Rotorua 'International' Stadium
-
@Rapido said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
So in summary. Napier or New Plymouth which upgraded their grounds for 2011 should have hosted this tour match.
Yarrow Stadium should have been the option if you base it on stadium quality.
-
@antipodean Samoa v Namibia at Rotorua was pretty good in '11. Not a huge crowd, nice day, kids could get a seat and watch the game. I imagine this was a very different animal.
-
woop finally remembered my password.. so i can join the rant!
totally agree with what Shark said.. this was a fucking disgrace.
biggest disappointment to for me was that the Maoris game in '05 was one of the most epic days of sport i've been to - the game was amazing and town after was epic! Always said if this game was 1/10th of that game would still be a good outing. unfortunately wasn't even 1/100th. As noted this game partly there for 'culture' reasons.. prob the no1 reason it needs to not be there so the team isn't distracted by all the other sh*t and just focuses on the 80 mins on the field - which they totally failed to turn up for.
Rolling into town I expected to see the place heaving with camper vans and people spilling out of every available joint. it wasn't even that busy. We stopped for a quick couple of beers and some banter with some young poms on their OE on the waterfront before heading to the pub. Pub wasn't that busy then headed to the game.
Heard stories that the queue to get a bus from town was 1km long. only 10 buses were rolling. guess thats why pub wasn't busy every fuker queuing for a ride. Heard Lions fans were paying up to $100 to any local driving past to give them a ride to the ground.
Not helped by the weather but fcuk me what a joke. I couldn't believe that people were sitting on the terraces. prob cause they went an hour before to try and get on that side for a 'seat' and ended up freezing their ar$es off on a wet bit of concrete that just meant there was ZERO atmosphere from any fans. a couple of portaloos somewhere was all the pissers i saw miles away from where i was. luckily had chucked a few beers and a hippie in my jacket so didn't nened to queue for hours to get a beer like others. Was basically just a matter of hoping the game would end so we could piss off elsewhere.
Getting back already discussed. As Hooroo said we just stood around the van playing drinking games and the traffic was just going nowhere... we then ran out of beers (I should point out that you should never really on Hooroos "local knowledge" to find you some more..)..
even the fast food joints there were fcuked - we waited 45 mins for a bunch of retards in Wendys to put some burgers together. Picked up some lions supporters who were walking to their accom about 10k's away cause they couldn't get any transport - they'd already walked for an hour when we picked them up at Wendys.
Got back to the Tron at 2am! plan was to hit the town there for some beers but since it was about 3hrs after schedule everyone was well and truely asleep!
if it wasn't for the company and fun we had in our van the whole thing would have been a disaster!
-
other thing i forgot to say is that i feel as tho this tour has been a bit of a dud.. Dunedin sounded ok - but I was kinda expecting something along the lines of 2011 type atmos but there's just been nothing. I work in the viaduct and have seen feck all supporters floating around.. Will be interested to see what the tron is like this arvo and what the test is like on the weekend.
-
@WillieTheWaiter said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
other thing i forgot to say is that i feel as tho this tour has been a bit of a dud.
I think the weak pound has a lot to do wtih that. Brisbane in 01 was epic - there must have been 30,000 fans in town, and they just took over.
Haven't seen that many yet, but Rotorua was bloody busy. Not sure when and where you are, but it was standing room only in a lot of places when we were about mid afternoon.
-
@nzzp said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
I think the weak pound has a lot to do wtih that. Brisbane in 01 was epic - there must have been 30,000 fans in town, and they just took over
Yes, that was a great atmosphere. Now Poms can't even get two South Pacific pesos.
-
@antipodean said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
@nzzp said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
I think the weak pound has a lot to do wtih that. Brisbane in 01 was epic - there must have been 30,000 fans in town, and they just took over
Yes, that was a great atmosphere. Now Poms can't even get two South Pacific pesos.
I was singing 'a dollar eighty to the pound' when the Blues were crushing the lions. Good times...
-
Well put WTW. Reading your comments on the buses, I'm super stoked our kindly motelier was happy to drop us to the game.
Gotta day though, there was plenty of atmosphere around town on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Eat Street and the Lone Star were packed Friday night, and on Saturday we went back to the Loney for an arvo session, stopped for one at the Pig n Whistle and then had a bite at Cobb and Co (boozy traffic lights!) and everywhere was busy.
Because we left the ground 20 mins early we had minimal hassle getting a bus into town and were back at the Lone Star around 9.15. Given it took until around 11 for the joint to fill up, I'd suggest getting from the ground back into town after the final whistle was an absolute shit fight.
-
@Rapido Similar experience for me in 2005, kids of around that height but we did get there a lot earlier. There was also Hori BOP with a girl dressed as a lion tamer's assistant, she was pretty pissed off and buggered off early - but that's another story. I didn't go to the game on Saturday for the reasons set out here by those who did. The ground is OK at about 10K max, any wet weather will reduce the place to mud and it is not set up to transport people to and from the stadium.
A couple of days before was the only time I got to meet Tony Veitch when he was doing the Radio Sport breakfast and there was some morning event. The hotel and the date coincides with a complaint of violence that his girlfriend made about him which he still doesn't acknowledge while he tries to promote the myth that he lost control just the one time. Shitbag.
