St Kildas New Zealand matches - Wellington Council not satisifed

[The_Wookie]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/10121447/AFL-fixture-in-doubt-as-only-half-pay-admission

Fewer than half the 13,285 people who attended this year's Anzac Day Aussie Rules match at Westpac Stadium paid for their tickets - a revelation that could put the future of the annual event in jeopardy.

It was understood just 6400 people paid face value for their tickets to watch St Kilda lose to Brisbane.

Wellington City Council was understood to have put about $600,000 of ratepayer money into promoting the game - equating to more than $90 for every ticket sold. The contribution included $400,000 from its Economic Development Fund, and $200,000 from another council funding stream.

Council policy was that every dollar spent on big-event promotion should give the city a $20 return.

The first Anzac Day Aussie Rules game was played at the stadium last year, after a deal brokered by former city councillor John Morrison and promoter John Dow. It attracted a crowd of 22,183 - of whom about 17,000 paid for their tickets.

But Lester said the council was not satisfied with either event.

"When it was introduced . . . it seems to have been a fairly clear case of over-promising and under-delivering. We want to change that. We have met with representatives from St Kilda and the AFL to make our concerns known and to review the situation."

So it seems all is not as rosy as was initially claimed. Next years game will go ahead I think, but after that?

 

[fabulousphil]

I do actually remember reading something about all this ......

Apparently bugger all St Kilda fans went over ( in comparison to the year before) because the game was co-incided with school holidays and air fares were much more expensive at that peak time, and of course kids school holidays so other family plans were made.

The AFL did not pay as much attention to talking up, promoting and spruiking the game, and neither did St Kilda from all accounts.

Brisbane would have had less fans travel than Sydney, and neither team was travelling well ( ladder position ) at the time.

I am not sure what sort of cross promotion, Brisbane or the Saints did with their fans as far as holidaying after, perhaps someone could tell us.

To be a success perhaps another Melbourne club would be the way to go, and perhaps when memberships are sold next year, some sort of deal, cross promotion should be organised early.

Might be far fetched but i could see the WCE and its fan base making a real success of this if organised early enough, their membership is IMO across the board pretty cashed up, middle aged and looking for trips that would include footy, wine tours, skiing etc.

Pretty sure the AFL will pay more attention to detail next year, it was certainly missing this year.

 

[The_Wookie]

Im almost certain there was an article on the new zealand matches where they said that the closeness of Anzac day and easter this year contributed to the downturn.

 

[Rob]

I don't think anyone around here thought annual matches there was a good idea, and St Kilda were kidding themselves if they thought they were going to get any new fans. Maybe 1 game every 4 years would be a reasonable outcome for all concerned, and avoid having the same team playing there.

 

[fabulousphil]

I don't think anyone around here thought annual matches there was a good idea, and St Kilda were kidding themselves if they thought they were going to get any new fans. Maybe 1 game every 4 years would be a reasonable outcome for all concerned, and avoid having the same team playing there.

Disagree here, i thought it was a good idea, and one worth persevering, and if persevered with it would generate new fans.

 

[Rob]

Disagree here, i thought it was a good idea, and one worth persevering, and if persevered with it would generate new fans.

Really? Annual matches with the same club? The novelty was always going to wear thin very quickly.

If the AFL insists on playing an annual game there, then make sure that no team plays there more than once every 5 years. Wellington council wants tourists, and it's not the sort of trip people are going to make every year.

 

[fabulousphil]

Really? Annual matches with the same club? The novelty was always going to wear thin very quickly.

If the AFL insists on playing an annual game there, then make sure that no team plays there more than once every 5 years. Wellington council wants tourists, and it's not the sort of trip people are going to make every year.

Yes really ?, St Kilda and a different team every year, not 2 different teams every year, a team with a decent membership base who have shown good history with travel.

That is how you build support and awareness IMO.

And BTW ( bolded) i was under the impression that ST Kilda was the club that organised the Wellington game, not the AFL, or the AFL insisting on playing there.

 

[saviour01]

I do actually remember reading something about all this ......

Apparently bugger all St Kilda fans went over ( in comparison to the year before) because the game was co-incided with school holidays and air fares were much more expensive at that peak time, and of course kids school holidays so other family plans were made.

