Crowds - The thread of Australian whining

A keg and a vindaloo?

Thanks to Santa we now have two kazoos.

Wellington International Kazoo Orchestra anyone?

+10k on Sunday ???

Kids come free. 

Better be 12k, probably get 8k, would settle for 10.5k.

I am actually gonna bring my kazoo

Kids coming free I don't think is quite the drawcard it sounds. We're coming up from Ch-Ch and there's the missus and our two kids, so we'd normally buy a family pass for $49 (2ad,2ch) but this time it's just two $23 tickets I have to buy, so $46.

A $3 saving...

Hoping for a 10k crowd though based on the numbers last time out and the form of the team

I guess it works in situations where 1x Adult says "right son (or daughter), wanna go to the football?"
And child says "only if I can bring a friend (or 2 or 3"
And then adult can be like "yeah sure sounds good" and only has to pay for 1x adult

That would have worked when I was a kid. Either I would have taken a friend (coz who wants to be seen with their Dad in public) or Parent would encourage both my brother and I to bring a friend each so we wouldn't fight with eachother.

Just saw the plea to buy tickets early and get to the game early to avoid queues - All good and a great problem to have. 

But perhaps they should look to open the gates earlier? Says the gates open 4pm for a 5pm Kickoff....So that's just 1 hour to get 10K+ in to the stadium.

No wonder people miss the start of the game as they rock up @ 4.30pm to buy tickets..stand in a queue, then try to get in to the stadium via the scanned turnstiles (perhaps 20 max in use ???)

Getting folk to buy early saves them the queue but it also saves the club from people making a last minute call not to go because of weather etc.

If the ticket is bought early the money is already in the bank.

Suspect there is more to the "buy early" drive.

It has been somewhat fascinating for me to compare the Phoenix and other A-League crowds to various European leagues:

https://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn...

Outside of comparisons to the major football powers of England, Germany, Spain and Italy, the A-League and the Phoenix are doing very well.

The A-League overall is ahead of Belgium (average 11,836 last season in their top league).

The Phoenix on last year's average would be the ninth best-supported team in Belgium.

If they end up averaging more than 9,414 this season, then they'd be the sixth best-supported team in Belgium.

The Phoenix crowds are comparable to the best-supported team in Croatia, Hadjuk Split (avge. 9806 last season) and are well ahead of all other teams in Croatia.

Based on last season's average attendances of 8,201, the Phoenix would be:

- the second-best supported side in Hungary (best avge. attendance there only 8447 at Ferencvaros),

- be the second-best supported team in Serbia (ahead of Partizan Belgrade)

- be the third-best supported side in the Czech Republic,

- be the third-best supported team in Austria (ahead of Sturm Graz)

- the fourth-best supported team in Denmark, 

- be the fifth-best supported team in the Scottish Premier League (on this season's attendances would be the third-best after Celtic & Aberdeen due to Hearts and Hibs being relegated)

- be the sixth-best supported team in Ligue 2 in France (and only marginally behind Monaco in Ligue 1),

- be the fourth-best supported team in Greece (only slightly behind major club Panathinaikos who averaged only 8541 last season),

-  be the fifth-best supported team in Italy's Serie B,

-  be the second-best supported side in the Dutch Second Div. (Jupiler League) behind Willem II (three Eredivisie sides had worst attendances)

- be the sixth-best supported team in Portugal (Sporting Braga at number 5 only averaged 1700 more)

- be the sixth-best supported team in Sweden (marginally behind Helsingborgs)

- be the sixth-best supported team in Norway

- be the sixth-best supported team in Switzerland (not far behind FC Zurich and ahead of Grasshoppers)

- be the sixth-best supported team in Poland

- be the third-best supported team in Romania 

- only 12 teams in the Russian top tier attracted more (would be only 1400 per game behind CSKA Moscow)

- be the sixth-best supported team in the Ukraine top flight

- have more than twice the supporters of the best-supported team in Finland, HJK Helsinki (avge. 4017 last season),

- have nearly three times the average of any team in Slovakia or Slovenia (including Maribor)

- be the ninth-best supported team in the Spanish Second Division

An improvement in Phoenix attendances of only a thousand or so per game would see them rocket up these European comparisons.

A-LEAGUE CROWDS 2013-14 REGULAR SEASON

BELGIAN JUPILER PRO LEAGUE 2013-14

OTHER EUROPEAN LEAGUES ATTENDANCES  - CLICK ON COUNTRY NAME ON LEFT:

https://www.european-football-statistics.co.uk/attn...

