Sydney Stadiums Rennovations

Tim

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Nepia" data-cid="572448" data-time="1460699357">
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You don't rush to the movies section of the Fern to find out what crappy 80s music soundtrack Tim is pushing? Then flick over to the Star Wars thread to re-watch the Rogue trailer?
 
My point, isn't really a point, as in I don't think it's the same but it just made me think about it when I saw MR's list of things.
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Banned and double banned! Those soundtracks are solid gold, my friend.

jegga

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Tim" data-cid="572461" data-time="1460702516">
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Banned and double banned! Those soundtracks are solid gold, my friend.
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No, no they are not. An intervention is in your not too distant future my friend.

Gunner

The anti sports stadia brigade do my head in. 
The amount of bloody whinging that went on up here when Okara Park was upgraded and dragged itself out of the Jurassic period was mind boggling. Yet I didn't see nor hear any complaints when the same council spent truckloads of money on a new library. 
It is a building I have never set foot in, I have no need to. But I'm happy for Whangarei to have this flash new library as I realise it's an important part of society - for some people. Am I going to cry about my rates being spent on it, even though I've never been there, or plan on going there? No. 
What's my point? 
Well, I'm most certainly over generalising here, but it'd be nice if people with interests other than sports in this country could look beyond themselves and accept that a modern sports stadium is an important part of a City's culture, just like a bloody library or theatre is, so pull your head in. 
Sorry rant over, back on topic... 
Good on Aussie for having their shit sorted with their stadiums. 
Maybe our politicians should take notes on how to get shit done!

pukunui

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="MajorRage" data-cid="572359" data-time="1460679367">
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'straya mate, greatest country in the world!
 
I'm starting to think they may have a point. Fantastic forward thinking.
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Im not sure you would be saying that while you are sitting in traffic for 2 hours trying to get to the ground though. Being forward thinking is definitely not something you can accuse any Australian/State Governments of being I'm afraid.

GagaBoy

A touch off point but perhaps some perspective about 'sports mad'. I lived in the USA for a couple of years in a college (university) city about the size of Hamilton. The stadium seated 105,000 and each home football game (including pre-season) was sold out. Even the local high schools would get close to 10,000 at each game and it was shown live on TV, radio etc... The place was off the hook!
 
Now I am not advocating that we can replicate that however - nor would we want to. The college sport and high school feeder systems was very flawed in so many ways.

Siam

Gaga boy, do the yanks play sports though?
 
I remember being shocked when asking adult football fans what position they play or if they still play and realising that while we keep turning out on saturdays, a lot of them never play or stop at school
 
The notion of lower grade sports (senior B's 3rd Grade Presidents grade etc) seemed to be non existent. Similarly the old go down to the rugby/cricket club and see the lads type of thing
 
Do they have these competitions and set ups for team sports like we do or not? Does amateur football or baseball exist (I assume it does, but maybe not like in Aus, NZ England etc)
 
 
Curious (and obviously ignorant)

dogmeat

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="taniwharugby" data-cid="572397" data-time="1460687144">Field of Dreams shit...if you build it....</blockquote>
 
Hasn't worked with Albany 
Any stadium in Sydney has a catchment of 4 mill within 90 mins travel. That makes an enormous difference 
A waterfront stadium would be a monumental mistake for akl. Stadiums are basically 13 story blank walls that are filled (in NZ) a couple of times a year 
The whole waterfront stadium was all piss and wind and the fact it appears again in the media every few years is so fucking boring 
NZ doesn't have the scale for a purpose built stadium of any size so whatever we do will involve compromise. 
But I guess it supports the kiwi national sport of whinging so all good.

hydro11

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="dogmeat" data-cid="572696" data-time="1460785171">
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Hasn't worked with Albany 
Any stadium in Sydney has a catchment of 4 mill within 90 mins travel. That makes an enormous difference 
A waterfront stadium would be a monumental mistake for akl. Stadiums are basically 13 story blank walls that are filled (in NZ) a couple of times a year 
The whole waterfront stadium was all piss and wind and the fact it appears again in the media every few years is so fucking boring 
NZ doesn't have the scale for a purpose built stadium of any size so whatever we do will involve compromise. 
But I guess it supports the kiwi national sport of whinging so all good.
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Albany is in a shit location. Wales, Scotland and Ireland both have national rugby stadiums which are either bigger or better than Eden Park.
 
