R19 vs Melbourne Victory | Fri 15 Feb | 7.35pm | Eden Park | Morningside Tavern

And it's now partly back on the table, with some property development group offering to privately fund new stadium construction in exchange for being gifted the land of the EP precinct, so they can get their filthy hands on it to build a thousand new homes/flats. Actually on the face of it not such a silly idea really, esp for a city with a housing shortage and awkward geography. Mayor Goff is keen.

As long as any new waterfront stadium is a rectangle!  Plus an easy walk from public transport.

50,000 capacity only filled for two ABs tests a year, plus some concerts.

But with easy ability to section off the lower tier at max 25,000 and still create a great cauldron atmosphere, with clever acoustics or whatever. Vancouver Whitecaps for example do that with regular season MLS games at their BC Place venue, which I think is primarily a Canadian Football ground.

Once the 'new shiny stadium honeymoon' is over (as has happened with Westpac years ago) 25,000 would enough for regular season Blues, and Warriors games plus possibly an Akld A League side.

does anyone else feel like we play the victory every second weekend at the moment?

I'm just glad we didn't play them in the runup to the Melbourne Cup this season - we always seemed to get decimated in that fixture the last few times

Just goes to show, putting the game on at a venue in the middle of the city with decent transport from the South, East, West and North to it attracts a crowd.

(Yeah, I know we're playing well etc etc - but we'd not be cracking 20k at the QBE ever)

they should open up more stands for ticket sales as currently there isn't any available tickets other than away supporters section

Going in with a group of 20-30 odd. Haven't bought tickets yet, sounds like we definitely should plan to not buy at the gate...

We are aware that over the weekend many sections of @edenparknz for our match against @gomvfc this Friday night had sold out or were very low. We are putting more bays on sale this morning - will update once these are back on sale! #WELvMVC

— David Dome (@Domestar) February 10, 2019

Oh no currently no allocation the Fever Zone. While that is exciting, is it also worrying in terms of how many of the classic Auckland Sit Down Brigade will be there?

Does anyone know if when they open up more bays will that will include more Fever Zone? 

All I can say is that we were very lucky playing them twice without their best player/s. 

Seems ridiculous that 4 days out from the game, that you can't buy a ticket (other than behind the goal) despite half of the stadium being empty. Surely as soon as some sections start selling out they can make other ones available pretty quickly...

Surely you can take 2 seconds to read the last few posts...

I notice that the usual crowd whining about how the Nix should never play in Auckland because useless fudging JAFAs never go to the games have fallen silent

We shouldn't be playing in Auckland because we don't represent Auckland, nothing to do with the crowds. I don't think "we shouldn't play there cos of the crowds" is normally part of the argument.

If the Nix suspected they'd get that crowd in Auckland at the start of the season I doubt we'd be playing in Campbelltown, Auckland fans are even more fickle than Wellington ones.

I had read them but I still think it's ridiculous how long it takes to open new sections, hence the post.

I can contribute a bit of info here - David Dome told me last week they looked at Auckland for the 23rd, but were worried having back-to-back games at Eden Park would dilute the market. Maybe not as things have turned out, but there's another universe where the Nix are crap and they are struggling to hit 10,000...

Guess it takes time to organise extra security staff, staff for food & drinks stalls and cleaners etc. I have a feeling it'll be the west stand they open up too since that'll look the best on TV, in which case you'd still be behind a goal. 

I think that's likely, but I hope not. I think it would reduce crowd numbers quite a bit for casual fans if that is the only place they can get a ticket.

I can understand only opening one side of the stadium if the crowd looks likely to only be several thousand.. but if it's pushing 15-20 as rumored I really don't like it. It seems to be quite an NZ thing too, I can't recall Aussie games where this happens (unless I'm easily tricked by the TV angles...). 

Gold Coast used to do it regularly, for different reasons, to avoid extra expense involved in opening stands. Police, stewards etc

Do you want them to keep complaining?

Maybe they are chuffed that fans are turning up now?

