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Westpac stadium management - We love you Shane...honest

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Posted November 03, 2015 07:02 · last edited November 03, 2015 07:37

paulm wrote:

ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for low attendance at live sports events at the Caketin on a regular basis.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. A small stadium would produce a much better atmosphere and sense of occasion, combined with sell-outs which would then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.


The Breakers are the most successful sports club/franchise in NZ in terms of winning titles in an Aus/NZ league.However, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in its present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

This issue has been raised on this forum, but  don't know if the movers and and shakers at the Wellington Stadium have seriously considered such a reconfiguration for A-League, ITM  or Super Rugby

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Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:37
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for low attendance at live sports events at the Caketin on a regular basis.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. A small stadium would produce a much better atmosphere and sense of occasion, combined with sell-outs which would then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.


The Breakers are the most successful sports club/franchise in NZ in terms of winning titles in an Aus/NZ league.However, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

This issue has been raised on this forum, but  don't know if the movers and and shakers at the Wellington Stadium have seriously considered such a reconfiguration for A-League, ITM  or Super Rugby

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:32
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for low attendance at live sports events at the Caketin on a regular basis.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. A small stadium would produce a much better atmosphere and sense of occasion, combined with sell-outs which would then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.


The Breakers are the most successful sports club/franchise in NZ in terms of winning titles in an Aus/NZ league.However, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

This issue has been raised on this forum, but  don't know if the movers and and shakers at the Wellington Stadium have seriously considered such a reconfiguration for A-League, ITM  or Super Rugby

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:32
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for low attendance at live sports events at the Caketin on a regular basis.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.


The Breakers are the most successful sports club/franchise in NZ in terms of winning titles in an Aus/NZ league.However, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

This issue has been raised on this forum, but  don't know if the movers and and shakers at the Wellington Stadium have seriously considered such a reconfiguration for A-League, ITM  or Super Rugby

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:29
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for low attendance at live sports events at the Caketin on a regular basis.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

The Breakers are the most successful sports club/franchise in NZ in terms of winning titles in an Aus/NZ league.However, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

This issue has been raised on this forum, but  don't know if the movers and and shakers at the Wellington Stadium have seriously considered such a reconfiguration for A-League, ITM  or Super Rugby

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:28
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for low attendance at live sports events at the Caketin on a regular basis.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

The Breakers are the most successful sports club/franchise in NZ in terms of winning titles in an Aus/NZ league.However, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

This issue has been raised on this forum, but  don't know if the movers and and shakers at the Wellington Stadium have seriously considered such a reconfiguration for A-League, ITM  or Super Rugby

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:28
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for low attendance at live sports events at the Caketin on a regular basis.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

The Breakers are the most successful sports club/franchise in NZ in terms of winning titles in an Aus/NZ league.However, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

This issue has been raised on this forum, but  don't know if the movers and and shakers at the Wellington Stadium have seriously considered such a reconfiguration for A-League, ITM  or Super Rugby

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:27
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for low attendance at live sports events at the Caketin on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.


The Breakers are the most successful sports club/franchise in NZ in terms of winning titles in an Aus/NZ league.However, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

This issue has been raised on this forum, but  don't know if the movers and and shakers at the Wellington Stadium have seriously considered such a reconfiguration for A-League, ITM  or Super Rugby

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:26
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for low attendance at live sports events at the Caketin on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.


If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

This issue has been raised on this forum, but  don't know if the movers and and shakers at the Wellington Stadium have seriously considered such a reconfiguration for A-League, ITM  or Super Rugby

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:21
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for low attendance at live sports events in Wellington on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.


If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

This issue has been raised on this forum, but  don't know if the movers and and shakers at the Wellington Stadium have seriously considered such a reconfiguration for A-League, ITM  or Super Rugby

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:20
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.


If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

This issue has been raised on this forum, but  don't know if the movers and and shakers at the Wellington Stadium have seriously considered such a reconfiguration for A-League, ITM  or Super Rugby

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:18
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.


If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

This issue has been raised on this forum, but  don't know if the movers and and shakers at the Wellington Stadium have seriously considered such a reconfiguration for A-League, ITM  or Super Rugby

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:17
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.


If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:09
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:09
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:08
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:08
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:07
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium

A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:07
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium


A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:06
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium


A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:06
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium


A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:05
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge.

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium


A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:05
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge


A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium


A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:03
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze uncovered and sat in our previous seats without challenge

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and then hopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium


A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides 

Warwick Hunt edited November 03, 2015 07:03
paulm wrote:
ballane wrote:

People seem to have forgotten though for the early part of its life it was near impossible to get a ticket to most things at the stadium. Lets face it if any body had said in those early days there would be a football team in Wellington you would have been laughed out of town. This hindsight from everybody is great but the reality is what we have most were very happy with in the early days. Wellington was the envy of all major cities. Yes the dynamics have changed know and no one really seems  to have a solution,but then who would also have predicted that the numbers for watching live sport would drop so dramatically. 

Agree. For the first five years or so it was magnificent, we were all talking about how we had the best stadium in NZ. They had to forecast maintaining the same croud levels - budgeting for them to drop drastically would have been nonsensical, even if true with hindsight. We live in a different world now where stadiums have moved on, so we've got to renovate/upgrade/build new and get up with the play. 

The only mistake they made at the time in my opinion was the yellow seats. That was called out from the start and has continued to be an issue.



The stadium configuration is another 'red-herring' reason put forward for non-attendance by people who won't attend a live sports event on a regular basis.

Sadly, attendance at live sports events in NZ has nose-dived over the last ten years .The attendance at the 'Tin for Super Rugby disappeared after the 2007 RWC disappointment, coupled with the advent of 'affordable' big flat-screen tvs. The drop was so great that we down-graded our silver-covered season tickets to bronze un-covered and sat in our previous covered seats without challenge

A smaller stadium would make match day experience better for those of us that regularly turn-up to the 'Tin for football or rugby or other sports. Additionally a small stadium would produce sell-outs and thenhopefully encourage demand from occasional attenders.

If you look at the Breakers, they only started to get consistent high attendance after winning the Championship, as soon as they had a losing season attendance nose-dived

Unfortunately, the cost of a new 'boutique ' stadium and the reluctance of the Wellington Rugby Union to relinquish the holding of Test matches means the 'Tin will stay in it's present form and sports have to deal with the existing stadium


A possible low-cost, short-term fix which requires further analysis, is to reconfigure the pitch by rotating it by 90 degrees, hopefully combined with minor re-configuration of the stadium to get the pitch as close as possible to seats on three sides