Bill Foley. Photo / Andrew Cornaga, Photosport
Auckland football fans will be hoping it’s a case of third time lucky for Auckland FC – the third iteration of a professional club in the city after the Football Kingz and New Zealand Knights.
The two previous attempts at establishing a footballing foothold in New Zealand’s largest city were undoubtedly valiant, yet short-lived and lasted just seven seasons before the Knights’ licence was eventually revoked in 2007.
There is a different feeling around Auckland FC and their chances of success when compared to the Kingz and Knights, though.
For one, New Zealand already has a professional team in the Wellington Phoenix. What was once uncharted territory has been explored and was very-near conquered as the Phoenix fell agonisingly short of their first A-League grand final last season.
For another, Auckland FC’s ownership group is headed by American businessman Bill Foley. Foley comes with potentially the best pedigree of success that any owner has brought to the foundation of an organisation in New Zealand sporting history.
His Black Knight Sports and Entertainment consortium started the National Hockey League’s expansion team the Las Vegas Golden Knights and within four seasons they were crowned Stanley Cup champions. That feat that has only been bettered once in American sports – by the 1971 Milwaukee Bucks, who won the NBA title in their third season.
Even more important to the potential of Auckland FC’s success is that Foley’s portfolio includes majority ownership of English club AFC Bournemouth and stakes in France’s FC Lorient and Scotland’s Hibernian FC – three well-established European clubs.
The benefits of the former have already been realised, with former Phoenix goalkeeper Alex Paulsen signing a loan deal with Auckland FC after being picked up by Bournemouth in a move reportedly worth up to $4.3 million after his breakout season.
Since the Black Knights came on board in 2022, Bournemouth have gained promotion to the Premier League and in back-to-back seasons managed to avoid relegation in what is regarded as the most competitive football league on the planet.
The A-League Men is also a vastly different competition to when the Knights were an inaugural participant in 2004. These days you’re unlikely to see player/coach roles – as was the case for the Knights with Oceania Player of the Century Wynton Rufer stepping into a hybrid position for their first two seasons.
Someone who has been on New Zealand’s professional football journey since the very start is former All White Noah Hickey. Hickey played for both the Kingz and the Knights and can recall the days when the majority of New Zealand’s national men’s team didn’t play football for a living.
Hickey has joined Auckland FC as part of their ownership group alongside former All Whites Tim Brown and Winston Reid, between the trio adding a wealth of footballing experience and business acumen to the commercial arm of the club.
He told the Herald on the day his ownership was announced that the growth of football in New Zealand since his playing days is “mind-blowing”.
“When I was young there was probably a handful of professionals in the All Whites. I remember being in the team I think that was the first all-professional squad in a game and thinking ‘This is a big step’. Two professional teams in New Zealand is mind-blowing.”
Hickey says it is not only football in this country, but across the ditch that has grown since the days of the Kingz and Knights which affords a greater chance of success for an expansion club. The A-League is now 20 years old and is in a position where the top clubs in Europe are scouting matches and signing talent – a far cry from the early 2000s and semi-professionalism.
“Danny Hay and myself were two of the marquee players that came back for the Knights in that season and that was the first point. The league was getting underway, there were many challenges in that and ultimately the ownership group had someone come in to take it over, which is where it went to Wellington.
“The league was, in a lot of ways, semi-professional and in a different world.”
The 33-time All White theorised that struggles on the business end seemed an indication that the circumstances weren’t right for the move at that time, but they are now.
Hickey said it was a combination of that growth of football and the other members of the ownership group that lead him toward his decision to join forces with Auckland FC.
Aside from Foley, the club have former All Black Ali Williams and business powerhouse Anna Mowbray on board and Hickey says the success Foley, Williams and Mowbray have had in their fields gave him the confidence that the club will forge a more successful path than the Kingz and Knights.
“There’s one thing that’s so different and that’s the owner and the resource and the backing behind them to make it successful. It’s also what they have done in the past and the people that have been added to the mix and the success they have had in the past as well.
“Be it in sport, even though it’s a different sport in rugby with Ali, Anna is a phenom when you come to the business world as well. Having that group there as the winners backing it is something New Zealand sport hasn’t seen before.”
Credit must be given to what the Phoenix have achieved in the A-League, Hickey says, that has allowed for them to thrive and survive in Australia and lay a platform for a second New Zealand team.
In particular he highlights the work of Phoenix chair Rob Morrison, who lead the Welnix group in their acquisition of the Wellington club from Terry Serepisos in 2011 at a time when the Phoenix’s future looked uncertain.
“What the Phoenix have done has been amazing ... I’m a huge fan of Rob Morrison. I just don’t think people understand what he’s been able to do for football in New Zealand on the whole. I was there watching him do things with the owners group, effectively leading a lot of the owners group, which got the A-League to be to where it is today. I’ve watched a lot of that and been in awe of what he’s done.”
The war for Auckland FC’s long-term success will not be fought on the surface of Go Media Stadium Mount Smart. It will be fought on the battlefield of attention as the club endeavours to get Aucklanders through the gates each week and turn them into fans for life.
Based in California these days, Hickey uses the tribalism of American sports and unwavering support that comes with as an example of what Auckland FC need their fans to emulate.
“The [San Diego] Padres is our local team here in the baseball and whether they’re performing well or whether they’re not, everyone’s wearing the Padres. That took many, many years.
“It’s creating an identity to where you come from, where you belong and why you put that jersey on every week or that hat. That there [if you] win, draw or lose that once you can get a following where people feel part of something and you can keep something going that holds the interest, which has been hard in New Zealand, I do admit that’s a big challenge.
“You’ve got to want to wear the jersey like the Wahs.”
Will Toogood is an online sports editor for the NZ Herald. He enjoys watching people chase a ball around on a grass surface so much he decided to make a living out of it.
The club enjoyed one of the most incredible debut seasons in Australasian sport.