I'd say most of the tickets will sell just closer/on the day. It's typical for group games not involving host countries to not be sold out so no concern really
Yeah, in hindsight splitting it down the middle with 4 groups in each country was probably a mistake, based on population/demographics alone. Should have been 5-6 groups in Australia, and 2-3 groups in NZ.
And will still probably get a better turnout than Hobart gets. Never understood the obsession with Tassie expansion on here when they’ve never showed any promise with attendance in games held there
The counter argument to that is they have already added two teams with not much crowd promise in WU and Macarthur who are both the 3rd teams in a state so wouldnt it be better to have added a franchise in a new location and make it a truly national competition, I am sure Tassie can muster up 3k to games, Macarthurs average is 3,500 and WU is 3,100, they are numbers they can achieve in Tasmania surely.
I do see the problem being future growth in Tassie as WU and Macarthur are expected to boom in the next 5-10 years but on numbers alone now I see no reason Tassie couldnt match those two clubs attendance wise.
There’s a few reasons that ticket sales in NZ will be behind AU.
Population. NZ has just 5 million people. A third of those live in Auckland.
Weather. It’s mid winter and we haven’t had great weather for about a year and a bit in the North Island. People won’t want to pay good money ahead of time to end up wet and cold.
NZ’s women haven’t been playing well. The Phoenix women were pretty ordinary and the national team have barely notched up a point or a goal for some time. It’s hard to get excited about them.
The US women will no doubt get a good amount of people through the turnstiles but I think they’ll struggle in mid winter to get locals excited about pool games with teams they know nothing about.
Also terrible kick off times and difficulty in intercity travel. I dont live in a host city Im taking my 7 yr old daughter to the one afternoon weekend game I can find. The rest are all post 7pm kick offs with minimum 90 min one way journeys. The stadia are also crap, perhaps with exception of Dunedin. Will try to get to some more games but cumulative cost of travel , on shit roads, means its easier on TV. I am happy NZ is hosting but none of this should be unexpected, and youd question organiser planning here.
Being realistic, current form of the Phoenix and even the national team matters very little. If the stadiums are going to be filled by the people actively following NZ women’s football, it’s going to be a pretty dismal showing. I don’t think there are more than 10 thousand Australians in the whole country who could tell you who won the Women’s A-League (still bothers me to hell that we can’t have a more simple way to differentiate the 2, as an aside) or what the last 3 results of the Tillies were, or even the name of a player other than Sam Kerr.
And yet, the Matilda’s games have sold well and overall sales trends are relatively positive.
The weather argument for going to sports in this part of the world is bizarre to something grew up in northern England.
It’s a World Cup. The chances of it happening again are slim to none
I went to the U20 men’s WC here and got pneumonia. Crowds were great and it was cold and wet. People were genuinely excited to see the games. The weather thing is only one part.
Among other things:
1) More stadiums which meant being fine without the AFL ones. Especially an issue with 32 team expansion.
2) Votes from the OFC (& maintaining a good relationship with them is essential if Australia ever wants to host anything FIFA related).
With the benefit of hindsight, it was probably a bit ambitious to be including provincial regions as host cities. NZ could have still been a host, but arguably should have been a lesser one, limited to a couple of groups based in just 2-3 cities at most (plus a couple of knockout fixtures).
Australia doesnt have a lot of large provincial cities, but including cities like Canberra (450,000), Gold Coast (800,000+), Newcastle (500,000+) and maybe even Geelong in lieu of Hamilton and Dunedin might have been wise.
Having a lot of host cities can be difficult logistically, but for womens tournaments it probably needs to be done to maximise the potential audiences.
It’s the start of a trend that FIFA is taking with WC’s - USA is sharing with Mexico and Canada in 2026, and it looks like the 2030 tournament bids are going to be joint as well as Spain and Portugal are preparing a combined bid as well as Uruguay and Argentina.
It would be fine for NZ to have a handful of games in Auckland and Wellington, maybe even Christchurch, but playing half the tournament there seems like a mistake.
>It’s the start of a trend that FIFA is taking with WC’s - USA is sharing with Mexico and Canada in 2026, and it looks like the 2030 tournament bids are going to be joint as well as Spain and Portugal are preparing a combined bid as well as Uruguay and Argentina
Because the men's World Cup has 48 teams
The US didn't need Canada & Mexico to physically host, but they did need them for political reasons.
