Auckland Regional Council chairman Mike Lee

[Dumbo]

Not to sure if this is the right home for this but I vote for the entire Auckland Regional Council be put to the wall of shame.

This is the group of losers who basiacly stopped Auckland Waterfront Stadium going ahead, they had the full backing of the New Zealand government for the construction of the stadium and have turned it down.

Am interested in anyones feedback as to why this group of narrow minded losers should not have their own spot of the Wall of Shame.

 

[The Flash]

I CAN NOT DISAGREE!!!!!

This would not have bankrupted our country and would've been the only time in history that we could afford such an awestriking venue.

Our country's operating surplus is at record levels and this incredibly still would've left money for an increased health budget.

Trevor Mallard has had some bad ideas, yet the only idea that gets stopped is this?


This country can be seriously CRRRRAAAAZZZZYYYYY sometimes!!!

 

[Ripper]

I will also throw Trevor Mallard into the mix.

For not only screwing me and a generation of kids education over, but for acting like a 4 year old kid who's Mother won't buy him a Mars Bar at the supermarket. I don't see why the Government can't at least help with some of the funding for Eden Park, the Waterfront stadium would've cost alot more and he seemed to happy to splash out for that (And for the record, I was for the Waterfront Stadium, didn't look to bad to me, and what else are they going to use this empty chunk of land for which the Greenies think is so vital to the Auckland Landscape.

 

[Rugby_Cymru]

I REALLY like the look of the proposed pictures, shame that it's not going to happen.
Considering you guys are such a passionate rugby nation you really don't have big enough stardiums.
Am i correct in remembering from the Lions Tour that your biggest stadium is 35,000 capacity?

 

[Ripper]

Huh? Eden Park can hold up to 55 thousand, Christchurch up to 40,000, Wellington from memory can get close to 40,000 and Carrisbrook and North Harbour can't be far off that mark.

 

[Rugby_Cymru]

Apologies. Still, you guys definately need more than 55,000.

 

[The Flash]

That may be so, but for only four million people, we have done bloody well so far. Our home ground in Southland only had a capacity of 16,000. The Lions were coming to play us, so we built a temporary stand and seating to increase capacity to 25,000. Not a bad effort in itself. Many other provinces did what they could also.

For the World Cup though, I agree we will need a bigger stadium for the final, although thats what we'll get with the new Eden Park. Not quite what we wanted with the waterfront option, but it'll still be awesome.

 

[BigTen]

Although the national stadium hardly deserves to be in Auckland. I mean how many stadiums are there currently in Auckland and how under-utilised are they?

And Aucklanders have a very bad reputation for not supporting their teams. It would have been nice if the waterfront stadium was built but the various councils in Auckland would have botched it badly and it would have been built late and way over-budget so maybe it is a god thing that it is not going to be done.

 

[Rugby_Cymru]

That may be so, but for only four million people, we have done bloody well so far.
[/b]

You think too little of yourselves.
You are a country passionate about your sport (like we are in wales) and you have a million more people than us. We don't struggle to bring in 74,000 people to an international match against Canada!
You guys shouldn't experience any problems, should you?
Your faithful and loyal supporters are akin to us Welsh; doesn't everyone ALWAYS want to watch the All Blacks in your country?

 

[Ripper]

When you factor in New Zealands more spread population and geographical factors (It is hard/expensive for anyone South of Waikato to get to a game in Auckland.) it is hard just to have one stadium and fill it out every game. As well as that Wales only has one decent stadium doesn't it? All the others seem to be like ITM Stadium up in Northland.

 

[Rugby_Cymru]

Yeah fair point there. I keep forgetting you've got a south and a north island to accomodate.

 

[Dumbo]

Auckland has the biggest population in NZ... only place to fill a stadium consistantly

 

[sambãd5]

what a bunch of goobers. honestly. there is zero public transport to eden park. the nerest bus is at least 10min uphill walk. there is no parking, and its in a resetential zone. waterfrount has the public parking, train, easy to find, walking distance to queen st. that alone should mean it should go through. and lets face it, both $ estimates will go up dramatically, both in proportion. the waterfrount was only $100mil more, which when you have that much money is like choosing a $6000 over a $4000 one. plus it would mean we have 2 auckland stadiums for it. then eden if desired could become a cricket ground etc. it just makes sence! eden shouldnt have got as far as it did! its in the middle of f***ing nowhere!

 

[Dumbo]

Amazing isn't it!

Stupid, short sighted, just plan out bloody stupid.
I'm a Kiwi living in Melbourne, Melbourne has Telstra dome... amazing place - Auckland could have had one too and what do they do? blow it.

F&*king idiots, anyone have any background on Mr Mike 'the tool' Lee? what is he - some Mission bay head up his ass sort of person?

 

[Prestwick]

Maybe Japan would be so nice as to loan Auckland, say, maybe the Sapporo dome or something for you chaps to have.

I mean, sure, you did defraud them of the rights to host the Rugby World Cup in your own selfish interests to defend your share of the rugby pot of gold and keep out any new nations from top flight rugby...but I'm sure its all water under the bridge to the Japanese

Edit: Also Ripper, Wales has two and a half decent Rugby stadia. The Millenium Stadium (one), the Liberty Stadium (two) and the other ground next door to the Millenium Stadium operated by Cardiff Blues (and a half).