-
@shark said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
Well put WTW. Reading your comments on the buses, I'm super stoked our kindly motelier was happy to drop us to the game.
Gotta day though, there was plenty of atmosphere around town on Friday night and Saturday afternoon. Eat Street and the Lone Star were packed Friday night, and on Saturday we went back to the Loney for an arvo session, stopped for one at the Pig n Whistle and then had a bite at Cobb and Co (boozy traffic lights!) and everywhere was busy.
Because we left the ground 20 mins early we had minimal hassle getting a bus into town and were back at the Lone Star around 9.15. Given it took until around 11 for the joint to fill up, I'd suggest getting from the ground back into town after the final whistle was an absolute shit fight.
Boozy traffic lights are a thing now? Excellent
-
Based on crowd numbers, tv coverage, you would have thought common sense would have prevailed for organisers and outweighed "cultural significance"?
My preference would have been to hold it at Eden Park - not far from Rotorua and venue a truly international one. -
@Crash 4 games at Eden Park in one tour might be a little much. This isn't England.
I assume they really wanted a non-Super base, in which case the naki would have been the go.
Tauranga not having a stadium really is ridiculously short sighted.
-
I didn't think Blue Chip or whatever it's called these days was too bad, on a visit there for a Canterbury VS BOP game. For some reason I picture it now as fully encircled by stands and all-seated but possibly the stands are shallow and well back from the pitch ?? Now I have to google it up....
-
My 2c ...
It had to be played out of Auckland but close to there and near the majority of population.
It had to be a place with a lot of accommodation.
It had to be a reasonably large stadium.
Rotorua ticks all three despite the limitations of the facility.
Dunedin ticks one (stadium)
New Plymouth one and a half (a little further from Akl)
Napier maybe three halves.
Hamilton may have been an option ... but the Chiefs game ...
Wellington may have been a better bet but they have two games next week.
Tauranga - nuh
Palmy - nuh
North Harbour - well that's AucklandI can see the logic in Rotovegas. But as has been pointed out the stadium is not three best option.
-
Rotorua has Is ground where the events management team always underestimate the set-up needed. In past years, even with a crowd of just 4,000or 5,000 expected, they still manage to have too few ticket booths operating. It's like they have a formula of: Expected Crowd + 70% of Required Resources = What What We'll Do Then Act Surprised.
Paradoxically, it's a great place to watch rugby when there's a small crowd. Not so much atmosphere wise though.
-
Well I guess they've only had about 12 years to prepare.
-
@booboo said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
My 2c ...
It had to be played out of Auckland but close to there and near the majority of population.
It had to be a place with a lot of accommodation.
It had to be a reasonably large stadium.
Rotorua ticks all three despite the limitations of the facility.
Dunedin ticks one (stadium)
New Plymouth one and a half (a little further from Akl)
Napier maybe three halves.
Hamilton may have been an option ... but the Chiefs game ...
Wellington may have been a better bet but they have two games next week.
Tauranga - nuh
Palmy - nuh
North Harbour - well that's AucklandI can see the logic in Rotovegas. But as has been pointed out the stadium is not three best option.
Why did it have to be played close to Auckland? It could easily have been played in Christchurch or Dunedin on the back of the Crusaders and Highlanders games.
-
@shark said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
@booboo said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
My 2c ...
It had to be played out of Auckland but close to there and near the majority of population.
It had to be a place with a lot of accommodation.
It had to be a reasonably large stadium.
Rotorua ticks all three despite the limitations of the facility.
Dunedin ticks one (stadium)
New Plymouth one and a half (a little further from Akl)
Napier maybe three halves.
Hamilton may have been an option ... but the Chiefs game ...
Wellington may have been a better bet but they have two games next week.
Tauranga - nuh
Palmy - nuh
North Harbour - well that's AucklandI can see the logic in Rotovegas. But as has been pointed out the stadium is not three best option.
Why did it have to be played close to Auckland? It could easily have been played in Christchurch or Dunedin on the back of the Crusaders and Highlanders games.
Also would have encouraged a few more lions supporters down this way.
Whilst there was a good amount in Christchurch for the crusaders game, it was nothing like 12 years ago.
-
@shark said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
@booboo said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
My 2c ...
It had to be played out of Auckland but close to there and near the majority of population.
It had to be a place with a lot of accommodation.
It had to be a reasonably large stadium.
Rotorua ticks all three despite the limitations of the facility.
Dunedin ticks one (stadium)
New Plymouth one and a half (a little further from Akl)
Napier maybe three halves.
Hamilton may have been an option ... but the Chiefs game ...
Wellington may have been a better bet but they have two games next week.
Tauranga - nuh
Palmy - nuh
North Harbour - well that's AucklandI can see the logic in Rotovegas. But as has been pointed out the stadium is not three best option.
Why did it have to be played close to Auckland? It could easily have been played in Christchurch or Dunedin on the back of the Crusaders and Highlanders games.
The reason for playing it close to Auckland because it's a week out from the first test in Auckland and they probably wanted somewhere where people could travel to/from without an extra flight.