A new stadium could get:
<ol><li>7 blues games per season</li>
<li>12 Warriors games</li>
<li>5 ITM Cup games</li>
<li>at least 2 All Blacks tests</li>
<li>maybe some playoff games</li>
<li>Rugby league tests</li>
<li>Nines (maybe also the 7's if the nines move away)</li>
</ol>In Wellington we have food shows, the marathon, Armageddon, craft beer festivals and all that crap as well. There is no reason you can't get 50 days of use out of a new stadium.

mariner4life

Despite my earlier call about development in NZ i actually agree with DM. Sydney has a bigger population, with more codes, greater crowds, and more blockbuster events. 
Auckland would sell out for their one, maybe 2 all black tests a year. A national stadium only makes sense if you play all your AB games in Auckland. And maybe your super finals

antipodean

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="hydro11" data-cid="572716" data-time="1460791279">Albany is in a shit location. Wales, Scotland and Ireland both have national rugby stadiums which are either bigger or better than Eden Park.</blockquote> They also don't play Internationals all over their country. New Zealand also has more "large" towns.

Unco

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="antipodean" data-cid="572775" data-time="1460795583">
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They also don't play Internationals all over their country. New Zealand also has more "large" towns.
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Not to mention Wales, Scotland and Ireland are all basically right next to each other AND England and France. We don't have that advantage.

NTA

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="antipodean" data-cid="572775" data-time="1460795583">
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They also don't play Internationals all over their country. New Zealand also has more "large" towns.
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We've got Brisbane and Canberra.
 
 
Anyway - I think the reconfiguration of Homebush is a good idea, in terms of watching the actual game. But the debate over on GAGR is about whether rugby gets any benefit out of it.
 
In short, not much. One Test per year, maybe.
 
A lot of Sydney rugby fans - mainly those within sight of salt water - bitch about going to Homebush because there is nothing to do there. And on that point, they're right. Though I've had some pretty good food at the hotels there, the pub scene isn't much.
 
Another complaint is the ground is "soulless" and the atmosphere dead. Which is mainly because Sydney rugby fans are shit at supporting their team and too busy watching rugby like its a giant television instead of a sporting event or a stock broker's conference.
 
The SFS is about 50km one-way for me, so there'd better be somewhere decent to drink when I get there. I can only imagine the eastern fans feel the same about Homebush... well except there are express services from Central for big games and its not nearly 50km for a lot of them. 
 
Keep in mind that the same "rugby people" couldn't be arsed showing up to a Sunday afternoon game against the Rebels. Or the season opener in 2015 after we'd just won a Premiership with a record crowd.
 
But the NRL and soccer will be loving the new config at Homebush. If there's any money left over after that and (the desperately needed) Parramatta Stadium upgrade, maybe the SFS will benefit.

kiwiinmelb

Ive been to homebush a few times , Bledisloes, NRL grand finals, Nice stadium , but compared to Melbourne , where the major stadiums are right in the heart of the city, that place is in the middle of nowhere

NTA

Not many options for an Olympic stadium back then. Melbourne was settled later, and had the advantage of allocating park lands etc instead of just being a sprawl

taniwharugby

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="Gunner" data-cid="572573" data-time="1460716979">
The anti sports stadia brigade do my head in. 
The amount of bloody whinging that went on up here when Okara Park was upgraded and dragged itself out of the Jurassic period was mind boggling. Yet I didn't see nor hear any complaints when the same council spent truckloads of money on a new library. 
It is a building I have never set foot in, I have no need to. But I'm happy for Whangarei to have this flash new library as I realise it's an important part of society - for some people. Am I going to cry about my rates being spent on it, even though I've never been there, or plan on going there? No. 
What's my point? 
Well, I'm most certainly over generalising here, but it'd be nice if people with interests other than sports in this country could look beyond themselves and accept that a modern sports stadium is an important part of a City's culture, just like a bloody library or theatre is, so pull your head in. 
Sorry rant over, back on topic... 
Good on Aussie for having their shit sorted with their stadiums. 
Maybe our politicians should take notes on how to get shit done!</blockquote>
There was actually moaning about building a new library...what's wrong with the current one, spend the money elsewhere, no one ever uses it etc (I use the library a lot)...many of the arguments very much the same as the Stadium, just replace the word stadium with library (even Hundertwasser) I read an article someone posted about the upgrade to Okara the first time, and the arguments were the same then too. 
People always love to get on the soapbox and claim they speak for us all. 
At Dogmeat...well Albany is an interesting case, I think it is an area really struggling with its own identity and having a team that struggles with the resources they have probably doesn't help either.

