Rotorua 'International' Stadium
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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.
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@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.
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@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
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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.
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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....
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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.
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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.
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Well I guess they've only had about 12 years to prepare.
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@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.
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@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.
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@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.
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I don't think an extra flight was required given they could have flown (e.g.) Dunedin to Hamilton Sunday rather than Dunedin to Rotorua on a Wednesday.
However if as seems the only logical proposition you don't want to go to the SI twice then playing 3 games in two cities in 8 days probably wasn't the best option.
With hindsight the Prov Baba's could/should have been at N Plymouth and The Maori at Okara Park (or whatever its called nowadays)
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@dogmeat said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
I don't think an extra flight was required given they could have flown (e.g.) Dunedin to Hamilton Sunday rather than Dunedin to Rotorua on a Wednesday.
However if as seems the only logical proposition you don't want to go to the SI twice then playing 3 games in two cities in 8 days probably wasn't the best option.
With hindsight the Prov Baba's could/should have been at N Plymouth and The Maori at Okara Park (or whatever its called nowadays)
Okara Park and Rotorua Stadium are almost identical though.
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@Rapido yeah while it's great to get 20k through the gates in Whangarei, the grounds are not set up to adequately service that number.
An Irish guy commented in the toilets about how long he had to wait at half time and I just told him we normally get 1/4 of that number to games so isn't ever a concern, and given this happens so infrequently, it doesn't bother me
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@Rapido said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
@dogmeat said in Rotorua 'International' Stadium:
I don't think an extra flight was required given they could have flown (e.g.) Dunedin to Hamilton Sunday rather than Dunedin to Rotorua on a Wednesday.
However if as seems the only logical proposition you don't want to go to the SI twice then playing 3 games in two cities in 8 days probably wasn't the best option.
With hindsight the Prov Baba's could/should have been at N Plymouth and The Maori at Okara Park (or whatever its called nowadays)
Okara Park and Rotorua Stadium are almost identical though.
I was at both venues - both were wet as, with mud underfoot. Whangarei was much closer to town though - a relatively short walk. Rotorua suffered from the distance, and the need to bus everyone closer to the ground.
I say closer, as it was still a 10 minute walk to the bank
Also, having been to many rugby games, I expect not to eat or drink at the ground. Getting beers can often be a 20 minute round trip (or more at halftime), and it's just not worth it. Preload, sideload or just make do ... whatever works, but I personally have given up on getting service at busy stadia
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@dogmeat I think the point is I'd imagine for a lot of Lions tour party their first game was Rotorua. So if they base themselves in Auckland for the first test, arrive a week early and get to/from Rotorua easily.
The Crusaders specifically requested their game was early in the tour to increase it's hype and the Lions would have wanted to play the strongest two non-test teams (on paper) the two Saturdays before test 1.
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@KiwiMurph I was meaning change the venues nit the programme
@rapido Many years since the only time I attended Okara (GO HARBOUR) but I thought it had enjoyed a significant upgrade. To hear them up north speak it's the Allianz Stadium of the South Pacific whereas Rotorua is more like an Alliance abbatoir
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@KiwiMurph Not sure about this time, but in 2005 the Lions wanted their opening match in Whangarei.
@dogmeat you might be a cnut! Nothing wrong with our stadium for our normal crowds of under 5000