Football United tour breaks even

With a crowd of 30,968 attending Saturday's Football United double-header at Westpac Stadium, the Wellington Phoenix's 'Festival of Football' has been deemed a success.

The Wellington fixtures were preceded by crowds of 19,183 at Auckland's Eden Park last Wednesday (23rd July) for the Phoenix v West Ham United fixture and 9,506 at Dunedin's Forsyth Barr Stadium last Tuesday (22nd July) for the Sydney FC v Newcastle United fixture.

Wellington Phoenix Chairman Rob Morrison, who funded the visit of the English Premier League teams, told local media that he was satisfied with the four-game, four-team tournament from which the Phoenix's Welnix ownership consortium would "ballpark break even".

While conceeding that he would have liked "a couple of thousand" more fans in the stands in Wellington and Auckland, he advised that it would be a week or so before the Phoenix could properly assess the full financial results, including how many viewers had paid to wathc the games on pay television.

Morrison was proud of the feel-good atmosphere that had been created and the wider economic benefit for Wellington, stating "I think we had the right range of ticket pricing, we certainly had the quality of product.

"I was really happy with the whole buzz around Wellington and a lot of people came into town so that side of it was fantastic. A couple of thousand more in Wellington and Auckland probably would have done the trick but we'll be ballpark break even.

"We're not making a profit on this - it was about what do we need to cover these costs."

In Dunedin, where Dunedin Venues Management Ltd (DVML) underwrote the Sydney FC v Newcastle United fixture, DVML Chief Executive Terry Davies told the Otago Daily Times he was happy with the crowd numbers that attended the match on a bitterly cold Tuesday night.

Davies explained that an initial analysis of ticket sales showed the crowd included a strong contingent from outside the city, with only 58% of tickets sold being bought in Dunedin.

The rest had been bought mainly elsewhere in New Zealand, while overseas fans travelling to Dunedin for the fixture - mainly from the United Kingdom, Australia and Asia - made up 9% of the crowd.

Davies put the international interest down to the "fanatics" among the Newcastle United fan base, "who just follow them anywhere".

The Dunedin clash also attracted valuable international media exposure for the city and the venue, and the community had benefited from travelling fans' spending and public engagement events.

However, with the Forsyth Barr Stadium's 2,200 members offered free entry to the game, the total crowd figure pointed to a paying attendance of about 7,500.

The Otago Daily Times suggested that DVML needed to sell about 9,500 tickets to break even, on top of members, after agreeing to underwrite the fixture.

However, Davies would not be drawn on whether DVML covered its costs, saying the exact details were "commercially sensitive".

Davies concluded "it was a great event, the hype was great, the publicity was brilliant, everyone was happy, more people flew in from outside and there was more money spent.

"This is about economic impact and the city being seen on a global stage."

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