Soccer: Kingz-size gamble with fans

Some of the more endearing memories from the All Whites' 1982 campaign were sparked by matches at Mt Smart Stadium.

The John Adshead and Kevin Fallon-inspired national team produced soccer of a standard seen rarely before or since that golden era.

Mt Smart, a ground carved from a scoria pit and surrounded by an athletic track, had taken over as Auckland's soccer headquarters when a large chunk of Newmarket Park slipped down a gully in July 1979.

For a decade or more, Mt Smart hosted further internationals, including a centenary clash with England. Then, rugby league quit its spiritual home - Carlaw Park - to head across town to Mt Smart or, if you prefer, Ericsson Stadium.

The stadium and rugby league, especially with the Warriors firmly encamped, are synonymous. This is rugby league territory. Accepting that, soccer chiefs looked elsewhere.

They settled on the newly-built North Harbour Stadium.

The switch was not without problems as access, long queues, over-priced food and other problems raised concerns. But stadium bosses listened and overcame these problems.

Soccer settled in - apparently for the long haul when New Zealand's first professional club, the aptly-named Football Kingz, decided to call the stadium home.

The public flocked to the opening game in soccer's new era. Some liked what they saw and returned. Others needed more convincing but they, too, in the end, came back. It had, they said, a soccer feel. A "culture" if you like.

The Kingz were, surely, set to stay. After all, the stadium and the North Shore City Council were big players in supporting the Kingz and their bid for a breakthrough entry into the Australian league.

But no. When push comes to shove and dollars rule, the Kingz' new bosses saw it differently. They decided to pick up the ball and run - all the way back to Ericsson where they must now start again in convincing fickle soccer supporters that this is, indeed, "home."

They admit that North Harbour Stadium was their "emotional" choice.

But in the end "the financials" did not stack up and they were forced to turn their back on the venue which has done so much in re-establishing the round ball as a creditable alternative in a country obsessed with the oval variety.

The Kingz deserve to succeed. No one denies that.

But in alienating themselves from the soccer faithful the club's management might have bought themselves a fight which no one is going to win.