Field Theory: Hospital Pass
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In fact play two games, one here and one in Tokyo
Indeed Hadyn, an excellent idea
As to the other point, who goes to expensive rugby games these days anyway?
People who can afford to fly to Auckland or who have friends there -
It would've been simpler to have some of the games transfered to Dunedin, simple as that.
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All Blacks vs Japan is a great idea. But it could be a dull game. All Blacks vs Barbarians, in Japan, with preference to the top Japanese stars?
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We tend to forget that Christchurch is our second largest city and so (usually) has more accommodation than say Wellington or Dunedin can muster. 'Ground capacity' would be a matter of packing punters in and keeping the IRB happy about the till take.
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Islander, in reply to
Yep.
The stadium capacity argument is kind of weak eh?
Refund those fans who are among the 5000 or so overbooked(on a 1st come/1st served basis) and offer those who take up the Dunedin venue travel/stay vouchers (similar to the DN Passport.)
Win/win for the South. -
South Island can watch the rest on TV.
Well it better be all games on State TV for all of the South Island, while we still have State TV.
I don't even like the game but for those that do, it should be in Dunedin. or a free ferry up to Wellywood. for all those "were gonna be" CHCH games. Jeez Auckland is not the only City because CHCH had an earthquake. Why are we making this prohibitively more expensive than it already is? -
Agreed, we should have played Japan in Tokyo instead of Aussie the other year. Would have sold the ground out. I mentioned elsewhere a couple of days ago that next year would be the ideal time to go play a test there. That it won't be competitive is irrelevent. We play Pacific island nations periodcially and win by a 100. We play Ireland, Wales and Scotland every year practically and they are teams we have never lost to, or haven't for 60 years in the case of Wales.
Bring it on.
Moving the quarters to Auckland is a bit sucky. They could have played them in Dunedin. I'm not sure who the likely teams are that would be playing those games.
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I can now answer my own post.
The four teams that will be playing in those quarters will be New Zealand (A), France (A), Argentina (B) and England (B) (Tonga and Scotland being outside chances). Maybe England and the NZRU were trying to look after their own backsides by ensuring a nice easy 'travel' schedule after pool play. ie. none.
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Hmmm. Could this have something to do with the official looking people (one in a RWC shirt) wandering around outside McLean Park this afternoon. May be another game for Napier. And at the risk of sounding uncharitable-did I hear right on One News tonight that the government may pay for those who had tickets to these games in Christchurch to attend them in Auckland. Colour me unimpressed if that's the case.
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Sacha, in reply to
Moving the quarters to Auckland is a bit sucky. They could have played them in Dunedin.
Haven't seen the announcement details yet. Please do share the numbers that show Dunedin was a viable candidate.
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It is disappointing that the games have to be moved, but I'd rather that than money diverted from human beings to get the stadium and associated infrastrucutre ready for the World Cup.
I imagine that the NZRU would have preferred to have all the knockout games in Auckland if they figured they could get away with it, so they lept at the chance to move those to games to Eden Park.
Their only revenue from RWC is gate money, so they are looking at an extra 25,000 seats per match and maybe $10m by moving the games to Auckland. The new Otago Stadium will apparently have 30,000 seats at a push, 8k fewer than AMI. Waikato Stadium has about the same capacity. At $200 a ticket (TV's figure) Dunedin & Hamilton would cost the Union $3m +.
The group matches I'm sure could stay in the South Island, though matches involving England will likely gravitate to the larger stadia, in the interests of money.
The govt has tried to soften the blow by suggesting Cantabrians will be offered travel & accommodation packages that will be subsidised by the taxpayer, and I believe the NZRU or the govt has offered money towards the $4m it will cost to resurface the AMI, given that the pitch itself was apparently not insured for this event. I could be wrong, the news reporting on Three was even less clear than usual.
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A couple of people interviewed on Campbell Live last night said they were more concerned with having somewhere to poo than the RWC.
We may be a rugby nation, but when it comes down to it, pooing beats rugby I'm afraid.
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Sacha, in reply to
pooing beats rugby
heretic
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Sue,
does Dunedin has the accommodation capacity to host?
