Soccer fan Katelyn Klette, age 3, was just one of the thousands who turned up for the Under 20 World Cup match between NZ and Ukraine at North Harbour Stadium. Photo / Dean Purcell
Soccer fan Katelyn Klette, age 3, was just one of the thousands who turned up for the Under 20 World Cup match between NZ and Ukraine at North Harbour Stadium. Photo / Dean Purcell
More Herald readers have criticised handling of the traffic issues that surrounded yesterday's nil-all opening match of the Under-20 World Cup between New Zealand and Ukraine on Auckland's North Shore.
One reader claimed Oteha Valley Road between the stadium and the motorway was closed, without any signs being put up to warning motorists against using that route.
"Cars were turning down Oteha Valley Rd from the Massey Uni end, only to have to do a loop back the way they came," said Chris, who did not provide his full name.
"Why close off this road when you have 25,000 fans watching the game?" the reader said.
"Crazy, no need to close off the quickest access to the motorway."
But Mark Hannan of Auckland Transport denied that, saying the only road closure was that of the Don McKinnon Drive ring route within the Albany town centre, which served as the stadium's bus park.
Another spectator, Jakub Kalinowski, said he was still struggling to get home through congested North Shore streets hours after the match and was reconsidering his plan to attend Tuesday's game, despite having tickets to all the tournament's Auckland fixtures.
"Might be a waste of a ticket, but I may also be home warm and dry, not having to sit bumper to bumper on the side streets of the North Shore, waiting to get home at 10pm."
He said the same problems dogged the Albany stadium during Fifa's under-17 World Cup in 1999.
Mr Kalinowski contrasted those with this year's Cricket World Cup, which was held within easy reach of trains at Eden Park, and for which he said "Auckland put on a great show."
Albany resident Ross Ironmonger said it was not just spectators who were inconvenienced.
"Us locals who had been shopping at the Albany Mall found ourselves trapped for about two hours because of the gridlock in the roads around the mall."
Football fans are urged to catch buses to Albany's QBE stadium for future under-20 World Cup matches, after the traffic chaos made some late.
"More people should catch buses and people probably need to plan ahead to leave [for the stadium] a bit earlier on Tuesday," Mr Hannan said this afternoon.
Long queues for hotdogs at the ground. Photo / Steve Deane
He was referring to Tuesday night's Fifa cup match between New Zealand and the United States, kicking off at 7pm at the stadium, where seven more tournament games - including the final - will be played over the next three weeks.
Mr Hannan said only 14 per cent of the near-capacity 25,000 crowd at Saturday's nil-all opening match between New Zealand and Ukraine, which kicked off at 1pm, arrived by bus.
That was despite bus travel being included in ticket prices.
Some who finally managed to arrive at the game via a jammed up Northern Motorway complained of not doing so until five minutes before half-time.
Auckland Transport, which is working with Fifa's local organising committee on potential improvement's ahead of Tuesday night's match, says people driving to the tournament opener were caught up in holiday and shopping mall traffic exacerbated by two crashes.
Fans had a long wait for buses after the U20 World Cup game in Albany. Photo / Herald on Sunday
That was mainly avoided by fans on buses, able to use the off-motorway Northern Busway as far as Constellation Drive.
Although buses also faced congestion when having to rejoin the motorway between there and the stadium, Mr Hannan said he had not heard of any of their 3000 or so passengers arriving late.
Spectator Christine Diggins said she received email messages from Fifa ticket sales representatives warning about possible traffic problems and offering bus and train [as far as Britomart] options.
"We left our car in town and got the free bus that was part of our ticket purchase - it was a great service and thousands of people took up the option," she wrote in a message to the Herald.
"Knowing what Auckland is like on a good day, and with fair warning from the organisers, if people choose to use their cars, that is their problem.
"We have to as a culture change our mind-set around car usage."
The junior All Whites' Joel Stevens is tipped over by Ukraine's Eduard Sobol during the nil-all opening game. Photo / Getty Images
Phil Evans said he arrived at the game without any fuss by bus from Takapuna, but the return journey "was not well organised."
"Not enough buses and not designated bus lanes," he said.
"There need to be ground maps around the stadium to identify gates. Every exit point needs to be open - cars should not be able to get close to the stadium."
Mark Clansey said it took him two hours to arrive at the game after leaving Howick at 11am, and he took his seat at the stadium just as it kicked off.
"Parking was hopeless, heaps of signs telling us where we couldn't park," he said.
"Could you imagine this every other week to a Warrior Game?" he said of an Auckland Council proposal to move rugby league fixtures from Mount Smart Stadium to QBE stadium in 2018.
