A quiet Eden Park before the rugby test match between the All Blacks and Australia. Photo / Dean Purcell
New Zealand Rugby is being told to think more laterally to avoid a repeat of Saturday night's poorly attended Bledisloe Cup match.
The All Blacks defeated the Wallabies on Saturday to retain the Bledisloe Cup, winning the first two games in the three-match series.
Both games were played at Auckland's Eden Park after the transtasman bubble was paused, throwing the original schedule into disarray.
The second match was originally scheduled for Perth and the third for Wellington.
But as Wellington's Sky Stadium had already been booked for the Beervana festival, it was decided Eden Park would host the first two games with Perth then nabbing the third.
47,000 fans packed out Eden Park for the first game, but only 25,121 were in attendance Saturday night.
Poor weather, ticket prices, and the fact Aucklanders had two games in a week have been suggested as reasons for the poor turnout.
Wellington City Councillor Simon Woolf believes New Zealand Rugby should have gone with a mid-week or Sunday game in the capital to work around Beervana, and is confident the game would have been a sell-out.
"Our rugby following fraternity probably would've filled the stadium, had it been available.
"I was really disappointed. Auckland had an opportunity to fill their stadium two weeks running with the All Blacks and a lot of people missed out on that live experience.
"We did too through it not being able to be held in Wellington."
Woolf said New Zealand Rugby needed to think differently to ensure a similar situation doesn't happen again.
"In future we need to think a little more laterally and maybe even to the extent that if we can't play a game in the weekend, then a weekday night.
"That situation [would] probably be less competitive with TV as well, because you've got less happening through a weekday evening and we get a lot over our weekends."
Woolf said he felt for the Sky Stadium team who weren't given the chance to make it work.
"The team could've, if given the opportunity, turned things around really quickly, they've done it before.
"It just seems there wasn't much flexibility and we did miss out."
The supermarket owner's daughter played a special role at the official opening.