65 bottles of beer on the wall...

16:13 Jul 7, 2011 123

It's only 65 days to the opening game of the Rugby World Cup, so let's try a little experiment. When was the last time you heard anything positive about the Cup? Anything that made you think: "Yes, I am actually excited about this!"

It seems that it's almost certain that any news item that includes the Cup will be something bad. The Cup is killing local business; it's shutting down schools; it's forcing children to learn rugby; it's the reason for all these road works; no one is coming; too many people are coming; costs are soaring; no one can sell anything; the tickets are too expensive; there aren't enough tickets; the country will lose millions; Richie is hurt; Dan is hurt; everyone is hurt; Nonu is cut; Hore is cut; no players are staying; we have a forwards/midfield/backs crisis*; Christchurch.

Is there no one who is actually excited by the fact that we'll be hosting a major sporting event this year?

The news is filled with doom, gloom and scaremongering. The Cup and the IRB are an evil force coming here and forcing us into slavery to corporate masters during the event. These cute children will be forced to starve because the IRB says they can't sell things. Or maybe not, it's never clear if the aggrieved business, school, or orphanage has approached the IRB, NZRU or any other official source to see if this would be the case.

Yes, there are issues with holding a big event (the largest sporting event of the year I am told, where the Tour de France sits in these kinds of calculations I never know). But I really doubt each one is the wreck and ruin of the country as they have been portrayed.

I'm also getting quite sick of the rugby haters. Boo-hoo, you're living in a place that is holding a festival for something you don't like. Just like those Christians living in Sydney during Mardi Gras. That's right; I just compared you to homophobes.

Rugby fans going to be loud and stuff. They are also going to be nice old English couples; they are going to be hot Irish guys; they are going to be Japanese businessmen; and just New Zealanders from other parts of the country. And they have all come to have fun, when did we become party-poopers?

Actually, if you wanna bitch about the team and the coach and our general lack of preparedness /too much focus on the cup, go right ahead. You are a sports fan; it's your job to lay awake at night sweating about the performance of your on-field avatars.

123 responses to this post

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Sue, 14:58 Jul 8, 2011

john Campbell on tv last night was very excited about the Wales vs Samoa game in Hamilton.
I think the reason everyone is grumpy is becuase the closer we get to the date, we find out how much more it's costing financially, which is the opposite of how it was pitched to NZ

Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 527 posts Report
Hadyn Green, 15:25 Jul 8, 2011

Actually i dont remember it ever being pitched as a financial windfall of any kind. Back when Helen Clark went over and got it, it was pitched more as New Zealand's last chance to hold the Cup, before it became so incredibly expensive that we could ever do it again.

Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report
Hadyn Green, 15:26 Jul 8, 2011

Ps, Wales v Samoa and France v Tonga should be great. Also Japan v Canada.

Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report
Russell Brown, 15:26 Jul 8, 2011

How many times have I heard people declare they'll be out of the country for the RWC?
To which I must say:
1. No, I bet you won't be.
2. Why go overseas when there will be tens of thousands of foreign folk coming here, not to mention a whole slate of festivals and events, all around the country? No one's going to make you watch the game on television, ffs.

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report
Craig Ranapia, 15:27 Jul 8, 2011

I’m also getting quite sick of the rugby haters. Boo-hoo, you’re living in a place that is holding a festival for something you don’t like. Just like those Christians living in Sydney during Mardi Gras. That’s right; I just compared you to homophobes.
Um, is it OK if I adopt my default position of general indifference with occasional flashes of WTF-ness at the amount of corporate welfare central and local government has been spraying around with gay abandon? Don’t want to give anyone’s party a plate job by thinking I’m entitled as a citizen-taxpayer to get annoyed at my employees.
How many times have I heard people declare they’ll be out of the country for the RWC?
I may have been one of them, until Veolia Transport (my partner's employer) made it quite clear than requests for leave during the RWC would be greeted as follows:

North Shore, Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 12370 posts Report
Christian Mair, 15:27 Jul 8, 2011

After a great party I never ask "How much did it cost". I see the RWC in that light and I for one can't wait. I know the money could have been spent somewhere else etc but sometimes you just gotta have to have fun.

