The student thing is a pain in the arse, but there's a way around it - sort of.
Here's when all the uni's kick out for the summer. The A League season kicks off about the time students hit the study break/exams. So how about this...
Stage 1: Late semester 2 appeal to all the students at uni's in wellington and designate a game an 'end of year student thing' with discounts for students who come along etc. One last blow out before exams/or when exams are finished.
Stage 2: Over the 2018 summer, online advertising etc 'Welcome Back For The Summer Of Football' providing similar discounts to any student attending any university in NZ or abroad. They'll be working summer jobs, have a bit of income and want to do something. Get them in.
Also go for the Summer School lot. They're in Summer School, they'll fancy a beer. 12 Pubs Of Lochhead?
Stage 3: O Week. If the 'Landers can do it with the Zoo, Nix should try and do an O-Week fancy dress thing or whatever at the RoF. Prizes - the works. Maybe a YF crawl involved there as well.
The season doesn't line up but you can pick them up across the October to May period in three sweeps.