The AFL did not pay as much attention to talking up, promoting and spruiking the game, and neither did St Kilda from all accounts.

Brisbane would have had less fans travel than Sydney, and neither team was travelling well ( ladder position ) at the time.

I am not sure what sort of cross promotion, Brisbane or the Saints did with their fans as far as holidaying after, perhaps someone could tell us.

To be a success perhaps another Melbourne club would be the way to go, and perhaps when memberships are sold next year, some sort of deal, cross promotion should be organised early.

Might be far fetched but i could see the WCE and its fan base making a real success of this if organised early enough, their membership is IMO across the board pretty cashed up, middle aged and looking for trips that would include footy, wine tours, skiing etc.

Pretty sure the AFL will pay more attention to detail next year, it was certainly missing this year.

Can you go skiing in April?

10 hours is a long flight for a game of footy. 3 times longer than it takes to get to Bali.

 

[Rob]

Yes really ?, St Kilda and a different team every year, not 2 different teams every year, a team with a decent membership base who have shown good history with travel.

That is how you build support and awareness IMO.

And BTW ( bolded) i was under the impression that ST Kilda was the club that organised the Wellington game, not the AFL, or the AFL insisting on playing there.

The AFL would have been heavily involved with organising it.

Assuming the AFL aren't going to schedule the SA or WA clubs there, the sort of club you're talking about is either Sydney or a big Melbourne club. And St Kilda aren't going to move a home game against a big Melbourne club over there.

 

[fabulousphil]

Can you go skiing in April?

10 hours is a long flight for a game of footy. 3 times longer than it takes to get to Bali.

7 hrs from Perth to Wellington, everyone in Perth has been to Bali, a lot less to NZ, there is still heaps to do around Wellington and North and further South to Queenstown etc, IMO if organised early enough you would get a bumper crop of Eagles or indeed Dockers members flying over, for a one off.

A hell of a lot of West Aussies also travel a couple times of year to Melbourne for the football, Wellington is just more sleep, chatting or drinking time.

 

[fabulousphil]

The AFL would have been heavily involved with organising it.

Assuming the AFL aren't going to schedule the SA or WA clubs there, the sort of club you're talking about is either Sydney or a big Melbourne club. And St Kilda aren't going to move a home game against a big Melbourne club over there.

Dont see why not, can't speak for the Adelaide clubs, but the Eagles and Dockers members are exactly the type of fans who would travel for a one off game in big numbers if it was organised properly and was a decent price.

No-one can get a Eagles membership, unless someone dies, in general the membership is cashed up, middle aged empty nesters.

 

[saviour01]

7 hrs from Perth to Wellington, everyone in Perth has been to Bali, a lot less to NZ, there is still heaps to do around Wellington and North and further South to Queenstown etc, IMO if organised early enough you would get a bumper crop of Eagles or indeed Dockers members flying over, for a one off.

A hell of a lot of West Aussies also travel a couple times of year to Melbourne for the football, Wellington is just more sleep, chatting or drinking time.

Link?

The best I can find in the next week is 8.5 with a 1 hour stop over.

Also, more than double the price of going to Bali.

How early does it need to be organised? Sure seems like there wasn't many from Brisbane who went. lol, more sleep, chatting or drinking time. You make it sound like those extra 5.5 hours on a plane are fun!

 

[saviour01]

Dont see why not, can't speak for the Adelaide clubs, but the Eagles and Dockers members are exactly the type of fans who would travel for a one off game in big numbers if it was organised properly and was a decent price.

No-one can get a Eagles membership, unless someone dies, in general the membership is cashed up, middle aged empty nesters.

It is?

 

[fabulousphil]

It is?

Yes indeed, a lot of members have had memberships for many years, everyone has been sitting in the same places and seats for ages, everyone knows everyone else life stories and many friendships have been formed, memberships usually only change hands due to divorce, moving away or death and more often than not are handed down to other younger family members.

No-one alse can get a look in, that is why the membership waiting list moves agonisingly slowly.

 

[saviour01]

Was it not clear I was asking about the bolded part?

