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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Pine

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Speaker 1: from Newstalks EDB. When It's down to the line and

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Speaker 1: if you made a call on eight Weekend Sports with

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Speaker 1: Jason Pine, News Talks EDB.

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Speaker 2: Eleven minutes past her Great News this week Sale GP

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Speaker 2: will return to Auckland on February fourteen and fifteen next year,

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Speaker 2: after a successful debut earlier this year. Here we go.

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna get to do it in front of the

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Speaker 2: Kiwi fans.

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Speaker 3: And the Emirates fly time eighty two percent for Tom

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Speaker 3: Slingsby and the Flying Ruse. As they bring it home

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Speaker 3: and there's the finish line, the sold out crowd will

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Speaker 3: bring them home. They'd rather see black balls, but they're

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Speaker 3: gonna see green and gold as they come to the line.

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Speaker 3: The Emirates pooty moment goes the way of the Australians.

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Speaker 2: Apart from the fact that Australia wanted it was it

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Speaker 2: was a great weekend. So next year the Auckland event

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Speaker 2: will be the second of twelve on the twenty twenty

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Speaker 2: sixth calendar, secured on a one regatta deal. Alex Cory

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Speaker 2: is Head of Event for the New Zealand leg of

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Speaker 2: sale GP, she joins us. Now, Alex, great news this

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Speaker 2: we get to do it all again next February. How

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Speaker 2: excited are you to be having sal GP returned back

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Speaker 2: to Auckland.

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Speaker 4: We're so excited to finally have this date lockdown, I

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Speaker 4: mean off the success of the event earlier this year,

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Speaker 4: where we're looking forward to building on that success and

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Speaker 4: really growing our fan experience and hopefully the fan base

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Speaker 4: and getting more spectators down onto that site to watch

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Speaker 4: the exciting racing.

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Speaker 2: What sort of feedback did you get from, first of all,

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Speaker 2: the sale GP organization and the teams who visited Auckland

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Speaker 2: earlier this year.

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Speaker 4: It was it was the best we had and in

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Speaker 4: the history of SELDP to be fair, the athletes loved it,

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Speaker 4: management loved it, the whole organization loved it. You know,

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Speaker 4: it's I think it's a real combon nation of great

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Speaker 4: sailinge Obviously we've got good wins out there on the

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Speaker 4: way to matter Harbor and the afternoon, a huge spectator

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Speaker 4: fan base and that huge grandstand, and also just been

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Speaker 4: done in the heart of the city. You know, you're

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Speaker 4: right in downtown au Glenn. That was fantastic to see

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Speaker 4: all those bars and restaurants along when you had caught

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Speaker 4: it there, you know, humming and thousands of people back

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Speaker 4: at it. It felt like of those olden days.

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Speaker 2: It certainly that how do you balance your priorities, Alex,

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Speaker 2: in terms of giving sole GP what they need, giving

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Speaker 2: the teams what they need, but also creating that fan experience,

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Speaker 2: because let's be honest, Without the fans, the events nowhere

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Speaker 2: near as good as it is.

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Speaker 4: It isn't no, I mean, it's I think it's the

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Speaker 4: product that we have is you know, exceptional. It's when

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Speaker 4: you talk to fans, the consistent feedback that I get.

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Speaker 4: It was so unexpected. So you know, just people come

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Speaker 4: down there that in the grandstand seat just meters off

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Speaker 4: the water. You know, it's like nothing anyone's ever experienced before.

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Speaker 4: And then you've got the fifties flying straight past, you know,

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Speaker 4: meters away when you can you can hear the athletes

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Speaker 4: talking to each other. So it's not too hard to balance.

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Speaker 4: It's it's I think the product speaks for itself, and

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Speaker 4: so you know, it's it's an easy job.

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Speaker 2: Are there any changes or improvements you're looking to make

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Speaker 2: for next year?

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Speaker 4: Yeah? We you know, we're always looking at how we

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Speaker 4: can improve certainly, you know, improvement on the fan experience.

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Speaker 4: You know, we're hoping to you know, work with our

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Speaker 4: partners down on when your point and make that even better.

