Nick Becker: Auckland FC CEO on the successful ticket sales ahead of the semi-final against Adelaide United

Auckland FC is gearing up for their semi-final first leg against Adelaide United next Saturday, and CEO Nick Becker is hoping to pack the stadium out.

Tickets for the match are selling fast, and there's plenty of enthusiasm following Auckland FC's defeat of Melbourne City to keep their season alive.

Nick Becker joined Piney to discuss.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the sports Talk podcast with Duncie Waldergrave
from News Talk zedb.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Aukland FC doing all they can to ensure a bumper
crowd for the home leg of their A League semi
final against Adelaide United at go Media Stadium Saturday night,
kickoff at six o'clock. Set yard of the club. Nick
beckers with us. Thanks for taking the time during a
time you'd probably normally be having your dinner and some
family time. Nick, appreciate you. You're coming on with us.

Speaker 3 (00:33):
That's right, Ponie. I think I'm talking to you more
often than I'm talking to my wife at the moment.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
I think you're probably right. Well, I mean I'm delighted.
I don't know about her. But tickets on tickets went
on sale to members this morning and to the general
public I understand this afternoon. Is there anyway you can
you can give us an idea of what the initial
uptake has been like.

Speaker 3 (00:52):
We've had a great I think we're up around about
seven thousand sold today and that's a huge response and
a huge turnaround versus what we achieved last week. So
we're really happy with how things are tracking. They're selling
very fast, I'd love to see the place sold out,
but it certainly look a lot better than it was
last week.

Speaker 2 (01:13):
Have you been able to put a finger on why
it was one of your smaller crowds for the elimination final.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah, I look, there's a couple of things, and I
think the biggest the biggest challenge came from the quick
turnaround and the ticket pricing strategy that the A League
decided to go with. So, just so the listeners know,
we effectively run all of our regular season games, so
we do the thirteen games at home. But then when
you make the finals, apparently one of the prizes they

(01:41):
give you is that the A League then takes over
control of everything. So they do all the marketing, they
do all the ticket price and they take the risk
and obviously take the upside as well. So they look,
let's just be honest, they had a mistake. They made
a bit of a mess of it in the elimination final.
I think they everyone was a bit caught out thought
that we might finish second and have a semi final,
but they sort of scrambled for the elimination final. Didn't

(02:05):
price it right. It's too high, and fans, look, it's
tough out there as you and I know Jason, and
I think they just responded by saying, I'm not willing
to play that. So the cheapest price I think was
forty five dollars last week, but this week, happily, it's
a much more I think, a really competitive thirty dollars

(02:25):
for the game on Saturday six perm at go Media.
It means that you can actually kids are fifteen, adults
are thirty, and that's the majority of the tickets in
the stadium. Means a family can go along for an
amazing nights entertainment, not just on the pitch, and you
saw the drama from the weekend, but also all of
the things that are happening off the pitch as well.
So I think they've got it right this time. And

(02:47):
you've got to kind of hats off to them for
actually recognizing where they've gone wrong and holding their hands
up and changing that.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
So you obviously went straight into dialogue with them. They
know you were the ones who said, hey, here's our
suggestion in terms of pricing and structure and things like that.
So they haven't just ignored you. They've taken on board
your your feedback and your experience around these things.

Speaker 3 (03:09):
Yeah, correct, that worked with us, and you know we
all got involved. You know, I spoke to them. Ali
Williams was talking to them. There was a real clear
like there's a lot of We received a lot of feedback,
unfortunately too late to be able to do anything about
it before the elimination final, so you know, we immediately
and there's a couple of people from the league at
the game on Saturday and they realized what had happened

(03:32):
and they sort of held their hands up fix the problem.
And now we get to look forward to it. What's
going to be in immense and very exciting first leg
of the semi final against Adelaide's Go Meetia on Saturday,
and I'd love to see all of the Auckland FC
fans packing out that house.

Speaker 2 (03:48):
Absolutely is a six o'clock kickoff better for you than
a five o'clock in terms of getting people along or not.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
I think it's much of a muchness. You know, five
or six pm, you wouldn't want to go any earlier.
And the main reason for that, I think actually six
pm this weekend benefits because a lot of the club
sport happens, a lot of it kicks off at three
it means that people are going to scramble to get there.
We've been in dialogue with Northern Regional Football and they're

(04:17):
looking to move as many games as they can to
slightly earlier kickoff so we can have as many football
fans there as we can. So I think for us
six pms it's still a good friendly family spot slot
and then and then it's also gives everybody the time
to get through their day, whether it's been sport, whatever
else they've got going on in their life, you know,
sort of getting zales ready and get along to the stadium.

(04:37):
So yeah, we're happy with that as a kickoff.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
All right, fantastic. So well, I'll direct people to your
website where there's a link to the ticket website Auckland
FC dot co dot in z. So just to clarify,
tickets are now on general sale. Anybody can can go
onto your website, click the link and buy a ticket.
And how many can you buy it once? If you
wanted to bring a whole bunch of people along.

Speaker 3 (04:58):
Oh that's a great question. You absolutely stitch me up
there mate. I'm going to say between four and ten.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
No, it's teen, Actually it's ten.

Speaker 3 (05:08):
I knew it. I knew I should have stayed confident
and gone with it. Shouldn't.

Speaker 2 (05:14):
Oh sorry mate, I didn't mean to stitch you up,
but I but it's good to know that if you've
got nine friends, which i'd struggle with, I know you wouldn't.
You can go along and get and get ten tickets. Mate,
It's going to be a great occasion. Saturday was was
spine tingling. As you say, let's hope for a massive
crowd on on Saturday from six o'clock for the home
league of the semi mate, great to chat. Do you
get back to your wife?

Speaker 1 (05:34):
Absolutely?

Speaker 2 (05:35):
Mate, Good on you. Nick Begger, CEO of Auckland FC
Auckland FC dot co dot in is it's the website.
Six o'clock Saturday. They take on Adelaide United, could be
their final home game of the season. Depending on what
happens in the other semi Auckland f C would need
Sydney FC to beat Newcastle and for themselves to beat
Adelaide if they are to host the grand final. So

(05:57):
that's no, we'd close to a foregone conclusion there. But
what we do know is they play their home semi
final or the home leg of it, on Saturday at six.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
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