Nix in ‘small loss’ despite semi sell-out
The Wellington Phoenix are on track to sell out Sky Stadium for their semifinal second leg against the Melbourne Victory tomorrow.
Estimates have more than 34,000 fans attending the knockout fixture as the Phoenix aim to reach their first A-League grand final, hoping those wearing yellow and black in the crowd will act as a 12th man to give the side a boost.
Yet it appears that is the only boost the club will receive from the capacity crowd with general manager David Dome telling the Country Sport Breakfast that should the tickets sell out, it will be a “bittersweet” as the Phoenix will not gain financially.
In fact, Dome predicts not only will the Phoenix not make any profit from a sell-out crowd, but they will actually come out of the fixture financially worse off.
“I suppose that’s the bittersweet thing in all of this. You watch the ticketing number tick over every minute, it keeps going up and up and up and we get nothing. There will be a lot of people that make a lot of money from Saturday night and the Phoenix is not one of them.
“To be honest, we might actually make a small loss — that’s the irony. It’ll be a sell-out crowd of 30,000-plus and the Phoenix will make a small loss and that’s just the way it works.”
Dome says it will be the stadium, food vendors, security and Australian Professional Leagues (APL) that will profit.
“It’s what you sign up to when you sign your contract to have a football club in the A-League . . . it’s disappointing but it is what it is,” he said.
It comes after Dome appeared on Newstalk ZB’s SportsTalk with D’Arcy Waldegrave and said a sell-out crowd during the regular season could fund the club for a year.
“We get nothing from the tickets
. . . a game like this during the season would fund the club for a year.”
He said there was no feeling of sour grapes from Wellington and they were aware of the finances.
“We’ve known that from the start. The reality is it’s just a huge occasion for the club and it’s going to be magnificent for the players to have that level of support.”
Dome says he expects the final tickets to sell out today and they have been speaking with Sky Stadium staff to assess how many members will not be attending and whether some seats will be freed up.
If the Phoenix do reach crowd capacity for the semifinal tomorrow, it will be 14,000 larger than last year’s 20,059 who turned up to Central Coast Stadium, Gosford, to watch the Central Coast Mariners and Adelaide United in their semifinal.
The Phoenix-Melbourne Victory semifinal tomorrow kicks off at 6.30pm. After the first leg finished 0-0 at AAMI Park, the Phoenix require only a win to advance.