Numbers are too precious for there to be walkouts at QBE Stadium on Saturday.

Thousands of Australian A-League fans, notably those of the Melbourne Victory and Western Sydney Wanderers, upped and left games over the weekend.

The peaceful, yet dramatic, departures were shows of support for 198 fans named and shamed by a Sydney newspaper more than a week ago. The 198 people were on a leaked Football Federation Australia's (FFA) banned list, which prohibits them from attending matches.

But many of the fans have since been portrayed as innocent victims, with claims they were banned and publicly humiliated unfairly. The FFA had also denied the fans right of appeal, until indicating on Sunday that they would relax their stance, .

Saturday's clash with the Victory, at Albany's QBE Stadium, is the Wellington Phoenix's first 'home' match since the mass exits across the Tasman. No Phoenix fans are on the list of 198 but Guy Smith, from their supporters' group Yellow Fever, said they were similarly disgusted by the shaming of those across the Tasman.

"While we stand together in sentiment with what the Aussie fan groups have been doing we've got bigger fish to fry, in terms of our licence renewal," Smith said.

"It's probably too important for our club that we're there for us to do a [Victory supporter group] North Terrace-style protest. But that's not to sidestep the fact that we're 100 per cent behind the other fan groups and what they're saying and the position they have on the way the FFA is managing fans and the league.

"We will be showing that [on Saturday] through some kind of action, but it won't be walking out."

Phoenix general manager David Dome said the club badly needed a big crowd at QBE. Having consistently attracted crowds of about 20,000 to Auckland-based games at Eden Park, the Phoenix aren't certain those numbers will be replicated across the harbour bridge.

"If you look at the context of the Save The Nix campaign, FFA are very keen to see what happens in the Auckland market," Dome said.

The Phoenix are one of the few A-League clubs whose average attendance and membership figures are up this season. Their crowds are above teams such as Melbourne City and the Central Coast Mariners, while memberships are now 4800.

Three-time league winners the Brisbane Roar, for example, have 5100 members.

It is lifting those numbers, or metrics as the FFA have called them, that will decide whether the Phoenix will be granted a lengthy A-League licence extension. The governing body don't believe the Phoenix do enough to market themselves beyond Wellington, so Saturday's crowd will help indicate whether that's true or not.

Dome wouldn't be drawn on whether the Phoenix supported the protest action of the Australian fans, preferring to echo the words of two other club chiefs.

"I'm in the same boat as John Tsatsimas at Wanderers and Ian Robson at Victory, who've said we need to be aligning ourselves with fans, not alienating ourselves from them," he said.

He expected the QBE Stadium turf to be in better condition than it has been for New Zealand national league games. Thursday's scheduled clash between Waitakere United and the Phoenix Reserves has been shifted to Mt Smart Stadium to give QBE groundstaff the best opportunity to get the surface right.

Dome and Phoenix coach Ernie Merrick have also been in touch with FFA director of refereeing Ben Wilson to try to get more protection for Roly Bonevacia. The midfield player has been kicked from pillar to post en route to becoming the most-fouled player in the league.