Even England, when you look at it only has a few Rugby Stadiums that have capacity above 15,000. Frantic building work across the land is being planned by most clubs to address this grevious problem of lack of capacity. One interesting innovation is that alot of Rugby clubs are incorporating things like Bus transport park & ride schemes and stuff like that to make getting to the game so much easier.

Lansdowne Road in Ireland will always have the very best transport links out of ANY Rugby stadium. I mean, jesus guys, the bloody place had a train station situated below one of the stands!

 

[Ripper]

Maybe Japan would be so nice as to loan Auckland, say, maybe the Sapporo dome or something for you chaps to have.

I mean, sure, you did defraud them of the rights to host the Rugby World Cup in your own selfish interests to defend your share of the rugby pot of gold and keep out any new nations from top flight rugby...but I'm sure its all water under the bridge to the Japanese

Edit: Also Ripper, Wales has two and a half decent Rugby stadia. The Millenium Stadium (one), the Liberty Stadium (two) and the other ground next door to the Millenium Stadium operated by Cardiff Blues (and a half).

Even England, when you look at it only has a few Rugby Stadiums that have capacity above 15,000. Frantic building work across the land is being planned by most clubs to address this grevious problem of lack of capacity. One interesting innovation is that alot of Rugby clubs are incorporating things like Bus transport park & ride schemes and stuff like that to make getting to the game so much easier.

Lansdowne Road in Ireland will always have the very best transport links out of ANY Rugby stadium. I mean, jesus guys, the bloody place had a train station situated below one of the stands!
[/b]

Yes, we defrauded them, we are all a bunch of conmen... and you've obviosuly never been to Australia (specifically Melbourne) if your wetting yourself over these "inovations" the English Clubs are doing. And this Liberty Stadium, 20000 is preety small, even by NZ standards. If thats a decent stadium, New Zealand would have a truckload.

 

[Prestwick]

<div class='quotemain'>
Maybe Japan would be so nice as to loan Auckland, say, maybe the Sapporo dome or something for you chaps to have.

I mean, sure, you did defraud them of the rights to host the Rugby World Cup in your own selfish interests to defend your share of the rugby pot of gold and keep out any new nations from top flight rugby...but I'm sure its all water under the bridge to the Japanese

Edit: Also Ripper, Wales has two and a half decent Rugby stadia. The Millenium Stadium (one), the Liberty Stadium (two) and the other ground next door to the Millenium Stadium operated by Cardiff Blues (and a half).

Even England, when you look at it only has a few Rugby Stadiums that have capacity above 15,000. Frantic building work across the land is being planned by most clubs to address this grevious problem of lack of capacity. One interesting innovation is that alot of Rugby clubs are incorporating things like Bus transport park & ride schemes and stuff like that to make getting to the game so much easier.

Lansdowne Road in Ireland will always have the very best transport links out of ANY Rugby stadium. I mean, jesus guys, the bloody place had a train station situated below one of the stands!
[/b]

Yes, we defrauded them, we are all a bunch of conmen... and you've obviosuly never been to Australia (specifically Melbourne) if your wetting yourself over these "inovations" the English Clubs are doing. And this Liberty Stadium, 20000 is preety small, even by NZ standards. If thats a decent stadium, New Zealand would have a truckload.
[/b][/quote]


Point one, 20,000 isn't "preety" small, it just about makes the grade, and as such counts. Deal with it.

Point two, obviously you haven't been to the UK, because we have this *really* popular sport called, "association football" or "soccer." I don't know if you've heard of it, essentially there are two goals and the aim is to kick the a spherical shaped ball in these goals without using your hands! Believe it or not, it is actually really popular, actually, so popular that its far away the number one sport in Europe! Anyway, believe it or not, about 90% of coverage on sport by the media and by people in general is firmly placed on this strange "soccer" phenomenon. Believe it or not, we're not all raging rugby fans, in fact actually, rugby fans are very much in the minority!! Thus its pretty hard for Rugby clubs here to boost ground attendances (although they have done really well) and their incomes can't really compare to the Super 14 clubs.

As you can see, UK clubs from England to Ireland just can't afford to spend millions to build 40,000 all seater stadiums with opening roofs and moving pitches in the current climate. Especially when the Magners League average attendance is 5,000 and the Guinness Premiership is getting about 12,000 average. The innovations are pretty damn good that they help finance the expanding of ground capacities. Again. Deal with it.

And point three, yes Japan were bloody cheated out of their World Cup bid. Japan's bid was better than New Zealand's in every way. Japan had the bigger stadiums, the better infrastructure, the more welcomming and hardworking population, and it had already organised and hosted the biggest sporting event on earth: the world cup for this strange sport called "soccer" (again, no idea if you've heard of it or not). Everything was in Japan's favour...except that it wasn't one of the big, traditional rugby nations and thats what cost it the bid. All New Zealand seemed to say was "well its our turn to host it, and we'll never be able to host one again." The latter claim was pretty strange, y'know, considering that New Zealand definetly is firmly placed as a prosperous western nation with GDP up there with the big boys and just general prosperity and good feelings across the board.

The whole process of choosing a World Cup venue was a total farce and exposed rugby as the Old Boys Club as it is. You knock England for being full of old duffers, but SANZAR, France, Ireland, everyone in the top ten all share the same goal: to protect their own interests and their slice of the financial cake.

And to be honest, it stinks. And I'll be really ****** off if New Zealand cocks up the arrangements of this comming world cup.