Public Address | Cafe | Hard News: Back to mediocrity

Sue

Wed, 28 Mar 2012 01:09:43 +1300

welcome to the life of a hurricanes fan – oh except all our big name players moved to auckland or other places,.

But we still do have super lawyer conrad smith

pacap

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 14:54:42 +1300

the PA system is totally under-utilised except for those inspiring "if your a "insert away team name" make some noise....if your a blues supporter make some noise, ho hum!, the experience has steadily declined over the years, the half time spectacle of tossing the sponsors product the furtherest was a…

Russell Brown

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 12:02:31 +1300

on Friday all I could find was Speights and light Steinies, no Tui

Yeah, it was Speights. I kinda blanked out on the details. But it is particularly awful beer.

Naly D

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:07:00 +1300

again, on Friday all the beers were in plastic bottles, and of the several I consumed not once was I made to pour it into a plastic cup

Naly D

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 10:05:29 +1300

on Friday all I could find was Speights and light Steinies, no Tui

Paul Campbell

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 08:05:36 +1300

Striding from financial disaster into permanant everlasting debt-

I don't know about permanent, but with the city's current plan to push out paying off the stadium to 40 years it's at least being visited upon the third generation – this in a city that's avoided replacing its aging sewers for…

Islander

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 00:20:13 +1300

Shit o dear – you really couldnt write fiction about all this crap eh?
It would be thrown out on the grounds of being totally unrealistic and – well, fiction...

Steve Barnes

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:50:02 +1300

Striding from financial disaster into permanent everlasting debt-

With a little help from an ex-cop real estate salesman apparently.
A well known ex-detective and real estate salesman in Queenstown has appeared in court charged with defrauding the town's high profile annual rugby sevens tournament...
...Its organising committee is…

Islander

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 23:21:43 +1300

BTW Ron Hamlin’s latest blog explains why the latest ORFU bailout didn’t do much other than shovel more money down the crapper.

Gah!
Striding from financial disaster into permanant everlasting debt-

Paul Campbell

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 22:29:06 +1300

In contrast, the "Glass House" looks fantastic from the outside, houses just the right capacity for rugby, and is an absolute barnstormer when packed (the noise that 26,000 made during the Ireland vs Italy match was insane). Location-wise, it couldn't be better placed, either. It helps that the Highlanders have…

Richard Wain

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 21:18:26 +1300

As a long-suffering Canes fan who's now 2 from 2 for wins whilst watching them play at Eden Park... watching Mr Smith dot down with 15 seconds left was priceless.

Though I didn't pay this time as I was in the press box, and naturally enough tried not to show…

Geoff Lealand

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:38:21 +1300

The Chiefs are giving us hope this year and it is not all due to SWB.

Matthew Littlewood

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:10:01 +1300

Was the envy of the Nation during the RWC – how sad is it for Colin Slade – wince – it hurts me to think about it.

Yeah, the guy's had a horrible run of luck over the last two years. It's a shame, because I think we'll never know…

DexterX

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:03:53 +1300

the "Glass House"

Was the envy of the Nation during the RWC – how sad is it for Colin Slade – wince – it hurts me to think about it.

The Blues have lost two games by one point – they will rebound – perhaps next season.

Matthew Littlewood

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 19:52:50 +1300

As a hardened, and indeed, long-suffering Otago supporter, I'm really angry at how badly the ORFU has messed things up, and forced everyone else to carry the can while they struggle to pay off the creditors. And the DCC not signing a contract stipulating a minimum number of matches per…

Islander

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:53:42 +1300

After this past month’s ORFU financing debacle (just one of many, we seem to throw millions at them every few years) it turns out that the quango that built it (consisting largely of current or ex ORFU/Highlanders board members) neglected to contract any of the local rugby teams to actually…

raoulduke

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:35:44 +1300

My experience of some great stadiums = beer is always crap, food worse than 3am servo hotdog. Eden Park has going for it (in my limited recent experience) simple ingress egress, no loud music at every pause in the game (hello rugby at the MCG).

