KEY POINTS:
Eden Park management is defending its handling of the crowds at the Twenty20 Black Caps-England showpiece after thousands of cricket fans missed up to an hour of the match.
The Herald understands that as many as 3000 fans who had bought tickets were still outside when the match began at 7pm on Tuesday.
"My experience could quite possibly, and sadly, have been my last, at what is supposed to be New Zealand's premier sporting venue," wrote Brady Williams to the Herald.
Another wrote: "Quite how the organisers thought that two ticket windows for thousands of cricket fans would be adequate is unfathomable.
"I also find it very hard to comprehend how a queue for ticket sales moves at a much greater speed than that for pre-paid collection.
"Do they assume that as they already have our money we will accept this?"
Some were still waiting to be admitted at 8pm, near the end of the first innings.
But Eden Park Trust Board general manager Murray Reade said most would have been in the stadium by 7.25pm.
"We had a very, very large walk-up turning up very late."
Mr Reade said the stadium was still "virtually empty" 20 to 25 minutes before the game started.
"Within that period of time you had literally thousands of people converging on Eden Park to try and get in, so it really is a challenge for us and it would be a challenge for any stadium in the world to really deal with that kind of size of crowd arriving that late."
Online ticketing problems had compounded the issue, with ticketing staff having difficulty finding individual tickets.
But Mr Reade said regardless of ticketing methods, the main problem was the large walk-up so close to the start.
"We can handle 30 to 45 thousand people for rugby games and we've done it - what you find there is your patron is well-educated as to the intricacies of Eden Park, if you like.
"They know to come a bit earlier and get themselves ready but Twenty20 is a relatively new product, and what we may be seeing is a new patron arriving who isn't completely familiar with the challenge of Eden Park."
But Mr Williams said there were problems throughout the evening.
"These are the fundamental basics of making a live sporting event comfortable for spectators and Eden Park management got them wrong [on Tuesday] night."
He encountered delays collecting his online tickets, with long waits at the bar and refreshment stands.
"I am not a complaining or moaning sports fan and have been to many events at the hallowed turf where the usual delays and queues were accepted, but not as long or as bad as last night, hence my complaint.
"It felt like they did not expect so many people to turn up and by then it was too late to adjust.
"Appalling."
England opened the international segment of their tour that night with a confident 32-run win over the Black Caps.
