this is another example of where the league commissioner or whatever he is called is not doing his job.
in the past, teams have been severely hauled over the coals about poor spectator facilities, to the point of being threatened with expulsion. in fact university cowan were kicked out in the 80s.
other teams went ahead and built facilities, only for NZF to change to a franchise league. what a waste of time and money for those teams.
now it seems to be ok to play at venues which would have been condemned from the old league. talk about lowering standards.
to play a grand final at one such venue is even worse.
surely waitak wouldn't even want to belittle a grand final by playing there!?
why didn't NZF book another venue? surely it would have been obvious that at least one auckland team would be in the final. or do they not watch the ASB prem?
Couldn't agree more reg22. NZF seems to ignore its own rules.
ACFC went to a lot of effort and expense to build a covered stand, which would have been larger if the footpath had allowed, to meet original NZFC requirements. Now other ASBP sides are just being allowed to ignore those initial specifications requiring a stand which is unfair. In the first three seasons of the NZFC Waitakere used Trust stadium as their home ground. Now they use Fred Taylor, which is really only a winter club facility, in order to cut costs. Don't tell me in the three seasons they've been using Fred Taylor they couldn't upgrade the spectator facilities to include covered seating.
We've used North Harbour and Trust Stadium as the venues for finals between ACFC and Waitakere in the past. There's no way such a showcase game should be allowed at a venue that doesn't even have a stand for the spectators.