I'm sad we haven't had one good season for many years, and the crowd figures show it. Having one good season, making playoffs comfortably etc would boost the attendances hugely, and has flow on effects the next year.
It just hasn't happened for us for a whole season unfortunately for a long time. One awesome half season! Can't blame the owners, or a particular manager I don't think, just sport sometimes works that way.
Sport is frustrating.
To substantiate this point, according to an article I read this morning the Hurricanes have boosted their average attendance by almost 7000 people after they started playing well consistently. If the Nix can have a couple of consistent seasons results wise, the 10k metric shouldn't be too far off by the end of it.
I think you underestimate NZ sports fans and the power of the bandwagon. It's not a coincidence that outside of the first season, the next three seasons with the highest average attendances are those the Nix finished 4th. At one point in 2014/15 the Nix had won 6 home games in a row, with the 6th game at Westpac having over 10,000 in attendance, things would have probably kicked on from there if the team hadn't moved to the Hutt for the next three games. There's no reason to think that two seasons of decent results wouldn't get the crowds back.