NZ II Expansion Confirmed in Auckland

[Keith989]

9 hours ago, Irish Saint said:

The FAI Cup Final attracted a crowd of over 43,000 at the Aviva Stadium  to see St. Pat's defeat Bohemians a couple of weeks ago.

Yeah attendances here are going through a bit of a boom at the moment. It started at such a low base though, so still a long way to go.

Investment in infrastructure will be key to keep the attendances growing. 

[HawkMan]

One reason entrepreneurs like to invest in soccer is that it means their business brand can tap into a global market. I don't know if European broadcasters regularly show the A League,  but here in Blighty we have it, on at a nice time,  a relaxing Saturday or Sunday morning before the proper stuff in the EPL starts. I've seen a few A League games, IMO about English tier 3 quality.

Even though it will never ever be more popular than the NRL in Australia and surrounding region,  the NRL is watched in Oceania ( or Australasia, never know the correct name for the continent), and the North of England and not really anywhere else, so billionaires wanting brand expansion, or simple reflected glory are attracted to soccer worldwide.

Edited November 23, 2023 by HawkMan

[stookie]

4 hours ago, gingerjon said:

I just checked. Average A-League attendance so far is 60% up on two seasons ago, and now at a level where it's close to Super League (8,500 v 9,200). So clearly some people know.

As I've said before, they do seem to have realised there is no benefit at all to paying over the odds for fading stars and seem more comfortable being mostly a development league. That plus the boost from AFC Champions League and internationals, providing they don't ever have another brain ache, should see them right for a while.

OK, but 2 years ago was still heavily impacted by covid. The last season without impact was 18-19, and they are well down on that. Actually, there's been a reduction every single season since 13-14, until the 22-23 covid recovery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-League_Men_attendance

[gingerjon]

9 minutes ago, stookie said:

OK, but 2 years ago was still heavily impacted by covid. The last season without impact was 18-19, and they are well down on that. Actually, there's been a reduction every single season since 13-14, until the 22-23 covid recovery.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A-League_Men_attendance

Probably should have checked that - I just went back a couple of seasons and, bliss, forgot about covid.

[Leigh-On-Kiwi]

As a football fan & someone who now lives in Auckland, this doesn't excite me in the slightest. The level of football played in the A-League is lesser than that of the top 4 flights in the UK. Yes, it's definitely a growing sport and I can see the reason for investment but I see this as an investment and nothing else.

[Bondi Cannon]

there is a possible upside in all this for league.. the billionaire behind it is promising to build a city centre waterfront stadium, which a lot of people here want. If its an 18-20k capacity ground he'll need a second sport there... the Warriors would be ideal. Mt Smart is pretty rundown and out in an industrial suburb - no bars or restaurants nearby. 

[Damien]

1 hour ago, Bondi Cannon said:

there is a possible upside in all this for league.. the billionaire behind it is promising to build a city centre waterfront stadium, which a lot of people here want. If its an 18-20k capacity ground he'll need a second sport there... the Warriors would be ideal. Mt Smart is pretty rundown and out in an industrial suburb - no bars or restaurants nearby. 

That's not big enough for the Warriors. They averaged 22,368 last year.

[Sports Prophet]

15 hours ago, HawkMan said:

One reason entrepreneurs like to invest in soccer is that it means their business brand can tap into a global market. I don't know if European broadcasters regularly show the A League,  but here in Blighty we have it, on at a nice time,  a relaxing Saturday or Sunday morning before the proper stuff in the EPL starts. I've seen a few A League games, IMO about English tier 3 quality.

Even though it will never ever be more popular than the NRL in Australia and surrounding region, or Australasia, never know the correct name for the continent), and the North of England and not really anywhere else, so billionaires wanting brand expansion, or simple reflected glory are attracted to soccer worldwide.

Neither are accurate. The name of the continent is Australia.

[Sports Prophet]

2 hours ago, Bondi Cannon said:

there is a possible upside in all this for league.. the billionaire behind it is promising to build a city centre waterfront stadium, which a lot of people here want. If its an 18-20k capacity ground he'll need a second sport there... the Warriors would be ideal. Mt Smart is pretty rundown and out in an industrial suburb - no bars or restaurants nearby. 

 

10 minutes ago, Damien said:

That's not big enough for the Warriors. They averaged 22,368 last year.

Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing, but he wouldn’t be paying for this himself in whole. With government influence, I would expect a 30k stadium would be a good size for an Auckland CBD stadium, hosting Warriors and Blues too.

[Sports Prophet]

16 hours ago, The Rocket said:

SP I can`t always help but feel with your posts sometimes there is a little bit of schadenfreude towards Rugby League in this country, do you do the same on the fumbleball forums, probably not - there I`ll answer for you.

