Quay Park stadium for Auckland?
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I suspect "That Guy" debuted (as a NZ representative snail racer) possibly after @mariner4life left NZ.
Wikipedia says he joined Sports Cafe in 2001.
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@Bovidae said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
He was on SportsCafe as far back as 1996. The Human Cannonball was better.
Nah, he wasn't.
First ever appearance was here - https://www.moonflix.co.nz/videos/sports-cafe-that-guy-races-snails - and just looking at the crew and set, it's definitely not 1996. No Zinny or JK for starters. Plus Ellis is wearing a National Nude Day tshirt which puts it in the 2000s at the very least.
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I'm not saying he was That Guy in 1996 but according to this that was his original appearance:
One evening in 1996, Marc Ellis turned up at his flat carrying a container of snails, desperately seeking a replacement guest for live panel show SportsCafe. Hart's flatmate wasn't interested. Hart stepped up to play an international snail trainer, in a mock interview. With SportsCafe's Cannonball character leaving the show, Hart was offered a weekly slot doing sports stories under the nickname That Guy.
Leigh Hart | NZ On Screen
Leigh Hart - Since debuting on TV's SportsCafe in 1996 as an Olympic snail trainer, Leigh Hart has donned moustaches, speedos and a variety of serious journalistic expressions. Post SportsCafe, Hart made and presented multiple seasons of Moon TV — two of them nominated for NZ Screen awards — plus...
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Again, look at the video link. I would contend that info is wrong for the reasons i posted above as well as:
- Ellis had long hair in 1996. This hairstyle is more in keeping with his 2000-2001 look.
- Eva, who appears later in that clip only made it to Sports Cafe from 1997 onwards, ruling out 1996.
Going against me is that Toni Hodgkinson is on the couch, and she only really high profile up until 2000 Olympic, albeit she still competed after that...
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I thought 2000 myself, as he was in an episode finding Ric Salizzo at the Sydney Olympics.
Funny how a stadium chat has now turned into when Leigh Hart's alter ego started on sports cafe haha.
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@nzzp said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
Yet again, who's funding it, and where is the land coming from? so many 'concepts' thrown around - I don't even bother reading these any more. Which is going ahead - the Eden Park full roof + extra shit, or this one, or the Wynyard stadium, or the Ports located stadium?
Stadia are cool, but the business cases almost never stack up.
Unlike Eden Park (100% ratepayer funded), there's a consortium of private investors with Quay Park. The railway land is owned by Ngati Whatua (who are part of the consortium). There will likely be some ratepayer contribution to Quay Park but nowhere near as much as the 100% ratepayer funded Eden Park.
Quay Park and Eden Park 2.0 were advanced to feasibility study stage last week. The other two waterfront proposals were canned.
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@hydro11 said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
@No-Quarter said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
Th obvious problem with oval stadiums for rugby (and soccer) is the very best seats on halfway are too far from the action, so that means there are no great seats, just OKish seats all the way around.
Wellington was really silly to build an oval when they already had the Basin for cricket, they could have easily replaced the embankment (which is a shit place to watch sport as you spend half the time trying not to slide down the bank) with another stand at some point to increase capacity there (if needed). A purpose built rectangle stadium for rugby, soccer and hosting concerts would have been perfect.
I grew up in Wellington and have also lived in Auckland for a decade so have been to Athletic Park, the Cake Tin and Eden Park a lot. By far the best experiences I've had for rugby are at Athletic Park and Eden Park purely because the view was so much better so I could follow the action much more easily. The view at the Cake Tin is pretty average no matter where you are.
The challenge for Auckland is they don't have a decent cricket ground, but at the same time it'd be a real mistake to replace Eden Park with an oval. I think they are best to upgrade Eden Park and then think about where they can put a more modest cricket ground.
This is mostly hindsight. Of course, with what we know now we would not build the Cake Tin as an oval. However, in its early years it was getting massive crowds for cricket.
