In my opinion playing a lot of kiwis has very little impact on crowds. Unless you brought someone back home like Wood, Singh or Cacace I don't think you'd see much impact. On the flip side we also don't have anywhere near enough coin to afford a 'name' player who is not a kiwi who would draw a crowd.
There are only really three ways you draw large crowds and those are:
1. Winning consistently. And no, only barely scraping into the top 6 is not what I would consider winning consistently.
2. Playing attacking, exciting football. Simply put if you play an exciting brand and score nice looking goals people will turn up. Crossing the ball into the box and hoping Zawada gets on the end of it is okay but not exactly enthralling stuff.
3. A big occasion - the world cup is a clear example but also a home finals game for the Nix.
Overall, none of those three points were met last season and so crowds were poor. Add to that the fact that the league itself was getting poor crowds and the economic situation was not great for anybody all season and well it was to be expected in hindsight.
Our new coach Chief is saying all the right things about playing attacking, exciting football but I'm not sure it will look like that once we get into the season. He may just default to crossing the ball to Zawada every play because it is very attractive from a goal scoring point of view. I am personally not sure Chief has skilled enough players to play the crisp passing football he wants to, only time will tell.
I am excited to see these young kiwis develop, I just hope their confidence isn't too damaged from being in what I believe will be a sub-par team. Maybe we can weed out the ones who don't cut it after this season and look to be more competitive the second season under this system.
There are only really three ways you draw large crowds and those are:
1. Winning consistently. And no, only barely scraping into the top 6 is not what I would consider winning consistently.
2. Playing attacking, exciting football. Simply put if you play an exciting brand and score nice looking goals people will turn up. Crossing the ball into the box and hoping Zawada gets on the end of it is okay but not exactly enthralling stuff.
3. A big occasion - the world cup is a clear example but also a home finals game for the Nix.
Overall, none of those three points were met last season and so crowds were poor. Add to that the fact that the league itself was getting poor crowds and the economic situation was not great for anybody all season and well it was to be expected in hindsight.
Our new coach Chief is saying all the right things about playing attacking, exciting football but I'm not sure it will look like that once we get into the season. He may just default to crossing the ball to Zawada every play because it is very attractive from a goal scoring point of view. I am personally not sure Chief has skilled enough players to play the crisp passing football he wants to, only time will tell.
I am excited to see these young kiwis develop, I just hope their confidence isn't too damaged from being in what I believe will be a sub-par team. Maybe we can weed out the ones who don't cut it after this season and look to be more competitive the second season under this system.
Winning consistently will bribng in the crowds, but that is harder than it sounds - especially in this league. You need to pay big bucks for good players who turn up week in week out - like City.
Playing attractive, attacking foortball does not necessarily get you wins, just look at WU in the 21/22 season, they played dour, defensive football and won the big trophy.
Not sure what kind of regular big occassion you're wanting though, a big occassion like a world cup is big because it's rare. Havoing a regular "big occassion" that's forced or manufactured makes it a not big.
An Auckland franchise gives us the NZ derby game twice a season, but is that gonna be big enough to draw massive crowds?