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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack Teams podcast

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Speaker 1: from News Talks at me.

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Speaker 2: And as a sports fan, I suppose it was actually

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Speaker 2: a kind of genuinely meaningful moment. I was sitting there

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Speaker 2: right on the couch last night, seven twenty eight pm,

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Speaker 2: sleeping baby in my arms, remote in my hand, and

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Speaker 2: a decision to make do I watch Moana PACIFICA play

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Speaker 2: the Highlanders, neither of which is my first choice team,

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Speaker 2: but Super Rugby Super Rugby and it was a local

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Speaker 2: derby no less? Or do I switch channels and watch

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Speaker 2: the Phoenix play Melbourne City in the A League Again

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Speaker 2: not a result I was particularly invested in or angsting

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Speaker 2: over in any way, but a game that I knew

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Speaker 2: enough about to at least know it was being played.

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Speaker 2: It's kind of ridiculous the extent to which our household

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Speaker 2: has been caught up in the Auckland FC ride. After

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Speaker 2: we had tended the first couple of games this season

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Speaker 2: and absolutely loved it, my wife ended up splurging on

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Speaker 2: memberships for the rest of the season for me and

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Speaker 2: our eight year old boy. And it's funny from a

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Speaker 2: live sport perspective, you know, being there in person they

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Speaker 2: just seem to me to have absolutely nailed a couple

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Speaker 2: of the fundamentals. So for starters, there is a really

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Speaker 2: really good family atmosphere. It feels safe, it feels fun.

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Speaker 2: They've had various play areas for the kids, blow up

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Speaker 2: football arenas, a huge artificial beach behind one of the

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Speaker 2: goals for the kids to make sand castles, and an

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Speaker 2: enormous blow up slide stretching the length of the Northern

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Speaker 2: embankment sliding down which on day one I very nearly

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Speaker 2: lost my shorts. Games kickoff at five pm five pm.

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Speaker 2: That means you're home with the kids by eight pm

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Speaker 2: at the very latest. If it was a seven pm

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Speaker 2: kickoff or seven thirty wood as be is enthusiastic, probably not.

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Speaker 2: I think two that one of the most underrated qualities

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Speaker 2: in the whole equation is the stadium. Now Warriors fans

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Speaker 2: know this well. Go Media Stadium. Mount Smart Stadium was

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Speaker 2: a sellout last weekend for the Auckland FC Phoenix derby.

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Speaker 2: About twenty seven thousand people were there and the atmosphere

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Speaker 2: was incredible, and while most games don't get quite that

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Speaker 2: many fans, it is always closer to full than to empty.

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Speaker 2: You know you never get that feeling that you sometimes

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Speaker 2: get in big stadiums when it feels like you are

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Speaker 2: watching the game in the midst of a zombie apocalypse.

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Speaker 2: I really hope that sports administrators take note of this point.

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Speaker 2: From a fans perspective, it is so much better to

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Speaker 2: watch live sport in a full mid size stadium than

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Speaker 2: to watch it in an empty big stadium. Anyway, back

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Speaker 2: to my decision, my vote with the remote. In some

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Speaker 2: ways I reckon. The real measure of Auckland f C's

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Speaker 2: success this season is the stuff on the periphery, right,

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Speaker 2: the stuff that is bigger than the team. I'm not

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Speaker 2: naive enough to think they're going to keep on winning forever.

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Speaker 2: And since the start of the A League season, our

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Speaker 2: boy has become utterly obsessed with football. He spends hours

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Speaker 2: now in the backyard practicing skills and accidentally kicking his

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Speaker 2: ball into the neighbor's swimming pool. He went and picked

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Speaker 2: up the Encyclopedia of Football from the library and makes

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Speaker 2: me read to him as his bedtime story. The excruciating

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Speaker 2: detail contained within Last week, I had to read a

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Speaker 2: whole chapter on football pitch turf preparation techniques he's eight.

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Speaker 2: He's eight, and I was sitting there reading to him.

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Speaker 2: He's at there, transfixed as I ran through a paragraph

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Speaker 2: describing the drainage systems at Wembley. If I'm honest, though,

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Speaker 2: I've been affected too. At least I realized I have

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Speaker 2: last night, when, instead of picking the game I would

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Speaker 2: have picked to watch every Friday for the last twenty

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Speaker 2: nine years, the last thirty years since the inception of

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Speaker 2: Super Rugby, I switched from an exciting close game of

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Speaker 2: Super Rugby to watch the A League live instead. And

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Speaker 2: I just wonder how many households in New Zealand might

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Speaker 2: be doing the same.

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Speaker 1: For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame, listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talks ed B from nine am Saturday, or

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