Will a team really gain support because they are rebranded? Did the Warriors support increase at all?
I know when I was listening to talk back radio immediately afterwards a guy rang and said that the Phoenix need two things, one is brand name players like - and then he said a whole bunch of names that I had either never heard of or have heard of but only because of news coverage, anyway they were Warriors players - and to change their colours because he'd never support a team in yellow and black.
Obviously the first point is a media created thing, because the Phoenix could get Del Piero in and most rugby folk would have only a loose understanding of what he is, furthermore most league stars were not stars and draw cards before they joined an NRL team so they are completely home grown and made stars by the media. If we had more media support we would have more stars.
And the second point, well those are old - probably rugby prejudices, if you're a football supporter would it really matter?
If WelNix are told that the Phoenix have to be called the NZ Nix so be it, but if they are told they have to be moved to Auckland then I'd imagine they would walk, the whole point of it is to keep the team in Wellington. In fact Rob said in his press release that they were looking to found an English Language school as part of their academy program in order to stop having all those resources in Auckland.