Auckland • Since Jul 2011 • 9 posts Report
nzlemming, 15:29 Jul 8, 2011

Is there no one who is actually excited by the fact that we’ll be hosting a major sporting event this year?
Not me. I haven't been excited about rugby all year. The Super however-many-we're-up-to-now failed to spark me, and not just because the Canes were so abysmal this year. And I do like rugby. But less is more, and I think we've got too much. It's not a sport any more - it's a business. And I'm kinda meh on big business.
You go ahead and enjoy it, though. Somebody needs to.

Waikanae • Since Nov 2006 • 2937 posts Report
Christian Mair, 15:29 Jul 8, 2011

Also I have been to Sydney during the Olympics. All I remember is how easy it was not to see anything relating to the Olympics during that time.

Auckland • Since Jul 2011 • 9 posts Report
bob daktari, 15:32 Jul 8, 2011

isn't this the case with all major sporting events of this kind - initial positive stories around landing the hosting rights... then several years of negative stories (often related to budget and buildings not being ready in time) then just prior to kickoff the positive switch gets turned back on
personally I'm not a fan of the game nor coming event - I hope we do ourselves proud on and off the field

auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 540 posts Report
Robyn Gallagher, 15:40 Jul 8, 2011

I don't like rugby, but I don't hate it either. It's just a thing that other people do.
I was in Newcastle, NSW in 2001 when the Newcastle Knights won the AFL grand final. The streets were alive with celebrating munters, yelling random shit out of their cars. I know that's league, but it gave me a taste of the worst side of team sports. But I think we'd only see that if - shudder - NZ wins the RWC.
Meanwhile, it's nice to see Courtenay Place looking a bit cleaned up, though I'm not sure about those bollards that have been erected in the middle of the footpath either side of Blair and Allen Streets.

Since Nov 2006 • 1946 posts Report
Bart Janssen, 16:00 Jul 8, 2011

Sandringham Road is nice and smooth now. The power lines are underground. All the cafes have been spruced up and a whole bunch more have opened. We have some (admittedly not awesome, but some) public transport in Auckland directly as a result. So my local infrastructure has improved long term. Hotels, motels and people with a bed in a caravan will make money, which is nice for them. Australians will whinge about us taking money from them, all win.
No I won't try and drive anywhere on game nights, but I don't now anyway. No I don't expect to be able to bowl up to any restaurant and just get a table while the cup is on, but I tend to book usually anyway. Auckland will be crowded and busy for a month of my life, that isn't such a hardship.
I won't go to any games but I will probably watch quite a few on TV. The partisan side of me hope the ABs win, but I fear that means another National government if they do.
I don't think the RWC will make money, my guess is it will lose quite a lot really, but we will have upgraded a lot of infrastructure for the cup that we will use happily for decades.
No I don't hate the RWC. I do dislike the hype, and some of the blatant statistics fails.

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 4461 posts Report
Peter Darlington, 16:06 Jul 8, 2011

There was an interesting look back at the 1987 RWC in the SST last week. It was pointed out in the article that the NZ public were quite ambivalent about that tournament as well (there was still a lot of hostility about the 1981, & proposed 1985 SAf tours). However as it wore on people got more enthusiastic and more into it. Hopefully that will be the case this time as well.

Nelson • Since Nov 2006 • 949 posts Report
3410, 16:16 Jul 8, 2011

After a great party I never ask "How much did it cost".
You would if it was you paying for it.

Auckland • Since Jan 2007 • 2618 posts Report
Scott Gamble, 16:16 Jul 8, 2011

What irks people (myself included) is not the rugby or the RWC itself but the NZ media.
Unrelenting doom if we lose, horrible strutting crowing if we win. Both ugly.

Australia • Since Apr 2011 • 13 posts Report
Islander, in reply to 3410, 16:22 Jul 8, 2011

And we are paying for it (and will be - e.g.via rates for the FB stadium in DN-for quite some time.)
Wont be watching any of it or attending anything associated with it. Aside from the cost part, it is entirely irrelevant to my life, and most certainly not something to party about.

