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Speaker 1: Probably sensible. Don't you think for the Blues to consider

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Speaker 1: leaving Eden Park for Mount Smart. It's not going to

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Speaker 1: fix the attendance issues, though they seem to be hoping

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Speaker 1: it's going to fix the crowd. In the consultation, they're

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Speaker 1: asking a question of fans. They're asking them whether moving

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Speaker 1: to Mount Smart will make them quote more or less

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Speaker 1: likely to attend the Blue Super Rugby men's home games.

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Speaker 1: The fans may look at that and go yeah and

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Speaker 1: say yes, but they won't. Mount Smart is no better

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Speaker 1: than Eden Park. It's not easier to get there with

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Speaker 1: public transport. It's about the same. If you drive, you're

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Speaker 1: still going to have to find a car park somewhere

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Speaker 1: on the road or on private property. You're still going

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Speaker 1: to be exposed to the elements in the stand. You're

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Speaker 1: still going to be paying for your beer and your

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Speaker 1: chips instead of getting them out of your kitchen. Maybe

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Speaker 1: you could argue that Mount Smart has a slight advantage

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Speaker 1: in that you're coming straight off the motorway instead of

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Speaker 1: fighting to get down Dominion Road in a traffic jam.

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Speaker 1: But I don't think that's enough of a difference to

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Speaker 1: supercharge a crowd. Maybe you could argue that because the

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Speaker 1: Warriors and the Oakland Football Club are their form fans,

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Speaker 1: former habit, so they go because they know how to go.

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Speaker 1: But again, I don't think that's the problem. I think

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Speaker 1: the problem is just Super Rugby. Right. You're seeing poor

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Speaker 1: turnout for Super Rugby regular season around the country. Muana

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Speaker 1: pacifica six thousand turned up Crusaders one of their games.

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Speaker 1: Only thirteen thousand turned up Blues. Blues versus the Crusaders

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Speaker 1: one of the great matches, only eleven thousand turned up.

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Speaker 1: Now eleven thousand and a fifty thousand stadium looks horrible.

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Speaker 1: Eleven thousand in a twenty five thousand stadium like Mount Smart.

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Speaker 1: Mount Smart looks less bad. But it is giving up,

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Speaker 1: isn't it. I mean the Blues leaving the home of

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Speaker 1: rugby is basically accepting that this is now how it is,

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Speaker 1: that the crowd size of eleven thousand is simply how

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Speaker 1: it's going to be, and then they're downscaling accordingly. What

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Speaker 1: they really should be doing is finding smart ways to

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Speaker 1: get us to come to the Super Rugby games. Again,

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Speaker 1: I don't know, find ways to get the family along,

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Speaker 1: get the kid zone going like they do at Eden

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Speaker 1: Park with the bouncy castle. That kind of thing find

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Speaker 1: ways to get us excited about the game of rugby.

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Speaker 1: It's a boring product, make it less boring. Unless they

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Speaker 1: do that, crowds that only call to fill a stadium

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Speaker 1: are the future and absolutely move to Mount Smart Then

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Speaker 1: a smaller stadium is going to hide those empty seats

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Speaker 1: a whole lot better. For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast,

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Speaker 1: listen live to news Talks at B from six am weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.