What was the crowd?
BY SAM BUCKLEA-League football fans are very precious, even tending obsessive, when it comes to crowd figures (I reckon the Australians are even more seriously afflicted than we are).
We ritually speculate about the likely crowd before home games and it’s often our leading curiosity when consuming match reports or delving into post-match discussion forums.
We find ourselves disputing the official “count”, bemoaning poor turnouts and pouring scorn upon those clubs whose crowd performances are a stain on the credibility and reputation of the competition – Gold Coast United being the current villain. In the UK, a club suffering crowd failure is its own problem. In the A-League it is everybody’s.
My theory is that football, as the underdog and less established professional code down under, suffers from a high degree of insecurity. The fans feel their sport has to constantly prove itself or fend off the doubts of a historically sceptical public and media. The relative youth of the A-League and its franchises and the perceived financial fragility of some clubs are also quite reasonable reasons for our crowd consciousness. Though the signs are very positive, it is still too early to take the viability and future of the A-League or, for that matter, the Phoenix, for granted. We like to be reassured.
This year, a fall in crowd numbers across the A-League has heightened that consciousness. And while Phoenix crowd numbers are down against the highs of its debut season, I think the club is doing admirably on that front (although Terry Serepisos may not share my threshold for “admirable”). Twenty-seven games plus playoffs is a very long season by the standards of New Zealand professional sports competitions. In between the anticipation of the season’s opening and the drama of the final run to the playoffs, it’s not easy to sustain the competition’s hype, media and public interest (the occasional Eugene Dadi bicycle does help). Seven thousand eight hundred in the rain, for the second of two successive home fixtures, for the 10th of 11 games at the stadium, was a decent turnout.
The A-League season contains a substantial “grind” period of as many as 15 matches - during which points are accumulated (think overs 20-35) but the fate of the season is still far from settled. This year the grind coincided with a demoralising run of draws and absence of goals. We did it tough for several weeks, there was a highly frustrated vibe and there was some pretty negative media, but the crowds never collapsed. That was extremely heartening.
Unlike traditional football strongholds, our market doesn’t contain a large core of diehard fans whose life is their football team and whose support is utterly unconditional. The type who’ve been season ticket holders for 30 years, and their father before them, and his before that and so and on. There are pockets of such fans (no, not 30 years, obviously), and those pockets will slowly grow, but the Phoenix is still relying heavily on attracting casual sports fans. They come to be entertained and even if they are, that’s no guarantee they’ll be back next week. They might have a work function, could be in Martinborough, at the beach (cough), the Comedy Festival, or just watching it on telly.
No question, our biggest crowds are yet to come. I’m convinced Christchurch will come to the party. The one-off nature of the game, the finals opportunity, the launch of the new stadium, recent form, goals and the brand of football being dished out by the Phoenix add up to a bumper. At least 10k, maybe 12, 15 even? Come on Canterbury.
And then, if we earned a home playoff …
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I know the capacity will be around the 12k mark as only part of AMI stadium is open to the public (the new Deans stand). I've got my ticket.
Sam your observations are spot on, however crowd counting (a.k.a Australian sport's pissing contest) is not confined to the A-league. The attention that a-league fans accord to crowd figures is derivative of the fact that the sports commentariat, mainly Aussie Rules, are absolutely obsessed by it, and in turn, other competitions are constantly benchmarking themselves. I'm much more interested in profitability, and whilst they obviously correlate, one doesn't guarantee the other.
"A-League football fans are very precious, even tending obsessive, when it comes to crowd figures "
Not wanting to generalise or anythuing, eh? :)
I think that a lot of supporters of A League clubs like to discuss crowd attendances as a gauge on the popularity of the league compared to other codes.
There are also financial considerations, I think it was quoted some time in the 'Nix's first season that attendances of 10,000 were needed to break even on match days.
Mikey #4, Yep! Written with conscious intent to generalise. It was just going to take too long to name each fan and specify their individual degree of preciousness :)
Unfortunately, Sam, you've hit the nail on the head with the problem with the game in NZ.
'My theory is that football, as the underdog and less established professional code down under, suffers from a high degree of insecurity'.
I've seen it for years, soccer people making disparaging comments about the impending demise of rugby, though it couldn't be further from the truth.......NZ out of step with the rest of the world......no other games can match soccer for excitement. All of these tired lines reek of insecurity & continue to be trundled out by our resident boofheads.
The reality is that many kiwis do not identify with the players put out by the Phoenix & I suppose this is natural, new players take time to be taken in by the mainstream. The other issue is the alomost terminal damage that the Knights debacle did to the game here in NZ. These two factors, among others, though, have had the unintended effect of limiting the attraction of the Phoenix to attracting more mainstream support. One could also argue that Wellington has limitations in what sort of incremental crowds the city can bring in, with just under 70% of all new immigrants coming to the Akl region. However, Akl had their day in the sun & blew it.
There will always be something of a limit to what the Phoenix will attract in NZ, but if the bigwigs within the game channel resources & money in the right direction to develop youth talent & retain them......& we keep self interested muppets away from the administration of the game here in NZ, we have a chance to grow something special with talented young kiwis making up the majority of the numbers in the Phoenix squad. Then, the sky could be the limit. In any event, I would venture that we will see an increase in localised support.
2. NZ
#5, my main reason to check crowds is to see if they've broken 10 000. I want to see the Phoenix become profitable soon. My constant worry is that Terry Serepisos will throw in the towel. He's said a few times he's in it for the long haul but as he loses roughly $1m per year I just don't know how long he can support it.
By the way people are talking around me you will get a really good turnout in CHCH. Will we see the legendery Pheonix fans in CHCH as well? Keep up the great stuff.
Haven't missed a Home A League game yet. Oh and you can include the Beckham game, giving me a record of 33 straight games! We exist!
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Hopefully Christchurch will get a bumper crowd. We used to geta round 15 thousand when the warriors use to come here.
If its a fine night I would expect at the very least 10 thousand.
We supported the under 17 womans world cup very well.