You are severely limited by how large you can make the basin. You could probably build a bigger stand on the Museum/RA Vance side, but it would be much more difficult on the grass side. Not to mention extra stands could ruin the character.
The reality is that there is no appetite for spending tens of millions of dollars on a cricket stadium. If the Cake Tin was a rectangle, Wellington would simply not host major ODIs and T20Is. If Eden Park also could not hold big games, New Zealand would not have been able to host as many games as it did in the 2015 World Cup.
nah Hagley Park still gets big international matches (including world cup matches in 2015) despite its small size. They just added temporary stands to the grass banks - easy! Basin Reserve is a true cricket ground and should've been upgraded (to the extent it could be upgraded) for cricket. The Caketin should've been a modern version of Athletic Park. I had never been to Athletic Park but everyone bar none raved about how it was the best rugby ground in NZ - especially the millard stand placing you practically on top of the play (if you survived the winds!)
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@Auckman said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
Hagley Park still gets big international matches (including world cup matches in 2015) despite its small size.
in fairness, a bit hit in cricket in 1995 (cake tin design) was much smaller than now. Bringing in boundary rope, modern bats (and pitches) and the strength training/practice modern cricketers have make a huge difference.
I'm still cross about someone top edging a spinner at Seddon Park over third man for 6 (from memory, an SA tour of 5-10 years ago). That should not happen - mishits clearing fielders behind square off spinners.
I will turn this into a grumpy old man thread
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When decisions on the 'multi-purpose stadium' (e.g. caketin) were being made in the mid 1990s. I don't think anyone could have foreseen the compete collapse in crowds & interest for ODIs (and in continuance their still relatively weak replacement T20s) that were to happen about 10 years later due to the meaningless-isation of white-ball cricket that was to occur.
But in saying that. A poorly attended ODI in the caketin still quite comfortably out-numbers the now halved capacity of the Basin (due to comfort and/or safety decisions, no changes have been made to the actual layout).
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@Auckman said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
@hydro11 said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
@No-Quarter said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
Th obvious problem with oval stadiums for rugby (and soccer) is the very best seats on halfway are too far from the action, so that means there are no great seats, just OKish seats all the way around.
Wellington was really silly to build an oval when they already had the Basin for cricket, they could have easily replaced the embankment (which is a shit place to watch sport as you spend half the time trying not to slide down the bank) with another stand at some point to increase capacity there (if needed). A purpose built rectangle stadium for rugby, soccer and hosting concerts would have been perfect.
I grew up in Wellington and have also lived in Auckland for a decade so have been to Athletic Park, the Cake Tin and Eden Park a lot. By far the best experiences I've had for rugby are at Athletic Park and Eden Park purely because the view was so much better so I could follow the action much more easily. The view at the Cake Tin is pretty average no matter where you are.
The challenge for Auckland is they don't have a decent cricket ground, but at the same time it'd be a real mistake to replace Eden Park with an oval. I think they are best to upgrade Eden Park and then think about where they can put a more modest cricket ground.
This is mostly hindsight. Of course, with what we know now we would not build the Cake Tin as an oval. However, in its early years it was getting massive crowds for cricket.
You are severely limited by how large you can make the basin. You could probably build a bigger stand on the Museum/RA Vance side, but it would be much more difficult on the grass side. Not to mention extra stands could ruin the character.
The reality is that there is no appetite for spending tens of millions of dollars on a cricket stadium. If the Cake Tin was a rectangle, Wellington would simply not host major ODIs and T20Is. If Eden Park also could not hold big games, New Zealand would not have been able to host as many games as it did in the 2015 World Cup.
nah Hagley Park still gets big international matches (including world cup matches in 2015) despite its small size. They just added temporary stands to the grass banks - easy! Basin Reserve is a true cricket ground and should've been upgraded (to the extent it could be upgraded) for cricket. The Caketin should've been a modern version of Athletic Park. I had never been to Athletic Park but everyone bar none raved about how it was the best rugby ground in NZ - especially the millard stand placing you practically on top of the play (if you survived the winds!)
