Nickolas Tolich and Milan Tolich brave the weather at North Harbour Stadium. Photo / Dean Purcell, NZ Herald
Nickolas Tolich and Milan Tolich brave the weather at North Harbour Stadium. Photo / Dean Purcell, NZ Herald
More than 14,000 tickets have sold for tonight's Fifa U-20 World Cup game between the Junior All Whites and USA.
Motorists set off in peak-hour traffic for the 7pm game at Albany's North Harbour Stadium and were caught in "torrential downpours".
Last night the tournament's local organising committee were expectingthe stadium to be 75 percent full by kick-off at 7pm.
Saturday's opening game between New Zealand and Ukraine was watched by capacity crowd of 25,000 people.
Herald photographer Dean Purcell, who had a allocated media parking space at QBE Stadium, was given a slip of paper when he arrived that said vehicles parked in the area (P1) would not be able to leave until 30 minutes after the game finished "to allow spectators to vacate the stadium safely."
He said this had not been the case at the game on Saturday.
At about 4.50pm, videographer Daniel Hines said there was still "hardly anyone" in the stadium's carpark.
Organisers had been scrambling to avoid a repeat of Saturday's traffic chaos. Auckland Transport had strongly encouraged people attending tonight to use public transport, the price of which is included in a match ticket.
It put on extra event buses, which ran from the central city, Takapuna and Henderson and went along the Northern Busway, "ensuring a smooth trip".
Aucklanders were warned about torrential downpours and isolated thunder forecast between 4pm and 6pm.
A storm was issued for the Auckland region by WeatherWatch as a band of active showers in the Tasman Sea is expected to cross the upper North Island.
Bus vs car
The extra event buses put on by organisers seemed to have alleviated the traffic chaos experienced on Sunday.
NZ Herald reporter Scott Yeoman arrived via bus in a little over 30 minutes.
NZ Herald reporter Susan Strongman wasn't so lucky on her drive to the stadium.
Leaving the office at about 5pm after about 30 minutes of sitting in traffic she finally got onto the motorway.
"As I crossed the Harbour Bridge, starting at a 10km/h crawl which picked up to about 45km/h in the inner lane, spectacular sheets of lightening flashed overhead and rain poured.
"Once I was over the bridge (5.40pm) the traffic picked up to about 70km/h max as I headed out towards the Oteha Valley Rd exit. Atop an overpass a sign read: 'Major event in Albany, expect delays.'
"The offramp was congestion-free and I arrived at the stadium by about 5.50pm, but finding a place to park was made difficult by a combination of glare, water, darkness and my bad eyesight," she said.
No stadium parking signs near Albany's North Harbour Stadium. Photo / Susan Strongman, NZ Herald
"P signs pointed in various directions, but confusingly, for someone who has never been to QBE stadium before, road cones blocked off many of the entrances.
"A P sign with a missing arrow left me confused about which direction to drive in. I took a wrong turn and ended up pulling in to a Pak n' Save car park to check Google maps. I couldn't find the stadium (turns out it's listed as North Harbour Stadium).
"I ended up driving around and finding a free park on the street near Westfield about 6.20pm, before walking five minutes to the stadium - making my journey just shy of one and a half hours."
Auckland Transport spokesman Mark Hannan said 2255 people took the bus to North Harbour stadium tonight, while on Saturday it was around 2700.
He said the percentage of the crowd to use public transport was much higher tonight than on Saturday because of a smaller crowd.
"It was pleasing to see people taking the bus, for most people the trip took about 30 minutes which is great."
