Fifa World Cup 2023: Editorial - can New Zealand rise to the occasion?

Eden Park is set to host the 2023 Fifa Women's World Cup. Photo / NZ Herald

EDITORIAL

The world’s biggest showcase of women’s sports could be on a collision course with Kiwi big-event lethargy.

There’s presumably a good reason why the opening match of the Women’s World Cup is kicking off at 7pm on a weeknight in the middle of winter. If nothing else, the hometown Football Ferns playing Norway on a chilly Thursday night, means the big-ticket USA opener against Vietnam can get the plumb Saturday 1pm slot.

Last week’s surprise announcement that Fifa would give away 20,000 free tickets for matches in Auckland, Hamilton, Wellington and Dunedin was a welcome shot in the arm for public interest in the tournament. It looks a little desperate, but it should at least get a few bums on seats, and stir people to consider the possibility of attendance.

Grant Robertson’s plea to Kiwi sports fans last week to “pick up our game” and get in behind the event had a similarly desperate air about it.

“It’s fair to say there are some games where we want to see more people there,” said the Minister for Sport and Recreation.

You can’t blame Kiwi sports fans for not changing the habits of a lifetime.

The unpredictable weather of our subantarctic climes is a major part of what makes Kiwis standoffish about big outdoor events.

While Australians have been lapping up tickets, and the matches over there are on track to be sellouts, over here we’re simply not really joiners. We don’t sing much at big events; the weather needs to be good, but not too good otherwise we’d rather go to the beach. All these are decisions we prefer to make on the fly. Wake up on the day, check the forecast.

The possibility of rain isn’t the only potential spanner in the works. Fifa’s clunky ticket-purchasing mechanism means fans can’t simply rock up on the day and buy a ticket at the gate. There’s an app to download and registration loopholes to be navigated. These things might work well for major Fifa tournaments in other countries – particularly those that host Fifa events in their summer months – but a Kiwi sports fan standing outside a venue in the rain trying to download an app is unlikely to see the benefit of the system.

The biggest boost event organisers could hope for on these shores would be a thrilling win for the hosts on Thursday night. Australian fans’ interest in the tournament is aided by the fact that their side, the Matildas, have a decent chance of getting good results and are likely to progress further into the tournament than our own struggling Football Ferns.

The success of last year’s Women’s Rugby World Cup – particularly the packed-house final – made plain some of the circumstances that will get Kiwis buzzing. They had good weather, you could buy tickets at the gate, and the team were on an absolute tear, playing entertaining, winning rugby.

There’s little doubt what the Eden Park crowd would have been like for a Women’s Rugby World Cup final featuring England and France playing in the rain.

We love winners and good weather. Perhaps we’re not so different from Australia after all.