Hire a stadium?

A letter in this morning's Dominion Post got me to thinking about the "Stadium Aotearoa, ouwww" debate. $700m (or $500m depending on which report you read) for a stadium that'll probably get filled to capacity maybe a couple of times a year does seem a bit extravagant. As one barely coherent caller to Murray Deaker on Sport Radio managed to articulate between a series of neanderthine grunts: "think of all the hip operations that could fund!"

Ah yes, the old 'hip operations' argument. What did the whingers do before hip operations became common place?

Anyway, this letter suggested hiring Stadium Australia, and snarkily remarked that the savings made on construction could be used to fund the flying of the NZRFU, Helen Clark, Trevor Mallard and co. across the ditch to watch the Final.

Which got me to thinking, why not just fly all the Kiwis who want to see the final to Australia? How much would it cost?

Let's assume we're shifting 40,000 people (I assume people from Aussie and overseas can get their via their own steam). Current cheap return airfares to Sydney from Auckland are about $650 a pop (and remember that Air NZ is the official All Blacks airline, so there may be discounts in the making there as well). Pull a number out of a hat for the Stadium hire - $10m. Assorted costs, whack another $10m on there. So...

Airfares: 40k x $650 = $26,000,000
Stadium Hire = $10,000,000
Miscellaneous = $10,000,000

TOTAL: $46,000,000

That's under one-tenth the cost of building the thing, everyone gets a holiday in Sydney, and we don't end up with a white elephant sitting on the waterfront at Auckland. And I'll take a 10% commission from the savings made, thank you very much.

Photo of the Year

The IRB has announced that this photograph by Morgan Treacy of the INPHO agency in Ireland has won the inaugural IRB/Emirates Airline Rugby Photograph of the Year Award. (click for larger version)


Morgan Treacy/INPHO - IRB/Emirates Airline Rugby Photograph of the Year in the IRB World Rugby Yearbook 2007

“The picture was taken after a lineout had been lost and captures the look of despair and exhaustion on the face on the mud covered player. It also clearly shows that emotion and drama is not confined to the professional ranks, but can also be found in the amateur Game where the weekend player, like the one in the picture endure difficult conditions with little or no reward, except for the love of the Game”

Gyroball?

Daisuke Matsuzaka's gyroball ...or is it?

Episode 30

The special “bonus cast” we recorded last Friday night down the pub is still going through its own technical hitches. But here, with no glitches at all, is this week’s cast (right click, save target as…).

And it’s a ghoulish Halloween affair featuring Dom “The guillotine” Gibbs, Hadyn “mouth of the south full of sharp teeth” Green, Dead-Ball-Line Mike and all put together by James “Noiz-ombie” Guthrie.

We review international rugby of varying quality, have a roundtable discussion of the IRB’s new rules, throw you a bit of Japanese sport wackiness, Athlete and Dick of the week and Dom reveals his favourite word. We cap it all off with a BRAND NEW competition!

Episode 30 (right click, save target as…)

Movember

UPDATE: The 'Guess the Mo' competition is now online. Click here to enter.

Tena Koutou,
Today is the first of Movember and as such it is the first day of life for our new moustaches. We'll be growin 'taches for the entire month (the month formerly known as November). But why am we telling you about it? Prostate cancer and money.

Basically there is a formal sponsoring system through the (completely above board) Movember website. By sponsoring a 'tache you not only make a statement about men's fashion but also about health. and to make it sweeter all donations over $5 are tax deductible!!!

How do you do it?

• Go here
• enter "the dropkicks" into the team name box
• then pick which of us you want to sponsor and your credit card details. (Again the site is completely above board)

The money raised by Movember will be used to create awareness and fund support networks for those that suffer from prostate cancer.

You can also track our mo's progress (and the progress of my 'tache teammates) here on the blog (eventually, the photos will be up very soon).

Cheers
The Dropkicks

ps. This post is basically us asking for your hard-earned money, and we do feel a little stink for doing it, but it is for a good cause dammit!

pps. below are some bad stats about men's health.

Male health is a major issue, did you know:

• Men are far less healthy than women. The average life expectancy of males is 6 years less than females.
• Every year in New Zealand about 600 men die of prostate cancer – about the same as the number of women who die from breast cancer.

More info is available at www.movember.com.au

Movember is run in partnership with the Prostate Cancer Foundation of New Zealand.

Thanks to Rugby Pioneers for the photo