If they already have people booked in for whatever they are already hosting do they have the capacity accommodation wise for tourists?they might say they do, but if you exclude she'll be right mate concepts of student dorms etc
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Pete Sime, in reply to
It was suggested in some quarters that cruise ships be hired for temporary accommodation in Christchurch if the games were to go ahead there. Dunedin could quite easily do the same thing. Additionally, a special passenger train service could be laid on between Christchurch and Dunedin for day trippers. I don't know whether the Dunedin stadium (which I'm told students have started calling the Toast Rack due to the roof struts) has its own rail platform planned, but it is right next to the track and not far from the station.
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Sacha, in reply to
The new Otago Stadium will apparently have 30,000 seats at a push
Probably your answer - twice as much ground capacity at Eden Park, regardless of accommodation arrangements. Caketin holds 36,000.
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Dunedin has accommodation issues for any big match where there would be lots of internationals attending. I think Dunedin's capacity for accommodation is 3000 or so I think. Even if you stretched that out to everything that you could fit a bed into and all the camp grounds and anywhere within 100 km of Dunedin, you might get up to 5000.
But there might be 10,000 tourists attending some of those quarterfinals all of which need a place to sleep. I'd imagine any England pool game would be impossible here, and any quarter final would be the same. I'm picking we'll get one of the lesser pool games and one or two others will go to Timaru/Nelson. The north island will get the rest.
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st ephen, in reply to
I’d imagine any England pool game would be impossible here...
er, maybe you should let the organisers know so they can move this one:
Sat Sep 24 Pool B England v Romania Dunedin
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Steve Barnes, in reply to
It was suggested in some quarters that cruise ships be hired for temporary accommodation in Christchurch if the games were to go ahead there. Dunedin could quite easily do the same thing.
What an excellent idea. The government could set up a special committee and order a Royal Commission, it could all be in place sometime in 2012. After all, nobody else in the country needs temporary accommodation, eh?.
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Russell Brown, in reply to
All Blacks vs Japan is a great idea. But it could be a dull game. All Blacks vs Barbarians, in Japan, with preference to the top Japanese stars?
A Barbarians team featuring the top former All Blacks and other expats currently playing rugby in Japan would work rather well.
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BenWilson, in reply to
I still consider one of the best individual tries I ever saw to have been scored by a Japanese player (can't remember his name it was so long ago) playing as a Barbarian. A massive bomb sent up, he dashed nearly half the length of the field, leapt and caught it mid-air, and skidded between the posts, about 6 metres ahead of the closest All Black. I had my fist in the air until I realized "hey, that's the other team".
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The cruise ship thing fascinates me.
Where exactly do you go to hire a cruise ship for a month; especially in peak time in the Mediterranean? They’re not like chemical toilets.
As Sacha said 60k v 30k meant Auckland was the pragmatic option for the Quarters. And increased money from those matches increases the ability to redistribute pool matches around the South Island.
Picking England v Argentina to go to Wellington Regional Stadium (temporarily increased to 39k BTW)
Note; venues not previously allocated games (e.g. Timaru and Queenstown) have been ruled out.
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For some reason I always pay attention to the Japan RWC matches and they've shown improvement every time with some star players absolute game changers.
It would be great warm up for thee World Cup too (although injury concerns do make the Barbarians idea more likely).
And if this can't happen, how about an online match - Japan's best gamers against the ABs: who would you put your money on?
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Well first off - I am not a rugby fan, I may even be slightly to the negative side of the bar, and that is nothing to do with the game itself but all the brouhaha that follows it everywhere.
Talking with several friends including some overseas who are planning to come to NZ for the World Cup it is obvious overseas people and a lot of their friends DON'T WANT to be in Christchurch - they want to watch first class rugby - the earthquake has decided it is not Christchurch for them. They are spending a lot planning, time and money to come here and want to see tremor free rugby full stop. That may sound harsh but they are the 'the clients' and if they don't want to go there then why force it. I would rather they come and watch the Cup anywhere in NZ rather than not come at all. We will all benefit from this, according to previous World Cup media statements. and I would hate to see an anti-Auckland argument develop because this is not what it is about. It is about having fantastic games with fantastic crowds and possible a fantastic NZ win.
Imagine if at the last moments of a game a winning penalty/conversion was put off course by a minor aftershock. -
Sacha, in reply to
redistribute pool matches around the South Island
Martin Snedden was admirably upfront about that on Campbell Live last night (streaming, 4 mins). Very clear that they can't jeopardise delivery at this late stage but committed to adding on extra games in existing South Island venues where they're capable.
As someone said up thread, they need to align sets of games for the benefit of fans though so probably some juggling with the move of those big Chch games to Ak.
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