 

[fabulousphil]

Your about as clear as mud, and obviously incapable of reading between the lines it appears.

 

[saviour01]

so no proof to back up your statements then?

 

[Rob]

7 hrs from Perth to Wellington, everyone in Perth has been to Bali, a lot less to NZ, there is still heaps to do around Wellington and North and further South to Queenstown etc, IMO if organised early enough you would get a bumper crop of Eagles or indeed Dockers members flying over, for a one off.

A hell of a lot of West Aussies also travel a couple times of year to Melbourne for the football, Wellington is just more sleep, chatting or drinking time.

Yeah, because the WA teams don't do enough travelling. There would rightly be an uproar about it.

In any case, it would be hideously expensive in comparison to the $150 flights we can get to Melbourne (and Bali for that matter), and for a game against St Kilda i'd be surprised if you got more than a few hundred. It's not like there are 6 flights a day to Wellington, there's precisely nought. There's only 5 direct flights a week to New Zealand in total in winter.

Hawthorn v Sydney, Richmond v Dogs, North v Melbourne - those games might get a couple of thousand going from each team if you only send them every few years.

 

[Philler]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/10121447/AFL-fixture-in-doubt-as-only-half-pay-admission
It attracted a crowd of 22,183 - of whom about 17,000 paid for their tickets.
But Lester said the council was not satisfied with either event.

I remember last year Wellington's hotels were pretty much sold out for the night. If they got 17,000 paid attendees, had sold out hotels and they were "not satisfied" with the event then they are clearly incompetent fools and were expecting much more than the AFL or their town could deliver.

 

[WagonBang]

In terms of advertising.... Went across to see Melbourne Victory play Wellington Pheonix second weekend of April this year and the town was bombarded by advertising for the ANZAC game. Everyone in town knew it was on. Just don't think they cared.

Every second bus in town had St Kilda on the back of it and the date of the match.

Walk through Wellington Airports customs and there's a massive billboard stuck on the windows that you can't miss about the game.

Over the freeway that runs past Westpac Stadium and into the CBD on multiple billboards.

Also fights to Wellington I got for $250 return with Virgin (code share/fly with AirNZ). Cheaper than my flight to WA. Same flight time really from Melb to Well as is Melb to Perth give or take 10min.

 

[saviour01]

I remember last year Wellington's hotels were pretty much sold out for the night. If they got 17,000 paid attendees, had sold out hotels and they were "not satisfied" with the event then they are clearly incompetent fools and were expecting much more than the AFL or their town could deliver.

Was trying to find articles saying that hotels were sold out, do you know of any? All the articles said they were expecting a crowd of 25k plus. They obviously didn't get that... They also said the fixture is only going to get bigger too.

 

[fabulousphil]

All of Wellingtons 6500 rooms were sold out for the 2013 fixture, and 4500 travelling from Australia

http://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/auckland/news/regwn/2030930513-welly-gets-multi-million-dollar-afl-boost

The game delivered 9 million $ to the local Wellington economy.

http://www.vote.co.nz/2013/candidates/john-dow-8838

The 2014 game sold Wellington rooms at 85% capacity

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/business/10037941/Lull-before-footy-storm-for-city-hotels

http://www.footyindustry.com/?p=393

 

[Tuco]

The Lions was just an awful choice. Any club attending needs to provide travelling supporters. If no Vic side will ever participate it has to be Freo, Wc or Adel. Sydney has already done it and it needs to be on rotation.

If the AFL truly believe in it, then invest in it by scheduling a Vic side that might bring 5k fans like Carlton as a once off.

If the saints draw GWS or GCS, or a low drawing side like the Dogs for the game next year the experiment will end.

 

[Philler]

Was trying to find articles saying that hotels were sold out, do you know of any? All the articles said they were expecting a crowd of 25k plus. They obviously didn't get that... They also said the fixture is only going to get bigger too.

I looked on booking websites at the time and noticed that there were few hotels left unoccupied.

But it seems fabulousphil has found you some reading material since you want written proof.

 

[saviour01]

yeh cheers. Gotta wonder how many hotels there are in wellington, but one of those articles says they had 74% sold for the year on average, so even without the AFL they would be pretty full.