Now all we need is…

Paul Campbell

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 18:13:17 +1300

My nosey peek into the new Dunedin Stadium looks like it'll be a good rugby watching ground too, although it does still look temporary in many places.

At this point Dunedin's fu-bar stadium seems to be uneconomical even if one assumes that a magic fairy is paying the $200m to…

Rich of Observationz

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:30:51 +1300

awful Speights rather than awful Tui

I think they come out of the same vat.

nzlemming

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:09:12 +1300

But I've been going to watch rugby at Eden Park for a long time, and I just find it bizarre that the basics — a scoreboard and clock and competent ground announcing — aren't regarded as necessary any more

Even Athletic Park had that much ;-)

Ross Mason

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:03:27 +1300

Those of us who remember rugby at Athletic Park recall the (Note – half empty) beer can thrown from the top deck of the Millard Stand that unfortunately landed on the conk of a poor unsuspecting spectator on the lower level. He suffered quite extensive brain damage. The can was…

Russell Brown

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:44:00 +1300

Awful beer was awful Speights rather than awful Tui, I think

True.

Toby

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:28:46 +1300

Awful beer was awful Speights rather than awful Tui, I think

Allan Moyle

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 15:58:26 +1300

For a country that supposedly has Rugby as its "national" game we have been poorly served by new or updated stadia in our key population centres such as Eden Park, Wellington, Old AMI. Waikato Stadium is one place I enjoy because it is a stadium built around a rectangle (no!)…

Russell Brown

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:57:18 +1300

Oh, and how unfit is Weepu? He’s never great early in the season but jeez, he spent most of the game waddling around the field trying to catch up with the forwards.

It was almost comical.

Ali Williams wasn't quite as much of a passenger as he has been, but…

Rich of Observationz

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:55:27 +1300

Interesting. My Nexus One has 802.11 a/b/g, but I'm not sure how it picks which to connect on.

Richard Grevers

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:54:12 +1300

Bob was up in the stand near halfway posting photos on facebook. As did fully half of my Christchurch FB friends.

Steve Barnes

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:48:50 +1300

You've reminded me that I forgot to complain about the bloody beer.

Apparently It's all your fault for being a hooligan.
The poor caterers have to use plastic cups or open your beverage can because, if they didn't, you would kill thousands of innocent women & children.
And remember.…

Peter Darlington

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:44:21 +1300

Oh, and how unfit is Weepu? He's never great early in the season but jeez, he spent most of the game waddling around the field trying to catch up with the forwards.

Hilary Stace

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:41:49 +1300

It was sunburn weather at the Basin Reserve yesterday. After a week of rain.

Peter Darlington

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:38:29 +1300

We then took our place 10 minutes in among a largely vacant section of the South stand and enjoyed a typical Hurricanes victory: a textbook display of pulling it out of your arse.

Watching Connie Smith rip the hearts out of Blues fans in the 82nd minute for an undeserving…

Sacha

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:32:46 +1300

I note this is not an invitation for folk to post pictures of their pets

Sacha

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:31:33 +1300

ensuring a world[-]class experience

frozen dogs may be traditional in more sophisticated parts of the world, I guess

Jono Baddiley

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:28:11 +1300

Much of the problems with WiFi will be associated with the technology itself, not the deployment. I worked on the world cup technology, and providing "older" (2.4Ghz) connectivity in a location with potentially thousands of devices using the same radio frequencies was impossible to address (short of putting up faraday…

Robert Fox

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:14:33 +1300

The old AMI stadium will certainly not be missed by this spectator. It suffered the problem of being an old stadium with badly planned add ons that apart from getting more bums on seats, added nothing to the viewing experience. Most purpose built modern stadiums, even with a multitude of…

Rob Stowell

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:40:36 +1300

According to their website, Eden Park Catering are “delivering excellence” and “ensuring a world[-]class experience”.
Where have I heard that before :)
AMI stadium was lovely on Saturday: beautiful night, and packed with excited folks. The old empty concrete fortress we had was dreadful: too far away, too big, not…

Russell Brown

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:37:10 +1300

or decent food. how hard can that be?

