July 10, 2024 • 11 mins
Auckland FC CEO Nick Becker joined D'Arcy Waldegrave to discuss their confirmed five year deal with 'Go Media' Mt Smart Stadium.
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcy Waldegrave
from News Talk ZB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
CEO of Auckland FC, Nick Becker joins the program now
on the news that it's official, Go Media Mount Smart
Stadium is the home of this new A League club.
Welcome in Nick, great to have you on board. Terribly
kept secret. It's nice now it is out and official though.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yes, absolutely, thanks thanks for having me Darcy, Yes it is.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
It's a proud day for Aukland FC.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
We can actually finally say we've officially got our home
at Go Media Stadium. It was like, obviously, as you mentioned,
one of.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
The worst kept secrets in sport in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
But now we can sort of talk about it and
officially sell our tickets that we've been selling, our memberships
that we've been selling there for about two months now
as well.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Why Mount Smart What particularly dragged you toward or beckoned
you from when it comes to that particular stadium.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
It's a good question.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I think there's a whole range of things. In short,
I think it's much better in terms of its design
for football, A rectang of the stadium where twenty six
thousand people are all on top of the pitch, there's
sort of every seat's a great view, and you can
create a really electric atmosphere there. I mean, you're a
(01:27):
Warriors fan, you would have been out there and seen
it many times, and you know how powerful it can
be to have that kind of proud support behind the team.
We really wanted to create our own fortress and we
felt like that was the right venue for it. On
top of that, there's also some great sort of opportunities
to build out an amazing fan experience at the stadiums.
So you know, you've got Lily World out there, which
(01:50):
is a bar where our hardcore supporters they've called themselves
the Port and they're growing in numbers every day, are
going to meet their pre match. Then they'll sort of
march down together into that South stand and that's where
they'll bring the color and the noise and the flags
and everything else that with that kind of support that's
very unique to football. And then the other at the
(02:10):
other end of the of the pitch within the stadium,
you've got that big D zone where it's perfect for
a family activation area, and we're going to do that.
We're going to build out something which has got, you know,
something for all of the family. We're really conscious that,
you know, the groundswell of support for football that's grown
over the last sort of five ten years has come
from families who engage in the game and they're playing
(02:32):
it across the seventy three clubs across Auckland.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Is that what makes it different from the failed Kings experiment,
the fact that football now has got a lot more
traction here in and in Toomack and MacOda.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, without a doubt, I think, you know, the Kings
then and in the nights that followed, I think they
were effectively playing a different era for the sport. You know,
you look at how much the sport's grown. There's there's
forty thousand plus young boys and girls playing the game
across Auckland. There's one hundred thousand people actually participating it
in total. And you've got those seventy three clubs and
(03:04):
some of them are massive. You know, You've got Eastern
Springs with over three thousand kids, and then there's another
eleven twelve clubs which have've got one thousand and fifteen
hundred players there too, So you've got a huge concentration
of young families have jumped on on the sport and
it's off the back of the growth of the game
globally successive of the All Whites and the Football Ferns
(03:28):
and also really successful World Cup last season and a
great season I must say for one into Phoenix last
season as well.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
You know, we we were really a we're.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Super happy for them to go so far into the
into the A League last season, but also seeing you know,
thirty three thirty five thousand down at the Capton and
Wellington for their semi final against Victory was really really
inspiring for us.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Did you crack a good deal with Auckland Council to
get access to Mount Smart and were there the only
stadium you looked to? Did you talk to Eden Park
for example?
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah, we've had conversations with everyone. Of course, you know,
be be mad of us not to, but yeah, it's
fair to say that the guys that it's at go
Media Stadium have been really really supportive of us.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
They've they've also.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Seen the kind of opportunity that the team is going
to bring in to their stadium in terms of increasing
their sport content but also kind of programming sport across
as summer break as well well.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
For the whole summer periance.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Sorry, and and they've really come on boards as properly
as partners rather than just a sort of like a
tenant and in kind of less whold agreement.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So the class with the Warriors, it's not going to
happen at the start of the season. Would it happened
towards the end of the season. I'm sure that nr
L aren't exactly flexible when it comes to that. But
is that an issue moving into the future.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Nick, Yeah, I don't think it's going to be an issue.
