Early bird gets free match

The Rotorua International Stadium plays host to the WaiBop United vs Hawkes Bay United match tomorrow. Pictured is Milos Nikolic scoring against Canterbury last season. Photo / File

Head to the Rotorua International Stadium tomorrow for the next round of the ASB Football Premiership.

WaiBop United take on Hawkes Bay United and if you time it right you can avoid the gate fee.

WaiBop communications manager Dwayne Barlow said they tend not to staff the gates until 2pm, so if you want to watch your football for free head in early and catch the curtain-raiser. The junior sides of the two clubs are also playing, with that game kicking off at 12.30pm.

"If you get in early and hang around you can get the main game for free," Mr Barlow said.

"It would be great if we could get a reasonable crowd. I'm guessing the time of year isn't ideal as it's just before Christmas, but hopefully people can get Christmas shopping done in the morning and then cruise around to the stadium.

"People can relax for a couple of hours away from the Christmas madness."

Mr Barlow said there would be refreshments on sale at the stadium and the grandstand would be open. The last match hosted in Rotorua was last season when around 500 people cheered on WaiBop, and he said they hoped for about the same this time around, but the more the merrier.

Mr Barlow said the youth team had plenty of Rotorua talent and there were a couple of All Whites in the 1st XI. The recent success of Auckland City FC in the Fifa World Club Cup had also been a boost.

"Hopefully we can get some kids interested in playing football. There's heaps of good stuff happening but when you see clubs on the world stage that brings it home that we're not far off where we want to be. Ultimately we want to get there.

"There's plenty of talent to look out for."

Details:

What: WaiBop United v Hawke's Bay United
When: Tomorrow, kick-off 3pm
Where: Rotorua International Stadium
How much: Adults $10, students/seniors $5, children free.