How the once-were-Auckland Warriors became embraced throughout Aotearoa

Sunday, 19 April 2026

Fans show their support for the Warriors in Christchurch 2025 during a full-house at Apollo Projects Stadium.

ANALYSIS: The Warriors’ sell-out crowd in Wellington is emphatic proof that New Zealand’s only NRL club is now truly embraced nationwide.

Around 34,500 fans will watch their Anzac weekend game at Hnry Stadium next Saturday against the Cowboys.

The full house sign was unfurled last Tuesday - 11 days before kickoff.

The turnout will be over double the attendance the last time the Warriors played in the capital when 16,676 watched Andrew Webster’s first game as coach, a 20-12 win over the Newcastle Knights in 2023.

Warriors ticket sales must be manna from heaven for the Wellington stadium operators with their anchor tenants, the Hurricanes and the Wellington Phoenix, struggling for crowds.

The Hurricanes currently lead Super Rugby Pacific, but they could only draw 13,000 fans for their top-of-the-table game against the Blues in Wellington last weekend.

The Phoenix are regularly drawing under 4000 to A-League Men home games.

Supporters outside the stadium for the Warriors’ last game in Wellington in 2023.

A one-off event like the Warriors’ Wellington visit, is, admittedly, easier to promote and, is arguably, more attractive to floating fans than a regular season home game, But Warriors chief executive Cameron George said “you still have to work hard to get 34,500 there on a holiday weekend’’.

The Warriors - who routinely sell out every home game at Auckland’s Go Media Mt Smart Stadium - clearly have pulling power nationwide.

They drew 13,000 to a pre-season game in Napier last year and 23,000 to a pre-season encounter in Hamilton in 2025.

Capacity crowds of around 17,000 attended their last few games at Christchurch’s Apollo Projects Stadium and their June 21 game against the Cowboys at Christchurch’s new 25,000-seat One New Zealand Te Kaha stadium sold out in a few days.

The national love wasn’t always so requited.

The club began life in 1995 as the Auckland Warriors and had just one NRL game outside Auckland (in Christchurch) before rebranding as the New Zealand Warriors in 2001.

But the change of name was largely a box-ticking exercise. The Warriors remained reluctant for years to take home matches away from Mt Smart Stadium.

A full stand at Taupō’s Owen Delany Park in 2011 for a Warriors NRL game against the Sharks.

When they did go on the road in Aotearoa it was generally as the “away” team after other NRL clubs did deals to stage games in Wellington and Christchurch.

There has always been an appetite for Warriors games beyond Auckland, even at smaller provincial venues. A round four game against the Sharks at Taupō in 2011 drew 14,645 people to Owen Delany Park and 12,833 turned up at New Plymouth’s Yarrow Stadium in 2016 to see the Warriors lose to the Raiders.

Over 22,000 watched the Warriors crush Wests Tigers 42-18 in Wellington in 2014.

But support for the Warriors has gone gangbusters around the motu since the club returned home to New Zealand in 2023 from two years’ of Covid era exile in Australia.

Once derided south of the Bombay Hills as “an Auckland team’’, the club is now truly the New Zealand Warriors - arguably the most popular team, nationally, outside the All Blacks, and, indubitably, the nation’s best-supported club or provincial entity.

So how has it happened?

George told the Star-Times the Warriors hatched a deliberate policy of reconnecting with the country on their return in 2023.

Warriors chief executive Cameron George with club legend and assistant coach Stacey Jones at the 2026 season launch.

“We effectively had lost everything in our time in Australia, we lost connection to our home base, to our fan base, we lost our identity; all the major things that mean so much to this footy club.”

While in Australia, George turned to current All Blacks coach Dave Rennie - then coaching the Wallabies - who was “invaluable with all the stuff he helped me with from a cultural perspective” as the Warriors looked to rebuild their foundations.

“Once upon a time we wanted to be the best in the NRL off the field and on the field. Naturally, on the field we still want to be the best in the NRL, but we re-set our focus so that we want to be best in our market in New Zealand rather than trying to take on the Broncos for merch sales and ticket numbers.”

The club strove instead to be “the best option in New Zealand in the sport entertainment industry, and the entertainment aspect is key.”

They committed to retaining the current fanbase “as much as we could’’, but “deliberately went after the next generation of fans coming from in their later years at school and university because we felt they were the next decision makers in the entertainment industry.”

A general view of Wellington’s stadium for the Warriors-Knights game in 2023.

George said a lot of time and effort was put into “trying to capture the hearts and minds of 15, 16, 17 year-olds in 2023” to get them “rusted-on as fans” in adulthood.

The next step was to ensure the Warriors experience was “priced right”.

“We generally believe with our promotions and ticketing prices (as low as $15), we’re not out-pricing anyone of any age, and there’s something for everyone at an extremely well-priced entertainment ticket in New Zealand when you look at the competitors.

“Then on top of that, we had to make sure, if we wanted to be the No 1 entertainment ticket provider, that everyone left their seats buzzing at the experience they’d just received at Go Media Stadium, or Christchurch or Wellington, wherever we play. So they pretty well become our ambassadors around the country.”

George pointed to the example of 20 people who came over from Australia for the opening game against the Roosters this year “when we surprised the crowd” with hip-hop artist Savage singing before kickoff.

“They are now absolute crazy Wahs fans and that was not the case before that night.” Their conversion was due to “feeling so connected to the club from the experience they got” as much as to the fact the Warriors had a big win.

George said the club’s staff had been “exceptional’’ in carrying out the fans strategy and were encouraged to think without barriers to dream up new promotions. The Warriors had also not been “gouging our fans because we’ve been winning” with ticket prices near the same level they were in 2023.

George said the Warriors lobbied hard to get the Anzac Day game back in New Zealand and were honouring their pledge to take the games around the country. Auckland (2024) and Christchurch (2025) have already hosted. Now it’s Wellington’s turn.

“We are putting the Wahs in the laps of the local community, people who live in the city, people that live on the farms,” George said.

“I think everyone feels like they own a little bit of the fabric of our jumper, and that makes us really proud and inspired to go harder in the future.”