In The Zone - The End

I thought PWF was being sar-car-stick...

Damn, I thought that was the case but Frankie did not interpret as such. In that case, I'll disagree with Frankie instead.

Yeah but Frankie is usually doing a p!ss take as well...

Eugh, my bad. As you were, everyone.

It is impossible to disagree with me - I'm awesome.

Lets just have the games at 2am on a Tuesday and f*ck anyone who doesn't want to come, they just need to Harden up. Fact is casual supporters need an incentive and an appropriately timed game. Sunday 7pm doesn't do this. 

I Agree with Patrick basically. 

Yes, times are never going to suit everybody. But surely the goal is to strike a balance so that it suits some sort of majority over the course of a season. This kickoff time in my opinion only suits a minority of people. Time will tell I guess.

Anyone got a good knitting pattern for this topic?

I can see TW taking away good, honest, coal-face families from our fair dinkum Aussie team this season.

Would love to see your reaction to what they have in Spain- some games start at 11pm... Madness.

I remember a 12.05am midweek kickoff in a Barcelona game a few years back.

Exactly. People should be thankful for Sunday 7pm times!

When Gareth is on the radio in January telling us how they will play more games away from Wellington because no one is watching the Phoenix remember this.

An 11pm game in Spanish culture in a city with a population 3.5 million and a relgious affinity with the sport of football isn't a comparison with a 7pm Sunday game in Wellington in a market where football is an afterthought and a whole pile of conditions have to align to get people to attend.

Also, in case you have missed it Barelona win.  Barcelona win a lot.

I wasn't actually seriously comparing them (11pm is a terrible time for a team who isn't Barcelona though, there's no escaping that). I think Sunday 7pm is an awful time, particularly for a team which struggles to get much public support. I think that's possibly the least fun time for you lot too, with work the next morning. I also think playing in other parts of the country is a joke, but there we go.   

Agree with Boxey 

..what I did enjoy was listening to your New Zealand A squad predictions.. considering I had heard the squad first. Bet you guys were surprised at how weak it was.

The killer for all these rants though is a winning team.If Ernie can deliver that then hopefully the crowds will take care of themselves.

I have that wish pegged along side this weeks lotto numbers.

Exactly. If we are exciting to watch and winning games then people will still turn up no matter the time.

Why is it wrong? Like Greenie said, the city's hardly supporting the club right now, and we haven't even had any 7pm Sunday kickoffs yet. Without the rich guys prepared to lose a bit of money in the short-term the club would have crashed and burned right now.

And that situation will persist as long as attendance at the games is seen as a matter of convenience rather than active support. And that is the big challenge for the owners at the moment.

And as an aside. I went to the Harlem Globetrotters thing on Monday night. 7.30pm start (it actually started a bit after that), 9.45pm finish. TSB arena about 80-85% full (guessing around 3,000 people). An absolute army of kids attending, some of them as young as 3-years old. And hundreds of them stayed courtside to get the autographs well after I left the Arena around quarter to ten.

So excuse my scepticism that no family in Wellington would ever even entertain the idea of attending a football game kicking off at 7pm on a Sunday in the middle of summer holidays.

One off opportunity to see the Harlem Globetrotters though. It would be like if Manchester United played an exhibition game at the stadium at 7pm on a Sunday. It would still sell out.

The thing that has been overlooked in the discussion recently  is that the scheduling of the game  has NOTHING to do with getting a big crowd at the game. It is all about increasing the TV audience in Australia. 2:30pm on a Sunday afternoon in Australia was not a ratings winner. This is an attempt to improve that. I know we do not like the time slot, but life deals us bum hands sometime. 

Basketballers wag school - footballers don't

I always wondered, they keep moving schedules for TV, so TV viewership goes up and up, while attendance at the games goes down and down. Do the leagues, FFA/NRL/Super15 etc actually gain more money from the increased TV deals than they lose from the loss in attendance at games?

I guess this is more of a rhetorical question really, but I would love to know the answer.

Tell them they're dreaming if they think that a Sunday 5pm kickoff (Aus time) will get heaps more audience than a 2.30pm kickoff. Perhaps the reason that the audience is low because one of the teams isn't Australian (taking away a large chunk of Australian audience) and the Phoenix last season wasn't (lets face it) the most attractive team to watch (ruling out a large chunk of neutrals).
I just don't buy that there'll be a huge chunk of Strayans who couldn't be @rsed watching a Nix game at 2.30 but will jump at the chance at 5.

1: We finished last, last year and we were not known for our champagne football. Other than the supporters of the team playing us (lets say WSW) are Perth or Brisbane fans likely to tune in to potentially watch a wooden spoon team get their backsides handed to them?

2: When the crowds don't turn up (and I suspect they are less likely to for a 7pm KO on a Sunday) will that give the appearance of 'we are just another Gold Coast in disguise' with our shit football team and our shit crowds (along with shit atmosphere, shit surface, shit weather and shit town....) Does that then start the 'you're just another Knights' and the call for us to be booted out for another Aussie team? (unlikely because FOX get a wider coverage market with us in it)

3: Taking the above into the account that FOX don't care about our crowds, are our owners going to cut the same slack if the product is dour and the fans vote with their feet? Lets hypothesize that if we are sitting bottom of the heap, losing and the crowd don't show, is Gareths call to arms really going to work yet again? Nope.

As News said, winning is the best fix for all of this so I do accept that the above is a bit of doom saying and potentially fleshing out a worst case scenario but it is something to ponder as a 'what if'. I guess it does put Ernie Merrick on the messiah hotspot right now because if he can't turn this around....

Edit: I just saw himphils post which said the same but in less words... doh.

I don't at all doubt that's why they did it. I do highly doubt though that it will make any significant change to the TV audience. Better playing style by the nix = yes. Change in time = I doubt it.