I'm not saying Auckland would support a team. All I'm saying is the argument that people will turn up when the team start playing well seems to have been borne out in Auckland with a big crowd there reflecting good recent form (much bigger than last year) but for some reason hasn't happened in Wellington.On costs, the season tickets this year were fantastic value and cheaper than almost every year other than season 1 I think.
The two games at the RoF since the Nix started their hot streak have been 7.30pm on a Sunday night and in the middle of a long weekend - the timing halved the number of the group I attend with.
I think the next home game against the Heart will be the first "fair" acid test of attendances following the revitalisation / resurgence.
I think, given any sort of decent day, we'll get a good crowd (10k+). Of course Gareth will put that down to his tanty rather than the issues with the timing of preceding games.
Sooo much this, I missed both games (7pm on a Sunday is a PRICK to get home from, and I was in Wanganui all day before the Melbourne THUMPING), and I know a few others out of town for long weekends, and can't attend Sunday nights. Yet both still got in the 7,000 range.
I think 16 Feb & 9th Mar are the dates to judge it on 5pm sunday kick-offs, Good weather and the place should be rocking.
There's no doubt the 5-0 thumping of Melbourne got a lot of casuals talking about the Nix again, but Wellington hasn't yet had a chance to respond to that and by the time we play the Heart it will be a full month since the Victory game. I really hope we can beat the Jets this week to keep the impression of a Nix revival happening in the eyes of the public.
The reason there was only 7k at the Victory game was because our home form prior to that was W 1, D 3, L 3 and we were in 9th place.
Agree that the next couple of home games will be a more meaningful test of where Wellington's at.