R9 vs Victory | Sat 5th Dec 7:15pm | #FeverTour to QBE Stadium, pregame at The Merchant from 3pm

Back to the football. How fudging good was this from Roly?!?!

Access is a big thing. I've got a school full of football mad kids from Fiji in SE Auckland, some of whom have Nix shirts but most have Arsenal, Barca and all that.

They'll grow up and go to games if it's presented as an opportunity and a regular one. Get them going to NRFL and ASB Prem and they'll go to Nix too.

Sorry Fitzy, misread your post up there. You're right, if the FFA are measuring fans outside Wellington as part of their BS metrics then I guess we need fans outside Wellington.

I would take a 0-0 draw with the best team in the league. No doubt about that.

It's funny how all this negativity about the crowd number is exactly what you guys hated David Dome and other Phoenix people saying about previous crowd sizes. For what's become a yearly fixture, you should not have been expecting much more than 10,000 for a game at North Harbour Stadium. Here's why:

· North Harbour Stadium is a HORRIBLE stadium. Every Aucklander knows it. It's a miserable experience from start to finish and it never changes. When there have been problems at Westpac for you guys, there's been efforts to fix them. That doesn't happen at NHS. The place doesn't even have a permanent screen! Instead, there's a tiny temporary one that kept cutting out right through the best parts of the replays last night.

· Location. I said this before in another thread. From Auckland City Centre to North Harbour is the equivalent of Westpac to Porirua Harbour. That's not going to stop some fans, obviously, but the casual ones are not going to bother. They'll likely say "I'll go next year" or "I went last year". This is especially the case for families and for people who live even further south and east. From Botany, it's the equivalent distance of Westpac to the Paekakariki Domain.

· Nowhere on my ticket did it say anything about public transport. But let's say all public transport is free. I'm lucky that I only need to catch one bus to get to Britomart, but weekend times means that leaves only once an hour and would take 40 minutes to get there. And then I would have to take the bus from Britomart to the stadium. On the way back would be even harder because I don't know how late the buses go. For anyone else further afield, that instantly rules out public transport even as a free option (which it apparently wasn't).

· Ticketmaster. Makes me angry just seeing the name. For a company that sells tickets, they a really terrible job of making it appealing. I wanted to sit on the top level for the game. "Sorry, no tickets are available". It then sticks me in block 4 as the "best available". Two hours later, I try again and suddenly I'm in block 6. I choose those, go through all the stuff, it shuts down on me. I start again, get similar tickets and finally manage to purchase them. Of course, throughout this whole ordeal, I've had to fill in three or four captchas to prove I'm human, as well as manually fill in all my details including address (despite printing at home) even though I was signed in the entire time! So was that the end of it? Of course not. Trying to print was a nightmare. No matter what settings I chose, the pages would come out wrong and print too big and cut itself off so at no point a barcode would come out. I finally though, screw this, I'll just show them on my phone. I open up the page and "This is not your ticket, please print at home". The only way I could do it in the end was by print-screen, cutting them down in photoshop, then printing them on a Word Doc. 

· I didn't get any food or drinks but my brother did. He was gone for at least 15 minutes during the first half because it was apparently a complete shambles. No EFTPOS initially, then they ran out of EFTPOS receipt rolls, and this was before the half time rush. 

· There needs to be more advertising. And not just in bus shelters. You have to have a car to get to the match so don't try to advertise to people using public transport! I know they're designed for drivers to see as well but it's still not enough. There needs to be targeted advertising. Krishna should be front and centre for a game in Auckland. A lot of Pacific Islanders love the game and Fijians would especially love to see one of their own play but most Pacific Islanders live south of the bridge. Places like Mangere and Manukau are even further away than Botany. You cannot expect the casual football fan to travel that far for a match. It's just unreasonable. 

And honestly, after last night, I'm glad it was only 10,800. We played well and beat Melbourne which is a terrific result, but that's where the good things stopped. As a match day experience, it was far more likely to put people off. The kits would also contribute to that. I can't remember who said it in another thread but it was something about not wearing yellow and black could potentially alienate the fans. I think that's actually a fair statement after last night. I came to see yellow and black. Instead I got some ugly drab grey kit with no warning or explanation. If I didn't recognise the players, I wouldn't have known who was who. It makes two horrible kits in a row now for Auckland too. Last year, we got the Hobbit one.