We've we've been talking about it from day one. The
team at the Warriors have been fantastic that they're really
supporting us coming in there as kind of co ten
and at the stadium, and there's only a couple of
months where it's a real issue. So you've kind of
got the March April period where we may have the
(05:16):
occasional weekend where both ourselves and the Warriors played, but
the stadiums set up for it. Everybody's aware of that
as a possibility. We're going to try and avoid it
obviously is as much as we can, but if it
does happen, we'll be prepared and everybody's happy with it.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
You said nineteenth of October. What has to happen to
Mount Smart to make it a leg ready? Specifically, I
look at the quality of the pitch and other things
that are football centric. What do you have to do
between now and then.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Nick, Well, first of all, we've got to switch out
the rugby post for goals, so that'll be job number one.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
No, do you know what.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
The stadium's hosted a number of football matches. The pitches
in great condition. We're out there today for the announcement
and I had a little walk round that it's a really,
really good bit of grass, like we've got no complaints
there at all. I was there with Steve Carriker, a
head coach, and Cam Howise and one of our players,
and that they both commented on how well the pitch
(06:17):
is holding up due to the fact that it's winter
and it's had a warrior season, right, So we've got
no worries at all about the pitch. In terms of
changes that we want to make, the majority of them
is we're gonna We're gonna make a few changes, but
they're going to be around our match day experience and
we've talked to the stadium about it they are actually
investing in that too, so they've they've kind of helped
(06:39):
us along the way in terms of, you know, whether
it's infrastructure or signage, whatever that may be. They've really
come to the party and supported us on that as well.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
The length of time for the contract. I mean, you
talk about your home, it's five years and they'd built
Foley on the program before he was talking about building
your own downtown boutique stadium and tell us if you
haven't talked to the council, get good luck on that one, mate.
Where does this does this go? Though? You've got five
years at the end of that you want to re
(07:09):
sign as their stadium plans underway, and I suppose beyond that,
how does that work when it comes to creating a
fortress that is Auckland FC centric I having to move
what kind of interruption does that have when it comes
to the future and the fortress nature of the club?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Nick?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Sure, The five years I think is a good chunk
of time to really kind of establish ourselves as not
only the number one team in Auckland, but we want
to be the number one football club in the country.
But the period that we've got and whether we move
on after that, who knows the questions. I mean, I
(07:52):
don't know if you've ever built a house, Darcy, but
it takes it takes about five years to get planning
constantly low natural construction. So be super ambitious to have
our own stadium in five years time. It would be
something that personally as anybody who runs a sporting club
or a football club, no, it's like having your own
stadiument is the ultimate and the big dream and.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
The big ticket. But it's just not that simple.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
If there was a business plan, there was an opportunity
in front of us that completely made sense, yeah, we'ld
definitely explore it and would look into it.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
And I think that's that's one of the things.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
That we're really fortunate about as a club is that
we've actually got the backing, we've got the resource behind
us that if the right opportunity and it has to
make commercial sense comes up, then then we're definitely explore
it some more.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
So it's still being investigated. This hasn't been stopped. The
desire is to still to have, if possible, a botique
stadium in the middle.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Of Auckland somewhere. We're really ambitious. We don't want to
just we don't want to just come in here and.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Kind of make up the numbers in any part of
what we do.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Right, So we're ambitious and what we want to achieve
on the perch, we're ambitious on the on the kind
of matchday experience that we want to build for our fans.
We're ambitious across every every aspect of it, and that
includes we want to have a world class training facility here.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
We've got really we've got a.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Great one in terms of the North Harbor and what
we've got set up there now, but we'd like to
have something of our own in that sense.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
And then of.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Course if the opportunity and the sort of it all
made sense and a bit of land was available, we'd
definitely look at having our own home.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
It's what every team wants.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Accessibility. That's always a big thing with the Penrose venue
that people have questions over. You satisfied about the ability
to transfer people from West Auckland, North Aukland. South Auckland's
going to be fine actually to that venue. I see
that as being sticky, as being problematic.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I know what's saying. We're doing a couple of things
on that. One of them is the majority of our
games we played Saturday five pm, So there's actually when
you think about the access routes to the stadium at
three o'clock, three thirty pm on a Saturday afternoon, you're
actually pretty easy, right, it's a psychological tyranny of since
that Aucklanders do have, and I understand it was I
(10:08):
have it myself.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Right.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I'm not calling anyone out here. I'm just sort of
saying it's actually not that far away to get there
from from wherever you may be sure, the top of
the North Shore or far down south. It might it
might be a bit of a struggle, but if you're
a true aucand lif c found, I think you'll you'll
find it in you to make your way there. And
I think the day and the time of kickoff is
(10:31):
really important for that. Like you're not battling Friday night
traffic to get home, get changed, get back to the stadium.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
You take a nice leisurary pace on on a Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
And how big a crowd are we expecting? What are
your numbers looking like as far as bodies and seats
for the entire season? Have you got an estimation A WANMP?