I will sometimes praise and sometimes condemn the actions taken within our sport and despite people disagreeing with me at times, I think I post my opinions with fair appraisal. I don’t get direct enjoyment from the negatives in our sport, but I do enjoy discussing the topics of the day with others who like me, have a strong passion for the game of RL.

As to the opening post, NRL expansion is contemporary discussion and I thought the expansion of another sport into one of the NRLs key markets off the back of a billionaire investor is something worth discussing. My point being, I wish the said billionaire had the interest in investing in pacific RL instead of soccer.

As to your question, I don’t go on other forums.

[Copa]

Very funny 

https://www.betootaadvocate.com/sports/average-aussie-soccer-fan-just-noticed-the-a-league-season-started-a-month-ago/?fbclid=IwAR3vztcC3vG3QNf5TY8JO-WMXuzBv1Ef-taLYtm3Pf5yIkVTXO_HgL0T24w_aem_AacotqcfKGO-JV6MCpe1H_kX5rq18alx7L_0KBTM3QeZB8x007x4WZHfFPcR3r21dTc

 

[Eddie]

11 hours ago, Sports Prophet said:

Neither are accurate. The name of the continent is Australia.

Whatever happened to Oceania - is nothing sacred any more?

[gingerjon]

7 minutes ago, Eddie said:

Whatever happened to Oceania - is nothing sacred any more?

In football, Australia left it and moved to Asia.

[HawkMan]

From National Geographic.

 

Oceania is a region made up of thousands of islands throughout the Central and South Pacific. It includes Australia, the smallest continent in terms of total land area. Most of Oceania, including Australia, is under the Pacific, a vast body of water that is larger than all Earth’s continental landmasses and islands combined. The name “Oceania” justly establishes the Pacific Ocean as the defining characteristic of the region.

Oceania is dominated by the nation of Australia. The other two major landmasses of Oceania are the microcontinent of Zealandia, which includes the country of New Zealand, and the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, made up of the nation of Papua New Guinea. Oceania also includes three island regions: Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia (including the U.S. state of Hawai‘i).

[Sports Prophet]

1 hour ago, Eddie said:

Whatever happened to Oceania - is nothing sacred any more?

Oceania exists. It’s a region. It’s not a continent.

[Bondi Cannon]

On 24/11/2023 at 12:53, Sports Prophet said:

 

Yeah, I was gonna say the same thing, but he wouldn’t be paying for this himself in whole. With government influence, I would expect a 30k stadium would be a good size for an Auckland CBD stadium, hosting Warriors and Blues too.

I'm sure he could be persuaded to make it bigger. Also that 22k figure was bolstered by a lot of $5 and $10 ticket offers. Probably more value in being the hot ticket in town and selling out at $40 a ticket every week. 

[Kirmonds pouch]

On 22/11/2023 at 11:35, HawkMan said:

I've googled soccer participation in New Zealand and pasted this: It might explain it.

 

More people play football than any other sport in New Zealand. Netball is the most popular women's sport, enjoying strong support from grassroots level right up to our world-leading national team, the Silver Ferns. Basketball is also a sport widely admired in New Zealand.14 Jul 2022

 

Football in New Zealand experiences sustained growth in participation through a focus on quality. More New Zealanders feature in the global professional game. All participants across our game indicate an increase in the quality of their experience as evidenced by Sport NZ's Voice of Participant survey.

 

 

 

When you say football, do you mean soccer, or do you mean RL as the Aussies weirdly call Rugby, footy?

If you do actually mean soccer, then soccers is the most widely played sport everywhere, even America. It's the level it's played at that is crucial. Starting a soccer team and finding somewhere to play and people to play it is easy, that's why it's such a successful game, it's so simple. All you need is a basic pitch and some goalposts (or traffic cones at a pinch) and a ball and you are there. At the other end of the scale, to play American football, you need a huge amount of paraphernalia and organization, RL fits between the two.

Although soccer can be dangerous, it's not a physical contact sport in the same way Rugby is, certainly not now. It's basic rules and tactics can be explained it one training session, and can be played at some level by anyone who is reasonably fit. We say RL is a simple game, but really it isn't, to play it you really have to know it, and it needs to be organised, and you need a fair number of players to have a game. I've seen kids play a passable game of soccer with 3 players per team, using a tennis ball and a shared goalie. Soccer can be played at a huge number of levels, and enjoyed by people of hugely varying levels of ability. The range in most other sports is far more narrow, unless you play specially adapted versions of those games.

Thus soccer is played and watched by people who know they can take what they see on TV or at the stadiums, and try to recreate it as best as possible at their own level. Nothing wrong with that, it's a game for dreamers as well as the gifted.

