Rob said on the radio that they were using the Pheonix as a vehicle for other things like English Language schools, etc because everything is so Auckland centric.
I'm guessing that part of their vision is to use the Phoenix like how billionaires use F1 teams, as a vehicle to do business dealings, get together lots of business people, councillors, etc. Watch a game in the owners lounge, have a meal and a couple of drinks, nut out multi million dollar dealings.