Still recovering from being outed as a David Gallop doppelganger at Foxes last night. I may never be respected again.

#TurfOutGallop

Back to the football. How fudging good was this from Roly?!?!

Back to the football. How fudging good was this from Roly?!?!

Blah, Blah, Fudgeing Blah

Would you be happy if a new football stadium was built within 1km of your house, so that you don't have to struggle with the great distances imposed on the Auckland faithful.                               I should imagine you'd complain that it is too close!!!

Get off your arses you lazy Kunz, its once a fourking year!

End of rant!

I couldn't make it up for the game this time so my 9 year-old was sitting next to me on the couch watching this and he was literally gob-smacked. He is already mad-keen on football but I think he had THAT MOMENT where he realised that football is the best game on the planet and he will never ever want to play or watch any other sport for the rest of his life. The fact that this happened watching his home town team play right here in NZ is very cool. Thanks Roly!

Fijian kids as a basis for an indigenous football generation?

Indigenous to Fiji perhaps.

And Roy is I presume ethnic Indian so how does that make it a basis for an indigenous football generation here or in Fiji.

The demographic shift is huge in Auckland, bigger than any other city. Rugby's still the king, but there's a LOT of kids out there growing up with football as their #1 sport - they just need access to the live game.

What is Delpierre actually trying to do? Jumping in with both feet?

What is Delpierre actually trying to do? Jumping in with both feet?

I feel like he was going to go for the maradona spin then half-way pulled out and somehow nutmegged Mahazi. Looks good, though. Deserved a goal.

Merchant: 8 / 10 - great location, great size, good beers and food. Expensive though. Oh well.

Victory fans Lost count of how many cool football people I met and talked to. It's possibly the best pre-match I can remember, with the exception of the away trip to Adeliade in R7 last year with Andy Cussen and Lee, and then all the Reds fans at the Joiners Arms.

QBE Stadium (excluding the playing surface): 7/10 - I like the place, despite what some people say. Fantastic to look along the lower deck and see it PACKED. Great atmosphere. Great to have a rectangular stadium. Getting there wasn't a hassle.

The pitch itself: 2/10 - It WAS rectangular, and the right dimensions. The goals were okay. Other than that it was an unmitigated disaster.

Post match buses: 10/10 - No delays, full, half with Nix fans, half with Victory fans. Singing, banter, laughter, commaraderie. The best of times.

The Fox: 3/10 - Once I got in (not easy) the beer was cold, and they had a good range. However, the staff were unhelpful, uncooperative and downright obstructive. Even if the Fever decide to go back there I will not be going back. It was a real downer.

I had a GREAT weekend.

I feel like he was going to go for the maradona spin then half-way pulled out and somehow nutmegged Mahazi. Looks good, though. Deserved a goal.

Merchant: 8 / 10 - great location, great size, good beers and food. Expensive though. Oh well.

Victory fans Lost count of how many cool football people I met and talked to. It's possibly the best pre-match I can remember, with the exception of the away trip to Adeliade in R7 last year with Andy Cussen and Lee, and then all the Reds fans at the Joiners Arms.

QBE Stadium (excluding the playing surface): 7/10 - I like the place, despite what some people say. Fantastic to look along the lower deck and see it PACKED. Great atmosphere. Great to have a rectangular stadium. Getting there wasn't a hassle.

The pitch itself: 2/10 - It WAS rectangular, and the right dimensions. The goals were okay. Other than that it was an unmitigated disaster.

Post match buses: 10/10 - No delays, full, half with Nix fans, half with Victory fans. Singing, banter, laughter, commaraderie. The best of times.

The Fox: 3/10 - Once I got in (not easy) the beer was cold, and they had a good range. However, the staff were unhelpful, uncooperative and downright obstructive. Even if the Fever decide to go back there I will not be going back. It was a real downer.

I had a GREAT weekend.