Cake Tin Cooking!
The Cake Tin … opps, Wellington’s Westpac Stadium has been voted best sports venue in New Zealand.
A nationwide survey has found most New Zealanders rate the Cake Tin tops for overall satisfaction. The venue leads the field in seating comfort and layout, toilet facilities, transport, pre-event entertainment and overall value for money.
No shock, no horror, no probe.
There really isn’t much competition.
The “secret” is so obvious that even Brendon Telfer can’t ignore.
Put the stadium in a central location which is easy to get to and easy to get away from. The links with the trains are brilliant (so long as the trains are working and on time).
Put the stadium in a place which is close to pubs, clubs, restaurants and hotels.
Give everyone a decent view regardless of where they sit.
Make the stadium a regional stadium – by all means, have secondary stadia, but put the key resources into a single regional facility.
Get Peter Jackson to involve the punters in a movie soundtrack (optional).
The obvious yardstick (Q: shouldn’t that be metre-speak???) is Eden Park which fails all four tests. The decision not to go with a new stadium for the World Cup reeked of self serving parochialism. Having at least three rugby venues in greater Auckland – Eden Park, North Harbour, and Mt Smart – is just dumb particularly given the difficulties getting to all three grounds.
The other critical point is to have teams that the punters want to see:
Westpac Stadium spokesman Steve Thompson is grateful for the loyalty but says ultimately the success of the stadium lies in the sports codes it hosts.
“We’re very privileged in Wellington that we’ve got the Hurricanes, the Wellington Lions, the All Blacks sevens for rugby and the Phoenix for football,” he said.
“They’re all good, exciting sports codes to watch so that helps patrons’ enjoyment.”
I still remember Radio Auckland Sport putting up a fight to keep the NZ A-league team in Auckland. Their self-serving narrow-minded views have been shown up as being exactly that (haven’t they Brendon??)
So there ya have it.
The Cake Tin takes the biscuit.
Having spent time in all of the Auckland stadiums as well as growing up at Lancaster Park/Jade Stadium/AMI stadium, and now living in Wellington I have found that access, like you say, is a major reason for its success.
The other thing I noticed is that the crowd involvement, loyalty and support is far greater in Wellington then Auckland or Canterbury, which creates a brilliant atmosphere at the stadium. The closest thing to it is a full house at Mt Smart.
As far as the Phoenix are concerned I think if they were in any other centre they would not generate the same number of fans and the franchise would struggle!
After looking at the dismal crowd in Wellington last night I take back my last comment