Steve Deane: Eden Park plan stirs unease in league ranks

Manu Vatuvei and his Warriors teammates could be playing their 2011 NRL season opener at Eden Park. Photo / Richard Robsinson

I hope he chokes on them - that was one fan's reaction to Warriors chief executive Wayne Scurrah's avowal that he'd put his "nuts on the line" by taking the club's opening NRL match of next year to Eden Park.

It's hard to know how widespread that sort of sentiment is, but it exists.

Another fan copied an email to the Herald that he'd sent to the Warriors asking for the $5520 back that he'd spent on six corporate season tickets. Tickets he'd been buying since 1995.

"Better let Scurrah know that he can have my season ticket back if they want to move to Eden Park," was another response to the Herald.

While almost certainly a minority, the complaints raise the question of whether the Warriors have underestimated the tribal nature of their support base.

Mt Smart might not exactly be Old Trafford, but it is home to Warriors fans. The prospect of being forced out of that home, even for one match, has gone down badly with some.

But it's hard not to feel some sympathy for Scurrah. The average Mt Smart crowd of about 13,000 simply isn't big enough to sustain the club. Eden Park offers the lure of not only a larger, but also a more geographically and socially diverse (for that read "richer") audience.

The potential for snaffling corporate dollars is also significantly greater at Eden Park. Just as Warriors diehards baulk at the idea of heading to rugby's traditional home, there are plenty of Aucklanders who prefer to give Penrose a fairly wide berth.

The crowd of 44,500 that turned up for the Four Nations double header at Eden Park was a fairly tasty looking carrot for a league club desperate to get more bums on seats.

But how many crossover fans will return to a league match after being pelted with bottles by drunks at the Kiwis' test?

Warriors matches aren't like that. They are family-friendly affairs. But try telling that to someone who had to shelter children from falling debris at the test match, or whose grandad had his 70th birthday ruined.

In terms of whether the Eels match is a financial success, Scurrah's nuts probably are on the line. There are no guarantees of success, although one suspects the NRL will throw enough of its marketing weight behind the event to get it over the line.

Either way, Eden Park is not the answer for league. New stand and all, it is still a poor venue for both rugby codes. Its suburban location is ideally suited for a retirement village but a truly ridiculous place for an international sports venue.

For those who can be bothered getting into the place, the reward is a seat too far away from the action with any noise made by your average sub-20,000 Warriors or Blues crowd sucked into the vast empty spaces.

What Auckland desperately needs is a 25,000 to 30,000 seat rectangular stadium, with all the sports science and training trimmings, in the central city, rather like Melbourne's AAMI Park and Robina's Skilled Park.

Instead Auckland has Eden Park, the half-built and fully empty North Harbour Stadium, and a league ground with one good stand, one monument to Stalinist architecture, some seats on scaffolding and a bank.

This is just the sort of situation the Super City was supposed to sort out. So let's all hold our breath, shall we.