How does that operate.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Yeah, great, great question.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
I'd love to see our first match sold out, of course,
it's the dream for me. I think I think we've
we've launched our membership campaign. We did it first as
a as a deposit campaign and they're now live and
available by clicking through our website.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
That's been really positive for me.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
We've got over two thousand in the last sort of
six weeks that it's been live. We really want to
push that message out there that we're part of Auckland's community.
And you're right, it's all across Aukland, it's not just
specific areas, and so the next stage is to kind
of I feel we've embedded ourselves with the clubs really well.
The next is actually talking to all the different cultures
across Orkland. You know, there was net migration of one
(11:35):
hundred and forty thousand people last year there thereabouts. You know,
there's nearly forty percent of the people that live in
Auckland we're born overseas and that gives us a real
opportunity cause football is a common language for them. Right,
So then now how do we engage those groups to
come along and experience Auckland FC. Both from a match
day experience and also watch the football on the pitch too.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
For more from sports Talk, listen live to news Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sports Talk podcast with Darcy Waldegrave
from News Talk ZB.
Speaker 2 (00:13):
CEO of Auckland FC, Nick Becker joins the program now
on the news that it's official, Go Media Mount Smart
Stadium is the home of this new A League club.
Welcome in Nick, great to have you on board. Terribly
kept secret. It's nice now it is out and official though.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Yes, absolutely, thanks thanks for having me Darcy, Yes it is.
Speaker 4 (00:37):
It's a proud day for Aukland FC.
Speaker 3 (00:38):
We can actually finally say we've officially got our home
at Go Media Stadium. It was like, obviously, as you mentioned,
one of.
Speaker 4 (00:47):
The worst kept secrets in sport in New Zealand.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
But now we can sort of talk about it and
officially sell our tickets that we've been selling, our memberships
that we've been selling there for about two months now
as well.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Why Mount Smart What particularly dragged you toward or beckoned
you from when it comes to that particular stadium.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
It's a good question.
Speaker 3 (01:05):
I think there's a whole range of things. In short,
I think it's much better in terms of its design
for football, A rectang of the stadium where twenty six
thousand people are all on top of the pitch, there's
sort of every seat's a great view, and you can
create a really electric atmosphere there. I mean, you're a
(01:27):
Warriors fan, you would have been out there and seen
it many times, and you know how powerful it can
be to have that kind of proud support behind the team.
We really wanted to create our own fortress and we
felt like that was the right venue for it. On
top of that, there's also some great sort of opportunities
to build out an amazing fan experience at the stadiums.
So you know, you've got Lily World out there, which
(01:50):
is a bar where our hardcore supporters they've called themselves
the Port and they're growing in numbers every day, are
going to meet their pre match. Then they'll sort of
march down together into that South stand and that's where
they'll bring the color and the noise and the flags
and everything else that with that kind of support that's
very unique to football. And then the other at the
(02:10):
other end of the of the pitch within the stadium,
you've got that big D zone where it's perfect for
a family activation area, and we're going to do that.
We're going to build out something which has got, you know,
something for all of the family. We're really conscious that,
you know, the groundswell of support for football that's grown
over the last sort of five ten years has come
from families who engage in the game and they're playing
(02:32):
it across the seventy three clubs across Auckland.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
Is that what makes it different from the failed Kings experiment,
the fact that football now has got a lot more
traction here in and in Toomack and MacOda.
