The New Zealand Warriors, a rugby league team based in Auckland and the only team outside Australia to feature in the National Rugby League (NRL), has welcomed its largest crowds since 1995.
Go Media Stadium has welcomed an average of 21,592 people for each of the Warriors’ first four home games, with the total reaching 86,371. Last weekend’s game against the Dolphins enticed a crowd of 23,686.
Earlier in the season saw a crowd of 18,595 watch the Warriors’ game against the Canterbury-Bankstown Bulldogs, 23,695 attend the game against the North Queensland Cowboys and 20,395 watch the match against Sydney Roosters.
The closest challenger to this season’s numbers came last year, where four games played at the 30,000-capacity Go Media Stadium welcomed average attendances of 20,282. These matches were played later in the season against the Wests Tigers, Melbourne Storm, the Bulldogs and the Gold Coast Titans.
Other than last year’s efforts, the only post-1995 seasons to produce 20,000-plus averages in the first four matches of the year at Mount Smart were in 2009 with an average attendance of 20,084 and 1996 with an average of 20,042.
In 1995, a total of 110,252 fans attended the first four matches at the then-Ericsson Stadium, marking an average of 27,563.
The Warriors are set to play five of their last nine games of the season at Go Media Stadium Mount Smart against the South Sydney Rabbitohs, Cronulla-Sutherland, Canberra, Manly Warringah and St George Illawarra.