The Wellington Phoenix are an easy target when it comes to crowds.
New Zealand's only A-League team play in the desolate-looking Westpac Stadium where empty yellow seats are far too easy to spot.
They're averaging a league-low 7526 through the turnstiles at their home fixtures this season, which on the surface looks terrible and, arguably it is.
But perspective needs to be employed when you look at the numbers and crunch them a bit further.
The Phoenix play in a city that has a population of just under 400,000 people whereas the Melbourne Victory, who lead the league for crowd average with 30,345, are based in a city with a population of 4 million.
"We would be getting 50 to 60 thousand people going to Westpac Stadium if we got the same percentage of the population that [the] Sydney and Melbourne [teams] have got going to games," Phoenix general manager David Dome said.
Obviously Westpac Stadium only has a capacity of 34,500 but you can get the idea of where Dome is heading, while there is also one other factor to consider: the lack of travelling fans.
Some days you can count the opposition fans on your hand at Westpac Stadium, while a good turnout would be measured by the dozen.
But in Australia, travelling fans can attend an interstate A-League game with relative ease.
Without making too many excuses for the Phoenix, they're aware that they need to improve their off-field performance.
During the club's best season in 2009-2010, when Paul Ifill was untouchable and former coach Ricki Herbert had the side humming, they averaged 11,576 for their home games, although that figure was bumped by a couple of well-attended playoff games.
For a code like football, the Phoenix know their win-loss record dictates who turns up or not, which is tough on the club given their administrators can't determine their results.
"There's nothing like a successful team, there's no doubt about it," Dome said. "But we can't bank on that so we've got to find other things that are going to interest them."
Those other things might range from halftime entertainment to the match-day experience itself and Wellington will wear their alternate third strip for the only time this season on Sunday when they host Melbourne City.
A few of the shirts worn by the players will later be auctioned off, which would help generate discussion around the kit, Dome said.
Since the Phoenix launched their pie-in-the-sky idea of building a boutique stadium in Petone - the idea was later shut down - some of their fans have wondered if part of the problem to their crowd woes is Westpac Stadium itself.
The Phoenix will be able to test that theory when they take three home games to a revamped Hutt Recreation Ground in Lower Hutt early next year because the Cake Tin is unavailable due to the Cricket World Cup.
"That will give us an indication if people see some value in doing the boutique stadium thing and hopefully they will enjoy it and there will be some demand for it because it will be interesting," Dome said.
The Hutt Rec will require temporary seating and have a capacity of around 9000 but that could change depending on demand and Dome said tickets would likely go on sale for those games in the next fortnight.
- By Daniel Richardson of NZME