I don't know if that is stadium policy or the Fun Police aka Red Badge that decides to open the gates at 1 hour before kick off.

It's the phoenix call. 

i am guessing it saves on wages and overall costs, plus most people traditionally do not arrive that early

Thanks for the awesome post and doing the research for it! Very interesting stats.

I've always thoughts its silly to complain about so called "small crowds" that we get in Wellington just because most other clubs in the A-League get slightly higher attendances.

8k is very good, now we're getting close to 9k, perhaps 10k this sunday?

An appropriately sized stadium would make it all better. Less empty seats, better atmosphere etc...

Look at Paderborn in Germany who were promoted into the first division, build themselves a nice 15k stadium.

I watched a game on TV, the place was electric!

Hope the Nix are here to stay and eventually are able to build their own stadium. That would reduce the "crowd talk" a fair bit I think.

Let's be happy with what we've got

Well we focus on the crowd size because with the cost structure of Westpac we are always being told that crowd size is important to retain the Nix.

I guess it just boils down to the stadium being too expensive for the crowd, back to the purpose built stadium issue.

Historical crowds for the kid's go free game:

2009 - 7,524

2010 - 8,927

2011 - 9,456

2012 - 8,411

2013 - 6,608

2014 - 7,005 

This is the season for creating records!

I don't think an annual kids go free game is the way to go. It just makes a lot of families form the habit of only going when kids are free. 

Devalues the nix ticket. 

Much like people who get into the habit of only going when they can get their hands on a sponsor freebie. But at least the club usually gets something out of that. 

get mine . dragging 3 with me . not kicking and screaming tho

But dont forget,  the gates open at 4! Unless the club announce anything different. Big queues pending. 

the gates open at 4 but i thought the ticket booths are usually open before that, do not quote me on that but i usually get there before the gates open and people seem to be in the booths, better check before you rock up though

Ticket booths def open early. You also could go to railway station or mfc.

Never fails to astound me that despite  getting them for free people still find some reason to moan.

On second thought  it does not surprise me

@a4design There will be a booth at the gates tomorrow to pick up free tix for members - don't leave it late tho! http://t.co/rPb0C2sucD

— Wellington Phoenix (@WgtnPhoenixFC) January 3, 2015

Went to buy tickets today. Station Ticketek was closed along with New World Metro. Went to Michael Fowler Centre to purchase tickets only to get to the counter to realise wallet was left at home (idiot). The people at MFC said they would be open 10am-4pm tomorrow to purchase tickets. Unsure if the Station Ticketek will be open tomorrow for ticket purchases

Edit: Would probably be best to call Ticketek to see what branches are open

It's extremely difficult to attract bigger crowds and it depends very much on the form/success of the team but even that is no guarantee.

But it is possible to save $$$ by playing out of a smaller size stadium

@cappynz gate sales and venue pick from 2pm. Gates open 4pm @WgtnPhoenixFC

gates open at 4pm = one big bottle neck. Should've opened at 3pm with this sort of promotional event.

10267.

Looking good for next games at the Hutt Rec.

The Hutt Rec will sell out and hopefully it will be spun in the media as 'Phoenix sell out'. Its a great position to be in and hopefully we get results there.

Anyone have a clue what the surface is like?

Great crowd.....funny in't. After all the talk about crowd numbers...how to get more people along, promotions, bouncy castles etc etc the bottom line is if your team is winning and its seen as a fun day out then lots moire people will come.

Really quite simple!!!!

So what you are saying is that Dome should focus more around the team and results they get rather than talking about the crowds that are not turning up?!?!?!?!

Was a great crowd. Topped off by a masterly performance of "Oh Wellington" being led by a boy of about 8 years old. He was pumped up and did it very proudly. Excellent effort.

I think that is the first time after we've had a good run of results, we've then had a nice day and good home crowd and not blown the game 0-5. 

It'll be good to see how the extra punters follow through for future crowds, after such a good evening, good result, good crowd buzz, good YF effort.  Just a shame we have the month off.

I think from aisle 23 that tonight was the best ever crowd chant participation from outside the Fever zone.

Shame this game is followed by a month off.

First 10K crowd since Oct 2012 IIRC.

Any idea what proportion of the crowd was kids with free tickets?