Big O, Mahitahi, Te Wahi … • Since Feb 2007 • 5643 posts Report
andin, 16:25 Jul 8, 2011

Its going to put some much needed dosh in my pocket.

raglan • Since Mar 2007 • 1891 posts Report
Rich of Observationz, 16:35 Jul 8, 2011

I’ve no objection to people wanting to play rugby (or soccer, billiards, polo, Papua Rules Lacrosse or any other game).
What I object to is giving our money to Big Sport and bending our laws to accomodate them.
If I might make a suggestion to those keen on rugby, why don’t you try and take the game back from the plutocrats (as people are doing world wide in many sports)?
Why does holding the Rugby World Cup need to be a competition for which country can fork out the most dosh, build the biggest stadia and impose the most autocratic laws? Why not have the event held in each rugby nation in turn, by alphabetic rotation? New Zealand, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, Wales and back to Argentina
You’d have a year with grass roots rugby in the islands, then another year up in Scotland, etc. Everyone would get a turn (over a period of some years). It would be nice.

Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report
HORansome, 17:21 Jul 8, 2011

I, for one, am sick of being told I should be excited by the RWC.

Tāmaki Makaurau • Since Sep 2008 • 441 posts Report
Russell Brown, in reply to HORansome, 17:27 Jul 8, 2011

I, for one, am sick of being told I should be excited by the RWC.
I'd settle for everyone holding back on whingeing about it till it starts and there's something to whinge about.

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report
giovanni tiso, in reply to Russell Brown, 17:32 Jul 8, 2011

I'd settle for everyone holding back on whingeing about it till it starts and there's something to whinge about.
There's plenty to whinge about in advance of it, actually, I would have thought.

Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report
HORansome, 17:35 Jul 8, 2011

And a lot of what we're seeing isn't whinging per se but people arguing, using evidence, that the RWC isn't necessarily something we should be celebrating.

Tāmaki Makaurau • Since Sep 2008 • 441 posts Report
Hadyn Green, 17:59 Jul 8, 2011

Evidence being "large events cost money"? Whoever would've believed that? And tax payer money too, to hold the world's largest sporting event of 2011 in New Zealand.
It does still seem like whinging. The government is spending money on something I don't like (I bet that's something Craig has been hearing 2008).

Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 2090 posts Report
tussock, 18:07 Jul 8, 2011

Grrrr. Rugby has cost the public of Dunedin (and the wider Otago) over $200,000,000.00 recently in benefit of a bankrupt professional sports team in action. It was bad when they were costing us a million a year in "forgiven debts", and more to the Otago and Southland teams. A thousand dollars a head, including the kids.
Hey, never mind the ancient sewers, the crumbling sea wall around South Dunedin, Oamaru's receding coastline, more flooding in the Taieri, the barely drinkable water, and public transport; because there's no money for any of that any more. Let's enjoy the fscking rugby instead.
Sure, there's lots of nice new cars in town. Nice for those who own the construction companies, and pay for their faithful councillors re-election.

Since Nov 2006 • 611 posts Report
giovanni tiso, in reply to tussock, 18:10 Jul 8, 2011

Grrrr. Rugby has cost the public of Dunedin (and the wider Otago) over $200,000,000.00 recently in benefit of a bankrupt professional sports team in action. It was bad when they were costing us a million a year in "forgiven debts", and more to the Otago and Southland teams. A thousand dollars a head, including the kids.
Oh, quit your whingeing! Just enjoy the party we're having at your expense.
Spoilsport.

Wellington • Since Jun 2007 • 7473 posts Report
Russell Brown, in reply to tussock, 18:25 Jul 8, 2011

Grrrr. Rugby has cost the public of Dunedin (and the wider Otago) over $200,000,000.00 recently in benefit of a bankrupt professional sports team in action. It was bad when they were costing us a million a year in "forgiven debts", and more to the Otago and Southland teams. A thousand dollars a head, including the kids.
Can't argue with you there. I'm more thinking of the people who have convinced themselves that the country will somehow be hell on earth for a couple of months. It won't.

Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report