You've reminded me that I forgot to complain about the bloody beer.

It's Tui. I don't know if it's worse than normal Tui because I don't drink that, but it's awful.

On Friday, I just bought a bottle of Sprite and nursed…

Ana Simkiss

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:34:17 +1300

The food at Eden Park is TERRIBLE except for the Weiner kiosk in the north stand – not sure it is there all the time?

Also – the Warriors at Eden park the other week was choice and all seemed to run very smoothly entrance-wise.

3410

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:16:05 +1300

the hot dogs, they were inedible. They were, in fact, frozen inside.

I don't understand this. According to their website, Eden Park Catering are "delivering excellence" and "ensuring a world[-]class experience".

Scott Chris

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 13:02:43 +1300

Back to mediocrity

Back from whither?

I'm more disappointed at the quality of the experience of attending at a match at Eden Park.

I'd suggest that if the game is decent, then you could be perched on a plastic pew with piles and still enjoy it. Rugby is terminally ill,…

Sacha

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:58:25 +1300

or decent food. how hard can that be?

Russell Brown

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:53:25 +1300

We found a great park in Kingsland, had a good feed, walked along the (closed) roads which was awesome, a nice safe way to get to the game,

Yep, the road closures are great. Really improves the experience of getting to the game.

But I've been going to watch rugby…

Rich of Observationz

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:51:06 +1300

And don't bother trying to use the stadium wifi. Useless.

Does any (large area) public WiFi system work properly? I'm yet to find one. Mostly, they show their presence by stopping my phone working on IP until I disconnect or key my email into a (non-Opera Mini) browser. Once I've…

Naly D

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:41:42 +1300

Friday was my first ever match at Eden Park, and I have to say I enjoyed it.

Possibly the only thing it didn't have over the Caketin was atmosphere, though it appears now nobody goes to Canes home games that's disappeared anyway.

We found a great park in Kingsland, had…

Eediot

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:21:29 +1300

I should add that we've been season ticket holders (in the South Stand- except during its rebuild in 2010) for more than 20 years and although the experience is way superior to what it was I agree with all the issues you've had.
Have given up bothering to complain though…

Sacha

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:18:09 +1300

Link, please, not loop.

Even 'link' doesn't adequately convey that this investment will double the capacity of the region's whole train network and make it possible to have trains every 5 or 10 minutes. Just focusing on the CBD makes it easy as you say for pro-road fantasists to dismiss…

Russell Brown

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:18:02 +1300

The Crusaders performance may have been patchy but the crowd provided the best atmosphere I’ve experienced at a sporting event since I left the UK.

Good to know. The odd thing is that the first two S15 games at Eden Park have attracted decent crowds, but the excitement has drained…

Robert Fox

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:10:06 +1300

Sorry to hear about your Eden Park woes Russell especially as in contrast, Me and the kids had a brilliant time at the Crusaders first game at the new Christchurch stadium on Saturday night. The Crusaders performance may have been patchy but the crowd provided the best atmosphere I've experienced…

Eediot

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 12:03:08 +1300

And don't bother trying to use the stadium wifi. Useless.

Matthew Poole

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:56:24 +1300

rail loop
Link, please, not loop. It's not a big circle with trains doing laps, it's a link between the west and the east by way of the CBD. Every time someone says "loop" the haters burn a dollar that could be paying for the work to happen, on the…

Sacha

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:44:28 +1300

Steven Joyce.

I commend this choice of expletive.

Toby

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:28:04 +1300

You may complain about not being able to see the score on the big screen, but at least it was made very clear in large scrolling type throughout the game that it was a great time to grab a $12 combo.

Public Address

Mon, 26 Mar 2012 11:28:04 +1300

Discussion from blog post.