When Auckland FC launched their remarkable debut season at Go Media Stadium on October 19, they had the good fortune to do so under a blazing sun. The weather gods smiled that day; the footballing gods did too – Hiroki Sakai’s men downed the Brisbane Roar 2-0.
Fans enjoyed thespectacle and have delighted ever since in matches that kick off in daylight hours over summer. Next week’s derby match against the Phoenix is on track to be the third full house Auckland FC have had this season. It’s a remarkable return for a brand-new team playing in what is a lesser code on these shores.
Meanwhile, rain is forecast for Eden Park tonight.
The Blues kick off their Super Rugby campaign with a rematch of last season’s final, in which they thumped the Chiefs 41-10. Even if the weather holds, the night-time kick-off that is the blight of live rugby on these shores means fans will see little of the sun.
The Blues will battle the Chiefs on the pitch, but off the field it’s border incursions by Auckland FC and the Warriors that should unsettle the national sport’s masters. Both those teams have built solid fanbases at the often-unloved ground in Penrose.
Mayor Wayne Brown has put his voice to the cause, calling on rugby fans to show up for tonight’s Blues match. But the longer-term challenges of consistently putting enough bums on seats at Eden Park for the venue to not look like an empty concrete shell remain.
Blues fans during the 2024 Super Rugby Pacific final featuring the side playing the Chiefs at Eden Park on June 22 las year. Photo / Photosport
Sports fans contemplating taking the kids to watch a game might reasonably look at a sunny afternoon at Auckland FC and contrast it with their experience of watching the Blues in the middle of winter. Sporting codes are always trying to convert ambivalent fans into hardcore ones — and if you’re a bit ambivalent about the actual match, and just fancy having a good time, the sunshine is pretty appealing.
As is so often the case these days, rugby kicks off with storm clouds above.
This week’s intrigues around the division between New Zealand Rugby and Ineos (hitherto one of the game’s major sponsors on these shores) is a reminder of how far the national game has come since the advent of professionalism – and of how much higher the stakes now are.
There were commercial disputes in the pre-1996 days of amateur footy, but they tended to involve fewer lawyers and considerably less cash. Where today Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s Ineos walks away from multimillion-dollar deals, in the past we had Andy Haden putting masking tape over the Adidas logo on his boots.
NZ Rugby’s financial challenges go beyond Ineos. In December, it was revealed Ford’s 30-year sponsorship of the All Blacks had reached the end of the road; Sky TV is said to be negotiating a new broadcast deal with NZ Rugby at a drastically reduced rate.
The analytics behind the Herald’s website give us valuable insights into our audience’s reading habits — they are a window into the national mindset. It’s no secret that rugby (with a particular focus on the All Blacks) remains the nation’s preferred sporting code. But audiences are moving. Today’s young people are as likely to declare themselves fans of Arsenal or the LA Lakers as they are of the Blues.
Rugby — for so long the presumptive sporting leader in this city — must up its game.
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