When crowds in both cities are shark then I can understand why people would be annoyed that games are being taken away from home, especially when the reasoning is for metrics.

But if the crowds turn up in huge numbers this weekend then that's great for the Nix, so everyone should be happier.

This game should sell like hot sauce.  Team is 3 points our of the top 4, had some crackings wins and some ground out draws against top teams, and this is the third of 3 matches against one of the best teams which we drew with twice over there.  This could be one of the best games of the season, and is certainly one of the more interesting ones.  I'm jelly I can't get up there.

Had Dome known we were going to be this competitive I bet they would have gone for the second game... by memory at the time this was announced we were coming off three losses at the start of the season.

We should all be stoked that sections have sold out - it clearly shows we have a good crowd coming, this is something to be excited about.

Though to be fair the whole GC United situation was a bit unique, Clive Palmer being the nutter he is picking fights left right & centre - including almost purposedly reducing crowd numbers in protest against Robina stadium ground hire charges.

I'd be surprised if WSW didn't have upper tier areas cordoned off when playing at cavernous ANZ stadium/Homebush.

12 of us going. A mix of Danes and work colleagues.

We'll be in the Yellow Fever section.

Apart from backing our team as much as possible, it would also be nice if we all could join in and sing a few anti Kevin Muscat songs.

He's a first-class prick.

Yep not a single ticket for sale right now other than in the MV section. Gutted hope it sorts out soon

It's quite amazing how much the crowd increases with the team winning more games than in the recent past. We are not in the top 4 and the increase is quite marked, imagine how big the crowds would be if we were in the top 2 for example.

I wonder if this signals to team owners the importance of good on field performance and results?

Tickets in the South Stand (along the sideline) is open now.

With Victory obviously playing away, any crowd of 20,000 would likely be the biggest number in this week's derby free round by a fair number.

Sydney, Perth, Adelaide & Newcastle also have home games. But none will get close to 20,000. 

Metrics.

To the tune of Deck the Halls:

Kevin Muscat is a wanker,

Fa la la la la, la la la la

Kevin Muscat is a wanker,

Fa la la la la, la la la la

Shambles!

Edit: I strongly suspect that the fever zone will be populated by non-zoners (if you get my drift).

The positive press inflates our position to the casual. A guy at work said he was going because the Phoenix are undefeated this season. In previous seasons I've heard people say that the Phoenix have never won a game and are always last.

OM NOM NOM

Hell Pizza will give away a free gourmet snack pizza to every fan in Eden Park should the Phoenix beat the Victory

— Sports Freak (@Sportsfreakconz) February 11, 2019

Was worried my kids might get bored, but now they know they will not be getting dinner unless we win they should be pretty invested in the result.

Can we afford yet another iconic Kiwi company going bust though

(but good on them lol)

And I think anyone who follows this forum over the years knows you're completely wrong. Don't you remember all the sneering and whining about the sub-10000 attendances at Mt Smart and QBE?

Hey team.  We've tried to front foot the standard Zone issues as much as possible.

There's a poster page in the programme (I know not many people actually buy/read but it's there).

There will be posters around the zone.

Security will be briefed about what goes on in the Zone.

Look out on the big screen for a sweet poster pre-match advising the goings on.

It's bloody tricky to manage but we try :)

*the poster i refer to is currently doing the rounds on Twitter and Facey so share the shark out of it

Good luck guys!

Hearing a crowd of 20k?! Is that actually real? Would be a big statement.

Funny how that happens; people only semi-paying attention and I guess it can go both ways.

They definitely haven't sold 20k. Well over 10k was the last I heard so you'd think something over 15k would likely.

radio sport said all indications are 20+ today... talked about selling out stands. All great buzz. Sheridan and Burgess on tomorrow arvo.

West Ham vs Nix had 20k + from memory. Also U20 World Cup a few years ago did for the final and one of the first games too.

OH KEVIN MUSCAT

IS A WANKER

Oh Kevin Mustcat's a wanker

Got a Bald Head

Big Nose

And looks like a shark

Oh Kevin Mustcat's a wanker