Monday, November 13, 2006
Build the Fucking Thing!!!!
Go Here to give your support for the new waterfront stadium. It's the Auckland City Council website and they are wanting people to give them an idea of their preferred option. At this stage public opinion is being artifically slanted against it by National supporters, people who hate Auckland, and grumpy old herald readers (as if they will have to pay for it with their taxes, they are all either about to die or else are drawing on their superschemes). Your average joe or joeline webblogs who loves his or her sport can't afford the internet or the bloody 0900 poll numbers they are running on TV.
Right, to kick this off, quite frankly I'm getting sick to death of all the bitching moaners who are the same fuckers that complain that nothing ever gets done regarding the waterfront stadium proposal.
That Herald 'survey' was a joke. For starters how do we know that respondents are actually from Auckland? Secondly, how come the three times I tries to register an opinion over two days it kept continuously bumping me back out to the main page so I couldn't comment? Thirdly, do people out there think that a lot of the anti waterfront option is being driven by peoples political persuasion? ie. boring old conservative farts or I-hate-everything-labour-is-involved-with dickwads not being able to look past the end of their ego.
The second I heard about the waterfront proposal I was stunned at how fucking awesome an idea it was. I have no idea who came up with it, but it was one of those ideas that came so far out of left field and was so damn cool.
Eden Park is a complete joke and the problems that it has faced for years will never ever go away. Increasing its capacity will make the moaning by local residents both longer and louder and yes we the poor citizens of Auckland will have to put up with them until we are in our graves.
Wellington has a 30,000 plus seat stadium and they have about 400,000 people. Fleshing that out Auckland should have a stadium of aroundabout 100,000 so 60,000 is small fry. Dunedin is seriously looking like it will go for a stadium with a roof and they have a popn of 100,000. Christchurch has a stadium plenty big enough for them, as does Waikato and most smaller centres in NZ have perfectly adequate, well placed venues. Why the hell can't Auckland get one that is bang in the middle of the fucker and that will promise an awesome experience for all who visit it with minimal hassle for anybody living anywhere near it?
People complain that it will be a white elephant.
Bullshit.
It will be guaranteed to be soldout at least once a year and will be fairly full several other times with Blues games being a good chance of filling it to the 30-40,000 mark and for semis and finals they may even get close to filling it completely.
But who cares if it only gets sold out once a year? The Sydney Olympic stadium sells out for the NRL grand final and then it gets soldout for the odd rugby test and SOO game or close to it. The rest of the year it is mostly empty.
People complain that it won't be built in time for the World Cup.
Well quite frankly I couldn't give a stuff about that either. Let Aussie host the final. We will have a stadium to last us a hundred years and promise a great night out for tens of millions of people over that same period. I say start building the waterfront stadium and if it looks like it isn't going to be built in time begin building a temporary seating arrangement at Eden Park to bump it up to 60,000 and then bulldoze the whole place moments after the final whistle. Or shortly before it if it looks like NZ isn't going to win.
Eden Park could be developed as a test cricket venue. Bowl all the main ground stands and expand number two field to include some of number one. Realign that pitch at right angles to the current one on the outer oval and landscape the area with embankments and trees. The whole project could be funded by selling off strips of land along the street out the back of the terraces. It could also remain the home of Auckland cricket and Auckland club rugby. It would be run on a shoestring and as it would only need to cater to 10,000 or so there would be very few problems re crowd noise, lights, shadows, urinating in backyards, transport, parking etc.
People also complain that Auckland has too many venues. Well I've been over this here before. Auckland does not have too many stadiums. Auckland may be one big joined up urban mass but when it comes to sport it is split in sporting terms into 3 regions. Auckland, North Harbour and Counties/Manukau all play sport in the Auckland region and if you think that Auckland NPC, Counties NPC, N Harbour NPC, Harbour League, Counties Manukau Jetz, Warriors, Knights, along with Auckland cricket, Black Caps, All Blacks, Kiwis, and the respective club rugby competitions plus Big Day Out and concerts from N Harbour Stadium plus other events hosted by these venues would all be nicely catered for in one or two stadiums I say that you are dumb and should go dig a hole in the backyard, climb in and pay your neighbour to fill it.
