Tomorrow the Wellington Phoenix men’s and women’s team play a historic double header at Go Media Stadium Mt Smart, the first ever outside of Wellington, as part of the Macca’s Festival of Football.

David Lister, Head of Experience at Fuse says: “Partnering with Go Media, Tātaki Auckland Unlimited, the Phoenix and McDonald’s has enabled us to create this unique event.”

Simon Kenny, Head of Sponsorship at McDonald’s says: “McDonald’s is in the second year of sponsoring the Wellington Phoenix and we launched the Junior Nix programme earlier this year to help grow the game on the back of the success of FIFA Women’s World Cup.

“We wanted to do an activation in Auckland and due to Go Media’s naming rights deal, Fuse and OMD were able to discuss creating a family festival at Go Media Stadium as it lends itself to fantastic activation opportunities. We have inflatable pitches, merchandise giveaways, playing signings, and football challenges to win prizes all in one area at the end of the pitch.”

Jen Hilliar, Business Director of OMD, says: “As Go Media is also a sponsor of the Wellington Phoenix, we realized early on that there was great synergy and that has enabled us to market the event across their DOOH assets in Wellington and Auckland along with players contributing to social media content.”

Mike Gray, MD of Go Media, says: “We are super excited to bring this fun family event to Tāmaki Makaurau, working with Tātaki Auckland Unlimited. Both teams are sitting third on the table and there is going to be great action on and off the pitch. The event is so much bigger for us at Go Media than your typical match day sponsorship. We can’t wait.”

Laura McGoldrick is hosting a Q and A panel in the corporate hospitality lounge that includes former All Blacks coach Ian Foster, whose daughter plays for Phoenix Women’s team, Auckland City Coach Albert Riera, former Football Fern Maia Jackman among others. 

Phoenix General Manager David Dome is looking forward to seeing both the men and women play and says: “It’s a big undertaking to stage two-A-League matches at one venue but the Auckland Stadiums team are up to the challenge. The stadium is tailor-made for football and both Wellington Phoenix teams are looking forward to playing on what is always a great surface.”

The men will open the feast of football at 4:30pm, playing a mouth-watering tie against three-time premiers Melbourne City. The women will then make their debut appearance at Go Media Stadium when they take on top of the table Perth Glory in the distance derby, with kick-off at 7:15pm.