Auckland FC’s unlikely journey toward A-League supremacy continues this evening as the plucky lads out of Penrose look to roll Adelaide in the first leg of their semi final series.
Fingers crossed that the faithful turn up to scream and shout and spit and drink and cheer and chant AKLFC to a victory, to set up next week's return leg.
The faithful will turn up I’m sure, the faithful being the Port, the gang of supporters that have been a constant since the team's inception. As for the rest, we’ll know early this evening.
Plainly, the A-League's tone-deaf pricing of last week’s thrilling knock out fixture versus Melbourne City was injurious to the spectating body count, the warm prop attendance was a depressing 11,000ish.
There were mitigating factors, such as the clash with local football and the unexpected nature of the game. AKLFC fluffed their lines against Sydney the previous week and instead of having a week off, they were thrown into an elimination match.
The most telling issue though was the insane ticket pricing that cut the casual fanbase off at the knees. AKLFC had words with the league and this evening's match hasn’t been cash coshed by the governing body, so hopes are high that the stands are heaving come 6pm.
But could the reduction in crowd numbers from last year's phenomenal count be as simple as second year syndrome? Auckland casual sports fans are notorious for their flaky attendance record and the team, although flirting all season with top spot, hardly provided consistent top results. The hardcore fans turned up, but the casual fan is where the growth will always be and this area I’d suggest has been lacking.
Like a cute new puppy at Christmas that everyone wants to cuddle, a year down the track, after some chewed slippers and a couple of accidents on the carpet, the interest wanes somewhat. Not hessian sack style, but close....
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
New Zealand