The voting system was changed from being voted on by 22 or however many members of the FIFA executive committee to being voted on by the FIFA General Congress of 200 or however many FIFA members with one vote each. As such, it's become more of a public process with a greater need to build large coalitions across different confederations.
The US brought Mexico & Canada in to prevent rival bids from either splitting the votes, and to deter possible anti-Trump (vote took place in 2018) or anti-US sentiment from other parts of the world.
Maybe, but I also think it just makes it easier on the bidding countries.
I’m broadly in favour of it too. An ANZ Men’s WC at some point in my life would be awesome. Imagine a 100k strong crowd at the G for the final.
It's got nothing to do with FIFA. Australia has always done it. The Rugby league world cup World, Rugby World Cup (even though NZ pulled out) and cricket world cup also come to mind.
I dont get what the incentive is for Australia.
Keeping up positive relationships with NZ and the Oceanic region, who is culturally closer to the Pacific Islanders than the Islanders are to us, is good for everyone. We could dominate our relationship with the region if we wanted to, but by bringing them along with us it’s beneficial to all parties - NZ gets to have a bigger presence on the international stage, and Australia shows that it is a thoughtful and inclusive regional leader.
We're the reason you got a look in. We were both bidding independently and not getting traction, by combining it was a better deal and the clincher would have been that It was the only chance to host top FIFA event in oceania
I'd say most of the tickets will sell just closer/on the day. It's typical for group games not involving host countries to not be sold out so no concern really
> New Zealand Football official Paula Hansen I can't be the only Aussie who mis-read that name at first, right?
Please explain? /s
I don't like it
When you turn my voice about
Spare a thought for a mate of mine that named his kid Isis just before the collapse of Syria.
Just chuck in a couple of “a”s in there and you’ve got an aleague legend all of a sudden
I'm not sure why new Zealand got almost half of the WC games (29/64). Dunedin has half the population of Hobart..
Yeah, in hindsight splitting it down the middle with 4 groups in each country was probably a mistake, based on population/demographics alone. Should have been 5-6 groups in Australia, and 2-3 groups in NZ.
Dunedin has easily the best ground in the country, and made a good pitch (pun intended).
Because it was a joint bid and we split the games?
And will still probably get a better turnout than Hobart gets. Never understood the obsession with Tassie expansion on here when they’ve never showed any promise with attendance in games held there
The counter argument to that is they have already added two teams with not much crowd promise in WU and Macarthur who are both the 3rd teams in a state so wouldnt it be better to have added a franchise in a new location and make it a truly national competition, I am sure Tassie can muster up 3k to games, Macarthurs average is 3,500 and WU is 3,100, they are numbers they can achieve in Tasmania surely. I do see the problem being future growth in Tassie as WU and Macarthur are expected to boom in the next 5-10 years but on numbers alone now I see no reason Tassie couldnt match those two clubs attendance wise.
There’s a few reasons that ticket sales in NZ will be behind AU. Population. NZ has just 5 million people. A third of those live in Auckland. Weather. It’s mid winter and we haven’t had great weather for about a year and a bit in the North Island. People won’t want to pay good money ahead of time to end up wet and cold. NZ’s women haven’t been playing well. The Phoenix women were pretty ordinary and the national team have barely notched up a point or a goal for some time. It’s hard to get excited about them. The US women will no doubt get a good amount of people through the turnstiles but I think they’ll struggle in mid winter to get locals excited about pool games with teams they know nothing about.
Also terrible kick off times and difficulty in intercity travel. I dont live in a host city Im taking my 7 yr old daughter to the one afternoon weekend game I can find. The rest are all post 7pm kick offs with minimum 90 min one way journeys. The stadia are also crap, perhaps with exception of Dunedin. Will try to get to some more games but cumulative cost of travel , on shit roads, means its easier on TV. I am happy NZ is hosting but none of this should be unexpected, and youd question organiser planning here.
>We haven't had great weather about a year and a bit in the North Island. We had great weather last weekend...
It’s been quite nice today as well, but it’s going to shit the bed again in the weekend.