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Speaker 4: We're looking at how we can grow their race stadium

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Speaker 4: and the and the grandstand down there. Obviously we're limited

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Speaker 4: of waterfronted, but you know, we're hoping that we're working

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Speaker 4: with our design team and our operations teams to see

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Speaker 4: how we can grow that grand stand as well, so

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Speaker 4: that we can get more people down there. Also, you know,

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Speaker 4: we're looking at the last year, sorry this year, we

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Speaker 4: had twelve twelve national teams. We're looking to grow that

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Speaker 4: to fourteen, so you know, expect to see even more

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Speaker 4: excitement out on that water.

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Speaker 2: Why is this only a one year deal?

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Speaker 4: As you know, well may know, we had a four

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Speaker 4: year agreement with the government, so that was to host

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Speaker 4: two events in christ sertain Peel in Auckland, So we're

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Speaker 4: seeing out that contract, but you know, absolutely looking at

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Speaker 4: how we can extend that for fifty years and we're

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Speaker 4: working with Tatafi Aukland Unlimited, so hopefully you know, we

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Speaker 4: will become a permanent fixture in the event calendar.

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Speaker 2: Well you're completely preemp to my next question. So you

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Speaker 2: it's your hope that this will become an annual event,

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Speaker 2: that there will be be more to see beyond next

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Speaker 2: year in terms of sole GP in Auckland.

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Speaker 4: Absolutely, I mean we're looking as a league. We're looking

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Speaker 4: to sort of cement the calendar so that we've become

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Speaker 4: you know, like other major sporting events where you know

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Speaker 4: that you know, every February there will be a SLGP

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Speaker 4: in Auckland and that's that's our hope. So you know,

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Speaker 4: we're working with the host city and things on that

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Speaker 4: as we speak to you know, make that work, ll love.

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Speaker 2: It well, we'll work for progress on that. And having

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Speaker 2: hosted it now once and you said here last year

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Speaker 2: it feels like last year, doesn't it, But earlier earlier

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Speaker 2: this year having done it once now alex is is

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Speaker 2: it very much for some parts of it anyway, But

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Speaker 2: of a lock and load, you just do you know,

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Speaker 2: you do what you did earlier this year for next

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Speaker 2: year in terms of the way the bases are set

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Speaker 2: up and and things like that.

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Speaker 4: A little bit. Yeah, with the additional two teams obviously

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Speaker 4: will need to extend the tech site. So looking at

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Speaker 4: you know, crossing off over in the Hawsey Wolf around

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Speaker 4: the vibacked events in the area for the race stadium.

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Speaker 4: Obviously always looking at improvements, you know, how can we

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Speaker 4: make this better for us spectators? How can we build

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Speaker 4: on that fan experience, How can we get more people

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Speaker 4: down there to experience it? So yeah, always looking for improvements.

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Speaker 2: Be good to have a New Zealand win too, wouldn't it.

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Speaker 2: I know you can't impact that, but that'd be cool.

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Speaker 4: That would be great. You know, I'm absolutely rooting for

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Speaker 4: the Blues, but yeah, we'll see Alex.

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Speaker 2: Great to chat. This is excellent news. We can lock

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Speaker 2: in the date for next year fourteen and fifteen February

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Speaker 2: for sal GP back in Auckland. Really appreciate you taking

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Speaker 2: the time for a chat.

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Speaker 4: Brilliant thanks Jason, No.

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Speaker 2: Thank you, Alex. Alex Cory there, she's the event head

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Speaker 2: for the New Zealand leg of sol GP February fourteen, fifteen.

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Speaker 2: Those are the dates. I haven't seen when ticket will

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Speaker 2: go on sale, and I'm sure that will be in

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Speaker 2: the not too distant future. Now that the dates have

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Speaker 2: been confirmed, I'm going to start lobbying for doing the

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Speaker 2: shows from down there. As we did earlier this year.

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Speaker 2: Great fun being down there in the in the the

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Speaker 2: teams were just so good to deal with, not just

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Speaker 2: a black fool, so you know, we basically got to

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Speaker 2: chat to whoever we wanted to, but all of the

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Speaker 2: teams they were quite happy to come and chat to

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Speaker 2: us in our mobile studio. So hopefully we can do

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Speaker 2: that again.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk sed B weekends from midday, or follow

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Speaker 1: the podcast on iHeartRadio