Right, to kick this off, quite frankly I'm getting sick to death of all the bitching moaners who are the same fuckers that complain that nothing ever gets done regarding the waterfront stadium proposal.
That Herald 'survey' was a joke. For starters how do we know that respondents are actually from Auckland? Secondly, how come the three times I tries to register an opinion over two days it kept continuously bumping me back out to the main page so I couldn't comment? Thirdly, do people out there think that a lot of the anti waterfront option is being driven by peoples political persuasion? ie. boring old conservative farts or I-hate-everything-labour-is-involved-with dickwads not being able to look past the end of their ego.
The second I heard about the waterfront proposal I was stunned at how fucking awesome an idea it was. I have no idea who came up with it, but it was one of those ideas that came so far out of left field and was so damn cool.
Eden Park is a complete joke and the problems that it has faced for years will never ever go away. Increasing its capacity will make the moaning by local residents both longer and louder and yes we the poor citizens of Auckland will have to put up with them until we are in our graves.
Wellington has a 30,000 plus seat stadium and they have about 400,000 people. Fleshing that out Auckland should have a stadium of aroundabout 100,000 so 60,000 is small fry. Dunedin is seriously looking like it will go for a stadium with a roof and they have a popn of 100,000. Christchurch has a stadium plenty big enough for them, as does Waikato and most smaller centres in NZ have perfectly adequate, well placed venues. Why the hell can't Auckland get one that is bang in the middle of the fucker and that will promise an awesome experience for all who visit it with minimal hassle for anybody living anywhere near it?
People complain that it will be a white elephant.
Bullshit.
It will be guaranteed to be soldout at least once a year and will be fairly full several other times with Blues games being a good chance of filling it to the 30-40,000 mark and for semis and finals they may even get close to filling it completely.
But who cares if it only gets sold out once a year? The Sydney Olympic stadium sells out for the NRL grand final and then it gets soldout for the odd rugby test and SOO game or close to it. The rest of the year it is mostly empty.
People complain that it won't be built in time for the World Cup.
Well quite frankly I couldn't give a stuff about that either. Let Aussie host the final. We will have a stadium to last us a hundred years and promise a great night out for tens of millions of people over that same period. I say start building the waterfront stadium and if it looks like it isn't going to be built in time begin building a temporary seating arrangement at Eden Park to bump it up to 60,000 and then bulldoze the whole place moments after the final whistle. Or shortly before it if it looks like NZ isn't going to win.
Eden Park could be developed as a test cricket venue. Bowl all the main ground stands and expand number two field to include some of number one. Realign that pitch at right angles to the current one on the outer oval and landscape the area with embankments and trees. The whole project could be funded by selling off strips of land along the street out the back of the terraces. It could also remain the home of Auckland cricket and Auckland club rugby. It would be run on a shoestring and as it would only need to cater to 10,000 or so there would be very few problems re crowd noise, lights, shadows, urinating in backyards, transport, parking etc.
People also complain that Auckland has too many venues. Well I've been over this here before. Auckland does not have too many stadiums. Auckland may be one big joined up urban mass but when it comes to sport it is split in sporting terms into 3 regions. Auckland, North Harbour and Counties/Manukau all play sport in the Auckland region and if you think that Auckland NPC, Counties NPC, N Harbour NPC, Harbour League, Counties Manukau Jetz, Warriors, Knights, along with Auckland cricket, Black Caps, All Blacks, Kiwis, and the respective club rugby competitions plus Big Day Out and concerts from N Harbour Stadium plus other events hosted by these venues would all be nicely catered for in one or two stadiums I say that you are dumb and should go dig a hole in the backyard, climb in and pay your neighbour to fill it.
Comments:
After careful consideration I have changed my stance from thinking there were too many stadiums to believing there are just too many badly done/run stadiums. This alone doesn't make me not want it.