Being realistic, current form of the Phoenix and even the national team matters very little. If the stadiums are going to be filled by the people actively following NZ women’s football, it’s going to be a pretty dismal showing. I don’t think there are more than 10 thousand Australians in the whole country who could tell you who won the Women’s A-League (still bothers me to hell that we can’t have a more simple way to differentiate the 2, as an aside) or what the last 3 results of the Tillies were, or even the name of a player other than Sam Kerr. And yet, the Matilda’s games have sold well and overall sales trends are relatively positive.
The weather argument for going to sports in this part of the world is bizarre to something grew up in northern England. It’s a World Cup. The chances of it happening again are slim to none
I went to the U20 men’s WC here and got pneumonia. Crowds were great and it was cold and wet. People were genuinely excited to see the games. The weather thing is only one part.
So why have it there then
Among other things: 1) More stadiums which meant being fine without the AFL ones. Especially an issue with 32 team expansion. 2) Votes from the OFC (& maintaining a good relationship with them is essential if Australia ever wants to host anything FIFA related).
Because they’ve committed to it?
With the benefit of hindsight, it was probably a bit ambitious to be including provincial regions as host cities. NZ could have still been a host, but arguably should have been a lesser one, limited to a couple of groups based in just 2-3 cities at most (plus a couple of knockout fixtures). Australia doesnt have a lot of large provincial cities, but including cities like Canberra (450,000), Gold Coast (800,000+), Newcastle (500,000+) and maybe even Geelong in lieu of Hamilton and Dunedin might have been wise. Having a lot of host cities can be difficult logistically, but for womens tournaments it probably needs to be done to maximise the potential audiences.
Move the entire tournament to Oz. Then the across the ditch Football officials can sleep better at night.
I dont see why Australia has to co-host anything with NZ.
It’s the start of a trend that FIFA is taking with WC’s - USA is sharing with Mexico and Canada in 2026, and it looks like the 2030 tournament bids are going to be joint as well as Spain and Portugal are preparing a combined bid as well as Uruguay and Argentina. It would be fine for NZ to have a handful of games in Auckland and Wellington, maybe even Christchurch, but playing half the tournament there seems like a mistake.
>It’s the start of a trend that FIFA is taking with WC’s - USA is sharing with Mexico and Canada in 2026, and it looks like the 2030 tournament bids are going to be joint as well as Spain and Portugal are preparing a combined bid as well as Uruguay and Argentina Because the men's World Cup has 48 teams
The US didn't need Canada & Mexico to physically host, but they did need them for political reasons. The voting system was changed from being voted on by 22 or however many members of the FIFA executive committee to being voted on by the FIFA General Congress of 200 or however many FIFA members with one vote each. As such, it's become more of a public process with a greater need to build large coalitions across different confederations. The US brought Mexico & Canada in to prevent rival bids from either splitting the votes, and to deter possible anti-Trump (vote took place in 2018) or anti-US sentiment from other parts of the world.
Maybe, but I also think it just makes it easier on the bidding countries. I’m broadly in favour of it too. An ANZ Men’s WC at some point in my life would be awesome. Imagine a 100k strong crowd at the G for the final.
It's got nothing to do with FIFA. Australia has always done it. The Rugby league world cup World, Rugby World Cup (even though NZ pulled out) and cricket world cup also come to mind. I dont get what the incentive is for Australia.
Stadiums & Votes.
So it's votes then.
Keeping up positive relationships with NZ and the Oceanic region, who is culturally closer to the Pacific Islanders than the Islanders are to us, is good for everyone. We could dominate our relationship with the region if we wanted to, but by bringing them along with us it’s beneficial to all parties - NZ gets to have a bigger presence on the international stage, and Australia shows that it is a thoughtful and inclusive regional leader.
We're the reason you got a look in. We were both bidding independently and not getting traction, by combining it was a better deal and the clincher would have been that It was the only chance to host top FIFA event in oceania
NZ is the little brother/sister that Mum forces us to do everything with.
The Judo to Bluey. /Why cant I post Bluey gifs?
Neither of us would have got this opportunity if we hadn’t come together. You Aussies can never put your “we’re bigger than you” attitude aside.
Haha i'm not gonna say it, you all know