Saints Win Numbers Game
Tagged in: NBL
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Toby Robson, Dominion Post
Wellington Saints supporters have driven a big increase in National Basketball League crowd numbers this season, but the big Auckland fan base remains elusive.
Figures show the Saints nearly doubled their total attendance this season with 23,200 people watching their nine home games at TSB Bank Arena.
Wellington’s average crowd of 2577 a game was up on about 1400 in 2006 and was 160 per cent up on a paltry 994 in 2005.
Fans flocked to games this season despite the up-and-down form that saw the Saints finish in sixth place to miss out on the playoffs.
Club owner Nick Mills put the increased interest down to a combination of factors including the entertainment package, lower ticket prices and fan apathy toward rugby.
Saints dropped ticket prices this season from $12 to $10 for adults and $7 to $5 for children and threw basketballs into the crowd.
The Saints’ biggest crowd of 3300, to watch the Pero Cameron-led Waikato Titans, eclipsed last year’s best of 1800.
Wellington’s success bolstered the NBL’s overall attendance with 109,590 fans going through the turnstiles.
Though 2006 records are incomplete, Basketball New Zealand marketing manager Andrew Alleway said the figures represented a year-to-year rise of about 20,000.
This year’s crowds were 26.8 per cent up on 2005 when 86,423 people attended a regular season NBL game, he said.
The Bay Hawks attracted the next best crowds with a total of 19,027, 2114 per game, while the Nelson Giants, and surprisingly the bottom placed Otago Nuggets, both pulled in around 11,000 fans for the season.
However, an on-going lack of support for the Auckland Stars and Harbour Heat continued.
The Stars attracted a miserly 5650 fans for the season, or 627 per game, while regular season champions the Heat had only slightly more at 6500.
Alleway said the situation in Auckland was frustrating, but not easily rectified. “The New Zealand Breakers don’t get great crowds either, there’s just so many options for discretionary spend in Auckland and basketball is only one of them.”
It was also costly to advertise in Auckland, which restricted the league’s ability to promote games, he said.
The good support from Wellington fans has also played a part in the capital hosting two Tall Blacks test matches against Venezuela next month, the first in Wellington for more than five years.
Alleway was also thrilled by the NBL’s debut season on pay television after switching this year from TV2 to Sky. “From what we have seen the 7.30pm slot on Sky is more effective than 10.30pm was on TV 2.”