Speaker 3 (02:44):
Yeah, without a doubt, I think, you know, the Kings
then and in the nights that followed, I think they
were effectively playing a different era for the sport. You know,
you look at how much the sport's grown. There's there's
forty thousand plus young boys and girls playing the game
across Auckland. There's one hundred thousand people actually participating it
in total. And you've got those seventy three clubs and
(03:04):
some of them are massive. You know, You've got Eastern
Springs with over three thousand kids, and then there's another
eleven twelve clubs which have've got one thousand and fifteen
hundred players there too, So you've got a huge concentration
of young families have jumped on on the sport and
it's off the back of the growth of the game
globally successive of the All Whites and the Football Ferns
(03:28):
and also really successful World Cup last season and a
great season I must say for one into Phoenix last
season as well.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
You know, we we were really a we're.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
Super happy for them to go so far into the
into the A League last season, but also seeing you know,
thirty three thirty five thousand down at the Capton and
Wellington for their semi final against Victory was really really
inspiring for us.
Speaker 2 (03:52):
Did you crack a good deal with Auckland Council to
get access to Mount Smart and were there the only
stadium you looked to? Did you talk to Eden Park
for example?
Speaker 4 (04:03):
Oh?
Speaker 3 (04:04):
Yeah, we've had conversations with everyone. Of course, you know,
be be mad of us not to, but yeah, it's
fair to say that the guys that it's at go
Media Stadium have been really really supportive of us.
Speaker 4 (04:18):
They've they've also.
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Seen the kind of opportunity that the team is going
to bring in to their stadium in terms of increasing
their sport content but also kind of programming sport across
as summer break as well well.
Speaker 4 (04:30):
For the whole summer periance.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Sorry, and and they've really come on boards as properly
as partners rather than just a sort of like a
tenant and in kind of less whold agreement.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
So the class with the Warriors, it's not going to
happen at the start of the season. Would it happened
towards the end of the season. I'm sure that nr
L aren't exactly flexible when it comes to that. But
is that an issue moving into the future.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
Nick, Yeah, I don't think it's going to be an issue.
We've we've been talking about it from day one. The
team at the Warriors have been fantastic that they're really
supporting us coming in there as kind of co ten
and at the stadium, and there's only a couple of
months where it's a real issue. So you've kind of
got the March April period where we may have the
(05:16):
occasional weekend where both ourselves and the Warriors played, but
the stadiums set up for it. Everybody's aware of that
as a possibility. We're going to try and avoid it
obviously is as much as we can, but if it
does happen, we'll be prepared and everybody's happy with it.
Speaker 2 (05:32):
You said nineteenth of October. What has to happen to
Mount Smart to make it a leg ready? Specifically, I
look at the quality of the pitch and other things
that are football centric. What do you have to do
between now and then.
Speaker 3 (05:47):
Nick, Well, first of all, we've got to switch out
the rugby post for goals, so that'll be job number one.
Speaker 4 (05:55):
No, do you know what.
Speaker 3 (05:57):
The stadium's hosted a number of football matches. The pitches
in great condition. We're out there today for the announcement
and I had a little walk round that it's a really,
really good bit of grass, like we've got no complaints
there at all. I was there with Steve Carriker, a
head coach, and Cam Howise and one of our players,
and that they both commented on how well the pitch
(06:17):
is holding up due to the fact that it's winter
and it's had a warrior season, right, So we've got
no worries at all about the pitch. In terms of
changes that we want to make, the majority of them
is we're gonna We're gonna make a few changes, but
they're going to be around our match day experience and
we've talked to the stadium about it they are actually
investing in that too, so they've they've kind of helped
(06:39):
us along the way in terms of, you know, whether
it's infrastructure or signage, whatever that may be. They've really
come to the party and supported us on that as well.
Speaker 2 (06:49):
The length of time for the contract. I mean, you
talk about your home, it's five years and they'd built
Foley on the program before he was talking about building
your own downtown boutique stadium and tell us if you
haven't talked to the council, get good luck on that one, mate.
Where does this does this go? Though? You've got five
years at the end of that you want to re
(07:09):
sign as their stadium plans underway, and I suppose beyond that,
how does that work when it comes to creating a
fortress that is Auckland FC centric I having to move
what kind of interruption does that have when it comes
to the future and the fortress nature of the club?
Speaker 4 (07:29):
Nick?
Speaker 3 (07:30):
Sure, The five years I think is a good chunk
of time to really kind of establish ourselves as not
only the number one team in Auckland, but we want
to be the number one football club in the country.