95% of people who watch RL, if they have played the game at all, only ever played it in school or in youth teams. RL, NFL, Ice Hockey, even RU to a large degree, is a sport mainly for the top 5%. IMHO we watch it and admire it because we all know that we couldn't ever do it. You can play 128th division soccer and on a good day you can kid yourself that you are in an FA cup final. Try that in RL and you'll get carried off on a stretcher. Soccer is totally accessible and can be played for fun and in a light hearted way that most other contact sports can't.

We used to play our other northern offices at soccer once a year in a mini tournament, it was a laugh, we participated. Plenty of us were RL fans, but nobody ever suggested we had a similar RL tournament. That's why soccer will always be the world's number one sport, it's so easy to play just for fun.

[EggFace]

On 23/11/2023 at 07:24, Keith989 said:

Yeah attendances here are going through a bit of a boom at the moment. It started at such a low base though, so still a long way to go.

Investment in infrastructure will be key to keep the attendances growing. 

So the Irish Soccer Season is played over Summer...how dumb.

[EggFace]

10 minutes ago, Kirmonds pouch said:

When you say football, do you mean soccer, or do you mean RL as the Aussies weirdly call Rugby, footy?

If you do actually mean soccer, then soccers is the most widely played sport everywhere, even America. It's the level it's played at that is crucial. Starting a soccer team and finding somewhere to play and people to play it is easy, that's why it's such a successful game, it's so simple. All you need is a basic pitch and some goalposts (or traffic cones at a pinch) and a ball and you are there. At the other end of the scale, to play American football, you need a huge amount of paraphernalia and organization, RL fits between the two.

Although soccer can be dangerous, it's not a physical contact sport in the same way Rugby is, certainly not now. It's basic rules and tactics can be explained it one training session, and can be played at some level by anyone who is reasonably fit. We say RL is a simple game, but really it isn't, to play it you really have to know it, and it needs to be organised, and you need a fair number of players to have a game. I've seen kids play a passable game of soccer with 3 players per team, using a tennis ball and a shared goalie. Soccer can be played at a huge number of levels, and enjoyed by people of hugely varying levels of ability. The range in most other sports is far more narrow, unless you play specially adapted versions of those games.

Thus soccer is played and watched by people who know they can take what they see on TV or at the stadiums, and try to recreate it as best as possible at their own level. Nothing wrong with that, it's a game for dreamers as well as the gifted.

95% of people who watch RL, if they have played the game at all, only ever played it in school or in youth teams. RL, NFL, Ice Hockey, even RU to a large degree, is a sport mainly for the top 5%. IMHO we watch it and admire it because we all know that we couldn't ever do it. You can play 128th division soccer and on a good day you can kid yourself that you are in an FA cup final. Try that in RL and you'll get carried off on a stretcher. Soccer is totally accessible and can be played for fun and in a light hearted way that most other contact sports can't.

We used to play our other northern offices at soccer once a year in a mini tournament, it was a laugh, we participated. Plenty of us were RL fans, but nobody ever suggested we had a similar RL tournament. That's why soccer will always be the world's number one sport, it's so easy to play just for fun.

Well Touch Rugby is getting popular.

[Harry Stottle]

On 22/11/2023 at 14:34, Exiled Wiganer said:

Is this still the general rugby league forum?

5 days on from your very correct question EW, and there are those still engaging in round ball conversation.

I am going to get a liking for Rugger at this rate, well perhaps not.

[HawkMan]

Double post.

Edited November 27, 2023 by HawkMan

[HawkMan]

4 hours ago, Harry Stottle said:

5 days on from your very correct question EW, and there are those still engaging in round ball conversation.

I am going to get a liking for Rugger at this rate, well perhaps not.

Harry, I remember December/January time last year/ early this year, you were so bored you even watched a bit of Match Of The Day !! Will you be so desperate again?

Edited November 27, 2023 by HawkMan

[The 4 of Us]

On 24/11/2023 at 12:27, HawkMan said:

 Zealandia

 

[Harry Stottle]

12 hours ago, HawkMan said:

Harry, I remember December/January time last year/ early this year, you were so bored you even watched a bit of Match Of The Day !! Will you be so desperate again?

Good memory Hawk, I have been on medication and having therapy since that fateful night  I suspect another dose of Lineker and Ian Wright could put me in a straight jacket or even a padded cell.

But Shhhh, I did watch the final of the Womens WC, do they not realise that they can be stretchered of for having a twisted sock along with the compulsory 5 min roll on the floor and complaining to the ref that an opponent has just given them a nasty look, I won't be making an habit of it but it was far more palatable than the Insomnia cure that is the mens version.

[Harry Stottle]

11 hours ago, The 4 of Us said:

 

Good man, I see he has got his Leopard Top and Shirt on, just saying.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Harry Stottle