I don't give a crap about rubgy, or the rugby world cup, but, again, this alone doesn't make it right for my wishes to outweigh anyone elses. Neither does my thinking that the money is better spent on other things.
Nope... it just comes down to user pays for me. It needs to be privately funded, and any money from govt be from projects already bringing in fund, not new fleecings. The private sector and local govt, can levy the f*ck out of those who have direct involvement in the in the event, attend any games, sponsors, or travel on rugby tours. If it's good enough to chuck tolls on roads to ping those that use them, then they can leave those that don't care with their wallets intact.
I am [i]such[/i] a grumpy bastard.
Polar Bob
I don't give a crap about rubgy, or the rugby world cup, but, again, this alone doesn't make it right for my wishes to outweigh anyone elses. Neither does my thinking that the money is better spent on other things.
Nope... it just comes down to user pays for me. It needs to be privately funded, and any money from govt be from projects already bringing in fund, not new fleecings. The private sector and local govt, can levy the f*ck out of those who have direct involvement in the in the event, attend any games, sponsors, or travel on rugby tours. If it's good enough to chuck tolls on roads to ping those that use them, then they can leave those that don't care with their wallets intact.
I am [i]such[/i] a grumpy bastard.
Polar Bob
# posted by 
: 13 November 2006 at 20:30
: 13 November 2006 at 20:30
I agree in part with you. Certainly they need to squeeze as much money as possible out of those who will benefit the most. However everybody in Auckland will benefit in one way or another even if it's just the community organisation that gets chosen to clean it after a big game for a bit of cash or the cousin of the burger bar owner near the venue who gets a bigger birthday present than usual from aforementioned owner because business is better than usual.
The main sticking point however is that they don't have time to sit round and work this through properly and work out who will benefit (ie. the NZRU) and get them to put money forward.
The NZRU should use their brains and figure that 45,000 x 80 dollars is less than 60,000 x 100 dollars. They don't need to fund the whole thing but surely a bit of number crunching can work out roughly how much they stand to make long term. Even in terms of image and commercial development of 'the product' etc.
My way of thinking is to build a half assed refit of Eden Park for the WC and then have a waterfront option ready by 2013-2015 but with an awesome design, and the ports shuffled off and very careful planning about the surrounding area.
The main sticking point however is that they don't have time to sit round and work this through properly and work out who will benefit (ie. the NZRU) and get them to put money forward.
The NZRU should use their brains and figure that 45,000 x 80 dollars is less than 60,000 x 100 dollars. They don't need to fund the whole thing but surely a bit of number crunching can work out roughly how much they stand to make long term. Even in terms of image and commercial development of 'the product' etc.
My way of thinking is to build a half assed refit of Eden Park for the WC and then have a waterfront option ready by 2013-2015 but with an awesome design, and the ports shuffled off and very careful planning about the surrounding area.
For the record 45000 x 80 dollars equals 3.6 million dollars
60,000 x 100 dollars equals 6 million dollars.
Over a period of 20 years and at least 20 tests that adds up to 48 million dollars.
I say hit the NZRU up for 10 million. They have been boasting about how much money they are making "going forward" every year for quite a while now.
i reckon even if it did blowout to a billion dollars they could get over half from companies, interested parties and sponsorship, naming rights etc.
then you might just be looking at under a hundred bucks per person in NZ but over the course of our life times we will benefit a damn site more. The average ticket price will probably well exceed that for many games.
60,000 x 100 dollars equals 6 million dollars.
Over a period of 20 years and at least 20 tests that adds up to 48 million dollars.
I say hit the NZRU up for 10 million. They have been boasting about how much money they are making "going forward" every year for quite a while now.
i reckon even if it did blowout to a billion dollars they could get over half from companies, interested parties and sponsorship, naming rights etc.
then you might just be looking at under a hundred bucks per person in NZ but over the course of our life times we will benefit a damn site more. The average ticket price will probably well exceed that for many games.
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