Former New Zealand Sevens coach Sir Gordon Tietjens has lamented the decline of the Wellington Sevens tournament and says the city was like a "ghost town" on Saturday.
RNZ reports the event's manager, Steve Dunbar, said about 10,000 people watched the rugby yesterday.
That is well down on last year's Saturday attendance of about 14,000, and a far cry from previous years when tickets swiftly sold out.
Sir Gordon lamented the decline of the tournament.
"If you talk about Wellington, it's just like a ghost town, it's terrible, the atmosphere here is just a shocker," he said.
"I'm not saying that to be disrespectful - I think it's a well-run tournament and always has been - there's just not the people here."
Mr Dunbar expected a larger crowd of about 15,000 to turn up yesterday.
"Numbers were a little disappointing yesterday (Saturday)," he said.
"There's no doubt it's more difficult to sell tickets than ever before, we are making some changes to the tournament and we're just hopeful people enjoy those changes."
He said organisers would assess the tournament's future in the next few weeks.
After New Zealand were roundly beaten by Fiji 26-10 in Sunday's quarter-final, the All Blacks Sevens coach, Scott Waldrom, observed Fiji enjoyed the lion's share of support from the crowd.
"It definitely didn't feel like home town support," said Waldrom.
"There were far more Fijians."