Edited a post & a new post came up!
Another Traveling Circus fail.
5185 is not good enough to justify taking games on the road. FFA has said we need to engage the rest of NZ, but, unfortunately if the rest of NZ dont know that there is a game on in their town, they won't go to it!
In the match thread & the Fever Bus thread numerous people have posted about the lack of promotion & marketing that was done in New Plymouth & Taranaki, this was exactly the same for the games in Hamilton & Auckland. There appears to be a pattern evolving here!
The local Councils are the one who underwrite these Traveling Circus forays, but surely it is in the interests of the club to maximise the promotion of these events. Its all well & good to say that the Phoenix don't lose money on the TC games, but they are LOSING FANS! This is surely the opposite of the purpose of the TC games!
I hate the fact that we have four games away - I love going to them! (& it's even better when the club pays for me to go), but I'd rather they were at the Home of the Phoenix.
The usual antagonists were, once again, conspicuous & silent, by their apparent absence (not a personal dig at the two who usually come out with all their buzz words!), I'm just saying that, for the loyal fans - no matter where they are from - it is a pain in the arse to lose the home town advantage so often.
It was a great day out on saturday, fantastic company on the bus (thanks Phoenix Facebook Comp), great beer (courtesy of Garage Project), healthy lunch in Whanganui (courtesy of McDonalds), met some great North Shore football fans (Mike Smith & Sonny), plenty of laughs with the usual lot from all over the country who made the effort to get there, but unfortunately, once again "The NIX failed to turn up"
The FFA keep pushing the regional games, but, apart from when games are played in Geelong, the crowds are shyte!
The FFA need to stop penalising the supporters who are the bread & butter of the clubs!
Make the whole gameday experience better, so that people want to take their kids for the whole day out, lay on subsidised transport for season ticket holders, if you are playing away from Wellington, put on subsidised buses or flights! Free tickets for Season Ticket holders who travel to Australia, negotiate discounted flights to Australia for season ticket holers, make it worthwhile to be a season ticket holder!