The Star: August 09, 2018

The Star Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi
Thursday August 9 2018 21
Readers respond to
sports reporter Gordon
Findlater’s opinion
piece last week on how
the highly anticipated
Crusaders-Hurricances
Super Rugby semi-final
failed to fill AMI Stadium
•The stadium was filled though
(19,500) for Saturday night’s
final against the Lions
Daniel Rawiri – There’s only
two real reasons – the cost and
the weather. It costs an arm and
a leg to go there and sit in the
rain/cold drinking expensive
beer and eating overpriced tacky
food. Why, when you can stay
nice and snug at home watching
on TV, eating a home cooked
meal while drinking a $20 12-
pack from Countdown. Solution
– reasonable prices and a roofed
stadium equals a sellout crowd.
Kim Brown – There is a lot
more people need to spend their
money on than go to a rugby
event for example, housing, food,
power and warm clothing. Not
everyone has spare money left
over to attend a match, at the end
of the day they need to put those
needs first.
Daniel Mazey – Well a roof
is one factor but that’s a while
away the way they are going. The
main thing for me would be even
the seats in the covered stands
have absolutely no room to move
in front of them, like the old
flip-down theatre seats. I was at
a game and at halftime thought
oh good people are standing up
to get food etc, but they were just
standing up for the hell of it, so
I had to go up about four rows
to get out. Guess I’ll be
about 70 by the time
we get a noteworthy
stadium.
LeRulz Fran – Maybe
a lot of us aren’t that
interested in watching
rugby. If I have spare
money, I’m going to the movies.
Tony Coles – The first thing
Christchurch should have got
was a covered stadium, not feelgood
art work. Eight years on
and the stadium is still not even
designed. EQC and the insurance
companies have beaten the
life out of Christchurch.
Sandra Odgers – Cost of
a seat is way out of my range.
Lower the price and fill the
stadium.
Tony Simpson
– Seems to me rather
odd that Christchurch
is crying out
for a large, expensive
covered stadium
when they cannot fill
a smaller one anyway.
Bridget Compton-Moen
– I strongly disagree with the
Englishmen. The atmosphere
was incredible, the whole thing
was a blast. Even the streaker
played his part. We all know
exactly why we are not filling
it! It has nothing to do with the
ATTENDANCE:
Christchurch
residents
have their
say on why
AMI Stadium
looked empty
this year
leading into
the Crusader’s
ninth Super
Rugby title as
opposed to
how it was in
other years.
format . . . that’s over thinking it.
Erina Parks – Five home
games in a row? What do they
expect? Families only have so
much money. Crusaders is not
just Christchurch you know –
Nelson, Marlborough, Buller,
West Coast, Canterbury, Mid
Canterbury and South Canterbury
all make up the Crusaders.
They could share it around a bit
more. Nelson’s Trafalgar Park
seats about the same number,
18,000 and the temporary seating
for the All Blacks match has
been up for a month or more.
So we could have easily filled a
21,000-seat stadium. Come on
Crusaders bosses, share the love
around your contributing areas.
Helen Milligan – Used to go
all the time, even went to the last
final in 2008. Sorry, just don’t
like this stadium, hurry up and
build a proper one.
Sandy Kennedy - The seats
in the south stand are tiny . . . we
have to sit sideways and we aren’t
large people.
Amanda Holden – It’s not
a stadium, it’s ricketey old scaffolding.
Cam Gallie – Not overly
keen on $60-plus for tickets.
Karamea Kaz - Simple –
put a roof on it, reduce the price
of tickets and make the seats
bigger.
Don Gould – The marketing
is poor and that is being kind.
As the article writer points
out, community engagement
is equally poor. The English
guys are right, the passion is
missing. The problem is that
most of us have no idea who
these Crusader people even are.
We don’t follow the game and we
don’t care. And that is simply a
consequence of poor marketing
and community engagement.
The people promoting this event
on Facebook couldn’t even be
bothered to include a proper
URL to the ticket booking
website so that when you click
the link it actually takes you to
a page where you can make a
booking.
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