St Kilda Pushing For Auckland AFL Games

St Kilda's ramping up its push to play two AFL games in Auckland in 2018.

Melbourne's The Age newspaper is reporting a contingent of government, tourism and stadium officials from Auckland will hold talks with the Saints and the AFL in Melbourne later this month.

With the AFL Commission having committed earlier this year to an international strategy involving China, India and New Zealand, St Kilda CEO Matt Finnis says his club is determined to reinvigorate its move into the secondary market.

Finnis says the Saints hope to play one pre-season and one regular season fixture in 2018 with a view to scheduling two round robin games beyond that.

St Kilda played AFL games in Wellington in 2013, 2014 and 2015, but was abandoned after crowds almost halved over the three years.

The club will look to make use of a proposed new 23,000-seat oval stadium at Western Springs, with club director Liz Dawson also sitting on the board of Cricket New Zealand who are pushing for the ground.

"We'd like to think that can happen, assuming the stadium redevelopment proposal is successful," St Kilda chief executive Matt Finnis said.

"Auckland remains the commercial centre of New Zealand with AFL New Zealand based there and we'd have to really ramp up our development work in that area if this proposal is successful."

Radio Sport