I have vague memories of sitting under a rug at the top of the Millard stand as a kid. Definitely an amazing view. Delicious waffle dogs from the pie cart down below too!
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@Bovidae said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
@Auckman said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
I remember that guy. Absolute character. Those old characters were hilarious - like that guy with a chainsaw up the crane at waikato stadium back in the day who would crank it throughout the game and especially when Auckland kickers were lining up for goal.
Possum still attends games but sits in the stands somewhere behind me now. I can usually hear him yelling.
got given a lifetime free pass to fark off out of the cherry picker and can the chainsaw!
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@Auckman said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
had never been to Athletic Park but everyone bar none raved about how it was the best rugby ground in NZ - especially the millard stand placing you practically on top of the play (if you survived the winds!)
I mostly sat on the top of the Millard stand. Unless it was raining. But under was also good (my much younger me was right up the very top of MS for the SA / NZ 2nd test and had a great view of the protestors vs police action too. The game itself was not great though).
I went to a few Cake Tin games when I was back recently. The atmosphere was fine but I prefer watching it on TV.
The wind at AP was horrible though. Ruined many a game.
I just hope Auckland can get it right. I know the QPS area. It's so much better than EP. That I thought was a poor location but the last game I attended there was many years back. And my team - Wellington - lost and it didn't help that I went with my smug partner who was a big Ak fan.
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@Auckman said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
@hydro11 said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
@No-Quarter said in Quay Park stadium for Auckland?:
Th obvious problem with oval stadiums for rugby (and soccer) is the very best seats on halfway are too far from the action, so that means there are no great seats, just OKish seats all the way around.
Wellington was really silly to build an oval when they already had the Basin for cricket, they could have easily replaced the embankment (which is a shit place to watch sport as you spend half the time trying not to slide down the bank) with another stand at some point to increase capacity there (if needed). A purpose built rectangle stadium for rugby, soccer and hosting concerts would have been perfect.
I grew up in Wellington and have also lived in Auckland for a decade so have been to Athletic Park, the Cake Tin and Eden Park a lot. By far the best experiences I've had for rugby are at Athletic Park and Eden Park purely because the view was so much better so I could follow the action much more easily. The view at the Cake Tin is pretty average no matter where you are.
The challenge for Auckland is they don't have a decent cricket ground, but at the same time it'd be a real mistake to replace Eden Park with an oval. I think they are best to upgrade Eden Park and then think about where they can put a more modest cricket ground.
This is mostly hindsight. Of course, with what we know now we would not build the Cake Tin as an oval. However, in its early years it was getting massive crowds for cricket.
You are severely limited by how large you can make the basin. You could probably build a bigger stand on the Museum/RA Vance side, but it would be much more difficult on the grass side. Not to mention extra stands could ruin the character.
The reality is that there is no appetite for spending tens of millions of dollars on a cricket stadium. If the Cake Tin was a rectangle, Wellington would simply not host major ODIs and T20Is. If Eden Park also could not hold big games, New Zealand would not have been able to host as many games as it did in the 2015 World Cup.
nah Hagley Park still gets big international matches (including world cup matches in 2015) despite its small size. They just added temporary stands to the grass banks - easy! Basin Reserve is a true cricket ground and should've been upgraded (to the extent it could be upgraded) for cricket. The Caketin should've been a modern version of Athletic Park. I had never been to Athletic Park but everyone bar none raved about how it was the best rugby ground in NZ - especially the millard stand placing you practically on top of the play (if you survived the winds!)
Hagley had extra seating to take its capacity to 17,000. You couldn't get 17k into the Basin whatever you did. Hagley is surrounded by parkland, the Basin by SH1. Hagley also didn't really get big World Cup games - it got the opener and two other pool games. An 8,000 seat Basin probably wouldn't even get NZ World Cup games.
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With retractable seats would they be able to get a decent circular shape of a decent size?
