A-League match to be played behind closed doors

The Round 12 A-League Men's match between Wellington Phoenix and Melbourne Victory will be played behind closed doors.

Wellington Phoenix announced that their Wednesday, February 9, 2022 A-League Men's home match against Melbourne Victory will not be open to spectators.

Wellington Phoenix move behind closed doors

Their A-League Men's side will play their next fixture against Melbourne Victory behind closed doors.
The move was made after no commercial partner could be found for the match.
Phoenix have played all their home games so far this season away from their home base in New Zealand.

More A-League news can be found on FTBL.

The club have stated that the decision was made after they "were unable to lock a local commercial partner for tomorrow night's match."

The decision follows a number of poor attendance figures for the A-League side, going as low as only 586 individuals reported at their game against Western United in late January.

Unlike other A-League sides, Wellington Phoenix have had to play all their matches this season away from their home fan base. The decision to start of the 2021-22 campaign abroad was necessary due to COVID-19 travel restrictions to New Zealand.

Having played most of their home matches at WIN stadium in Wollongong, NSW has also not helped, with the venue being a difficult one to get too for Sydney based fans during weeknights.

According to Stuff.co.nz, Phoenix general manager David Dome told the publication the move to play their next game behind closed doors "would save the club thousands of dollars."

Stuff further quotes Dome as stating:

“That’s the crux of it. This year it has been much, much more difficult to get financial support from Wollongong corporates … and that was the only thing that made the men’s games in Wollongong viable.

“We are absorbing the whole costs of playing games in Wollongong for the men’s teams, and it is expensive to open up the stadium because, I’ve got to be honest with you, the ticket sales for the men have been abysmal.

"We’re not even in the ballpark of being able to cover the costs," added Dome

“We’re haemorrhaging money with the men’s games in Australia because obviously we don’t have the support base there.

"The commercial support in New Zealand has been much stronger this year but on the flip side the commercial support in Wollongong has been extremely poor and the attendances are so low that it reduces your costs significantly if you don’t open up to the public.”

Unfortunately, we've had to make a tough decision and play tomorrow night's Men's Round 12 match against Melbourne Victory behind closed doors.

This comes after we were unable to lock in a local commercial partner for tomorrow night's match. pic.twitter.com/A7wTchH4Ek
— Wellington Phoenix (@WgtnPhoenixFC) February 7, 2022

This is the first time in this campaign that the club has had to host their men's side behind closed door. Their women's squad played behind closed doors earlier on in the season due to COVID-19 considerations.