No Quarter

Albany is a fail because nobody wants to go out there due to the ridiculous traffic problems in and out of the ground. Even when it's half full it takes hours to get out after the match. Plus there are no public transport options. It's bus, bus or bus through the heavy traffic on the harbour bridge. Realistically the majority of Aucklanders just cannot make it to the ground on weekdays so weekends is the only time you can hold anything, and then you have to allocate an extra few hours of your day to account for traffic. 
Eden Park at least has a decent rail link which makes it at least a viable option, but again it is multiple trains for anyone not in West Auckland. 
The Waterfront stadium has been a big success in Wellington due largely to its location. I don't see why Auckland couldn't have something similar.

taniwharugby

I've never had issues with traffic, but then aside from the Chiefs/Blues in 1997 and AB/Samoa in 99, I've only been to provincial stuff there so numbers were not huge.

hydro11

These are the 2016 fixtures at the Aviva Stadium:
 
7th Feb. 2016 Ireland v Wales (15.00hrs)
12th Mar. 2016 Ireland v Italy (13.30hrs)
19th Mar. 2016 Ireland v Scotland (17.00hrs)
25th Mar. 2016 Rep. of Ireland v Switzerland (19:45hrs)
29th Mar. 2016 Rep. of Ireland v Slovakia (19:45hrs)
2nd Apr. 2016 Leinster v Munster (17:30hrs)
8th May 2016 Ulster Bank League Final 
14th May 2016 FAI Junior & Intermediate Cup Finals
27th May 2016 Rep. of Ireland v Netherlands
3rd Sept. 2016 Boston College v Georgia Tech
6th Oct. 2016 Rep. of Ireland v Georgia
6th Nov. 2016 FAI Cup Finals 2016
12th Nov. 2016 Ireland v Canada
19th Nov. 2016 Ireland v New Zealand
26th Nov. 2016 Ireland v Australia
 
That's it. The stadium did cost $700,000 million. I don't see why something like that couldn't be built in Auckland. It would get far better used than the Aviva with the Warriors and Blues as regular tenants.

antipodean

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="hydro11" data-cid="572942" data-time="1460857852">The stadium did cost $700,000 million. I don't see why something like that couldn't be built in Auckland.</blockquote> New Zealand couldn't afford it?

Unco

<blockquote class="ipsBlockquote" data-author="hydro11" data-cid="572942" data-time="1460857852">
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These are the 2016 fixtures at the Aviva Stadium:
 
7th Feb. 2016 Ireland v Wales (15.00hrs)
12th Mar. 2016 Ireland v Italy (13.30hrs)
19th Mar. 2016 Ireland v Scotland (17.00hrs)
25th Mar. 2016 Rep. of Ireland v Switzerland (19:45hrs)
29th Mar. 2016 Rep. of Ireland v Slovakia (19:45hrs)
2nd Apr. 2016 Leinster v Munster (17:30hrs)
8th May 2016 Ulster Bank League Final 
14th May 2016 FAI Junior & Intermediate Cup Finals
27th May 2016 Rep. of Ireland v Netherlands
3rd Sept. 2016 Boston College v Georgia Tech
6th Oct. 2016 Rep. of Ireland v Georgia
6th Nov. 2016 FAI Cup Finals 2016
12th Nov. 2016 Ireland v Canada
19th Nov. 2016 Ireland v New Zealand
26th Nov. 2016 Ireland v Australia
 
That's it. The stadium did cost $700,000 million. I don't see why something like that couldn't be built in Auckland. It would get far better used than the Aviva with the Warriors and Blues as regular tenants.
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$700 billion for a 50k seating stadium?!

The Silver Fern

Sydney Stadiums Rennovations