Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Nick Becker: Auckland FC CEO ahead of the first semifinal clash against the Melbourne Victory

Transcript

Nick Becker: Auckland FC CEO ahead of the first semifinal clash against the Melbourne Victory · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Imagine there'll be a few planes full of Keywi's, particularly
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Auckland is Dappa is heading over to Melbourne this week
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  Speaker 1: in Auckland see the semi final clash against Melbourne Victory
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  Speaker 1: on Saturday. Simmis are played over two legs, so you
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: have an away game and then we will have a
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: home game. The team that scores the most goals across
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: both matches will move on to the grand final that's
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: coming at the end of May. Auckland FC CEO Nick
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  Speaker 1: Becker with me this morning. Nick, Good morning, morning, right,
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: how you doing really good? Thank you? You must be
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  Speaker 1: feeling pretty good about yourself right now. Tell us how
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  Speaker 1: important this first league is because it's two legs you've
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  Speaker 1: got to get through.
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  Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, absolutely, so, Yeah, we're away first and then
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  Speaker 2: and finishing first. Then we should have a home semi
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  Speaker 2: final on the second leg. But you know, we want
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  Speaker 2: to go go there and tomorrow night and really kind
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  Speaker 2: of like lay down our intentions. You know, the boys
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  Speaker 2: aren't going to take anything for granted, I don't want
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  Speaker 2: to speak too many sporting cliches, but they know that
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  Speaker 2: they've kind of they've kind of you know, beaten Victory
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  Speaker 2: last time. That we met them, they know what they do.
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  Speaker 2: We did it there at Abay Park, so they're going
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  Speaker 2: to go in with a bit of confidence there and
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  Speaker 2: hopefully but if muscle memory reminds them of how to
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  Speaker 2: win there, and you know, if we get at least
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  Speaker 2: a draw or preferably a win, we'll be in a
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  Speaker 2: good position for the following week when we're at home.
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  Speaker 1: How do you get a group of people to come
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  Speaker 1: together and perform like this in such a short space
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  Speaker 1: of time.
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  Speaker 2: I think this comes very much from our ownership group.
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  Speaker 2: You know, sort of right at the start, we sat
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  Speaker 2: down myself, Triment for the football director and Steve coach
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  Speaker 2: and a coach and talked about, you know, the type
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  Speaker 2: of players that we wanted to time to foot we
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  Speaker 2: wanted to play. But Bill was really clear with us
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  Speaker 2: and he sort of said, you know, like obviously get
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  Speaker 2: the right technically the right players, and make sure that
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  Speaker 2: they are good humans. I think that's a really good
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  Speaker 2: point to how we've managed to build up a good
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  Speaker 2: culture in the dressing room. We've we've managed to get
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  Speaker 2: players who they go out and play for each other
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  Speaker 2: rather than there's no real sort of individuals, there's no egos,
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  Speaker 2: in the dressing room. So there's this really great team
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  Speaker 2: spirit and it just comes out the fact that they're
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  Speaker 2: all good humans, right, and we've been We've been really
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  Speaker 2: lucky in that sense, and I think, you know, we
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  Speaker 2: intentionally went out to get good people and we've been
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  Speaker 2: really lucky and getting a bunch of preig guys.
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  Speaker 1: Some people, and I want to emphasize some, but some
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  Speaker 1: on social media have been complaining in the past week
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  Speaker 1: about the ticket prices. This is for the second League
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  Speaker 1: obviously at go Media Stadium at double twenty seven dollars
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  Speaker 1: fifty to forty five dollars upward. I'm assuming the league
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  Speaker 1: is taking a cut here, are they?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, they're taking one hundred percent cut, right. So yeah,
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  Speaker 2: So how the A League works is once you get
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  Speaker 2: to the final stage, and this is an ideal for us,
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  Speaker 2: the league actually take control of the game so they
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  Speaker 2: they can control of the ticket price. I mean, they
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  Speaker 2: didn't consult with us, and their position was that they
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  Speaker 2: wanted to keep it. Our requests to keep it at
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  Speaker 2: go Media. They supported us on this and they and
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  Speaker 2: I think they set their ticket prices prices accordingly. We
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  Speaker 2: didn't have any real importance into what they could charge
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: of them and sort of saying, look, you know, don't
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  Speaker 2: go crazy with it. I appreciate it from a fans
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  Speaker 2: point of view, they are more expensive than your regular season.
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  Speaker 2: I guess the league's position on it is, it's a
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  Speaker 2: big game, it's a semi final, it's a knockout match,
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  Speaker 2: and you know they I guess they believe in and
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  Speaker 2: they're rightly so that the tickets have been flying off
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  Speaker 2: the shower. So we've already sold well over twenty thousands,
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  Speaker 2: and I imagine that the whole stadium will be sold
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  Speaker 2: out by probably the end of this weekend. So I
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  Speaker 2: guess they got that bit right. But yeah, I hear
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  Speaker 2: and I conceive both sides of the stories.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah I can. Having seen some of those fans up
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  Speaker 1: close and personal, I don't think you have any trouble
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  Speaker 1: filling out the stadium. Nick, thank you very much and
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  Speaker 1: best luck for this weekend.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: Thanks very I appreciate it.
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: It's Nick Becker. He's the AUK from their c' ceo.
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: The semi final clash in Melbourne on Saturday. Very cool.
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  Speaker 1: I mean, how do they how did they do it?
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  Speaker 1: The number of records they've broken in one season and
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  Speaker 1: to take out the regular seas and they're on their
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  Speaker 1: way to Gloria surely. For more from Early Edition with
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Ryan Bridge, listen live to News Talks it'd be from
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: five am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio