Gordon Tietjens suggests moving Wellington Sevens to Samoa or Fiji

Gordon Tietjens says there's no longer any atmosphere in Wellington for the sevens.

The Suva Sevens has a nice ring to it.

Former New Zealand sevens coach Gordon Tietjens, now in charge of the Samoan sevens team, has suggested taking the Wellington Sevens to the islands following their dire crowd numbers this past weekend.

He told 1News that a country like Samoa or Fiji would love to host a tournament on the World Rugby Sevens Series.

Just 18,000 out of a possible 70,000 are believed to have attended the annual Wellington event.

It comes on the back of a Wellington Sevens tournament which is said to have attracted 10,000 each day, figures Tietjens called "sad".

"There were just no atmosphere and no people there," Tietjens told 1News.

If Fiji held a sevens tournament, there would be no empty seats in the background.

"If you look back over a number of years, Wellington was really great to play. Every team gets up when playing in front of a huge crowd like that, and not to have anyone there this year was sad because that tournament used to be very good.

"Perhaps take it to the islands. I'm sure they'd love it.

"Samoa would surely jump at it, to run a sevens tournament like that. Fiji would jump at it, you know. Take it somewhere they really see the value in having a sevens tournament in their country."

Fiji are Olympic gold medallists in sevens, and could host the tournament at their national stadium in Suva. The ground can hold about 20,000 fans.

Samoa could host a tournament at Apia Park, the venue where the All Blacks played Samoa prior to the 2015 Rugby World Cup.

If Wellington doesn't keep the tournament, other options talked about in New Zealand are Dunedin's Forsyth Barr, and Hamilton's Waikato Stadium.

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