marketing instead of trying to get it cheap from the already converted.

Maybe something the club could do is take a look at their records and try and find out why there has been a drop off from members from that first season.

Gareth Morgan on Radio Sport at 7.10am tomorrow morning.

And yet many feel that the social media presence is lacking. Can't win.

Remember that social media really is something growing, and significant. I know people that pretty much refuse to so much as pick up a phone and talk to anyone. They only want things done via email, SM, etc.

I'm not saying that they need more SM at the expense of other avenues, but don't for a moment think that their SM spending has at all bitten into other marketing budgets as I highly doubt that.

What's wrong with announcements via twitter? It's going direct to the fans. It still gets reported in the mainstream media. So it's killing two birds with one stone in many respects.

What does traditional "decent marketing" involve exactly? Press releases which then get digested and regurgitated by the mainstream media? Straight advertising costs a lot of money - money which perhaps the Club doesn't have given their current gate takings.

May be time for you to look at the SM figures again and compare Nix facebook fan # compared to the other A-LEAGUE TEAMS

Maybe we should ask Stealth Kiwi if the Nix need more SM!

Actually while it's nice that Gareth has asked fans to put thinking caps on, we probably need to have a bit more background information and previous season stats/trends before some really useful brainstorming can take place. Otherwise we're just picking up on small components of the problem and maybe not identifying critical areas.