But the period that we've got and whether we move
on after that, who knows the questions. I mean, I
(07:52):
don't know if you've ever built a house, Darcy, but
it takes it takes about five years to get planning
constantly low natural construction. So be super ambitious to have
our own stadium in five years time. It would be
something that personally as anybody who runs a sporting club
or a football club, no, it's like having your own
stadiument is the ultimate and the big dream and.
Speaker 4 (08:13):
The big ticket. But it's just not that simple.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
If there was a business plan, there was an opportunity
in front of us that completely made sense, yeah, we'ld
definitely explore it and would look into it.
Speaker 4 (08:23):
And I think that's that's one of the things.
Speaker 3 (08:24):
That we're really fortunate about as a club is that
we've actually got the backing, we've got the resource behind
us that if the right opportunity and it has to
make commercial sense comes up, then then we're definitely explore
it some more.
Speaker 2 (08:38):
So it's still being investigated. This hasn't been stopped. The
desire is to still to have, if possible, a botique
stadium in the middle.
Speaker 3 (08:46):
Of Auckland somewhere. We're really ambitious. We don't want to
just we don't want to just come in here and.
Speaker 4 (08:51):
Kind of make up the numbers in any part of
what we do.
Speaker 3 (08:53):
Right, So we're ambitious and what we want to achieve
on the perch, we're ambitious on the on the kind
of matchday experience that we want to build for our fans.
We're ambitious across every every aspect of it, and that
includes we want to have a world class training facility here.
Speaker 4 (09:07):
We've got really we've got a.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Great one in terms of the North Harbor and what
we've got set up there now, but we'd like to
have something of our own in that sense.
Speaker 4 (09:14):
And then of.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
Course if the opportunity and the sort of it all
made sense and a bit of land was available, we'd
definitely look at having our own home.
Speaker 4 (09:24):
It's what every team wants.
Speaker 2 (09:25):
Accessibility. That's always a big thing with the Penrose venue
that people have questions over. You satisfied about the ability
to transfer people from West Auckland, North Aukland. South Auckland's
going to be fine actually to that venue. I see
that as being sticky, as being problematic.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
I know what's saying. We're doing a couple of things
on that. One of them is the majority of our
games we played Saturday five pm, So there's actually when
you think about the access routes to the stadium at
three o'clock, three thirty pm on a Saturday afternoon, you're
actually pretty easy, right, it's a psychological tyranny of since
that Aucklanders do have, and I understand it was I
(10:08):
have it myself.
Speaker 4 (10:09):
Right.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
I'm not calling anyone out here. I'm just sort of
saying it's actually not that far away to get there
from from wherever you may be sure, the top of
the North Shore or far down south. It might it
might be a bit of a struggle, but if you're
a true aucand lif c found, I think you'll you'll
find it in you to make your way there. And
I think the day and the time of kickoff is
(10:31):
really important for that. Like you're not battling Friday night
traffic to get home, get changed, get back to the stadium.
Speaker 4 (10:38):
You take a nice leisurary pace on on a Saturday afternoon.
Speaker 2 (10:41):
And how big a crowd are we expecting? What are
your numbers looking like as far as bodies and seats
for the entire season? Have you got an estimation A WANMP?
How does that operate.
Speaker 4 (10:52):
Yeah, great, great question.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
I'd love to see our first match sold out, of course,
it's the dream for me. I think I think we've
we've launched our membership campaign. We did it first as
a as a deposit campaign and they're now live and
available by clicking through our website.
Speaker 4 (11:11):
That's been really positive for me.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
We've got over two thousand in the last sort of
six weeks that it's been live. We really want to
push that message out there that we're part of Auckland's community.
And you're right, it's all across Aukland, it's not just
specific areas, and so the next stage is to kind
of I feel we've embedded ourselves with the clubs really well.
The next is actually talking to all the different cultures
across Orkland. You know, there was net migration of one
(11:35):
hundred and forty thousand people last year there thereabouts. You know,
there's nearly forty percent of the people that live in
Auckland we're born overseas and that gives us a real
opportunity cause football is a common language for them. Right,
So then now how do we engage those groups to
come along and experience Auckland FC. Both from a match
day experience and also watch the football on the pitch too.
Speaker 1 (11:57):
For more from sports Talk, listen live to news Talks
it'd be from seven pm weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio
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Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.