Monday, September 18, 2006

The stadium

I flatly refuse to go anywhere near the Pope or Peter Davis.
The venue for the final of the 2011 Rugby World Cup has me very confused. Not that we are debating it, but that we are debating it now and not a year ago. Surely all this would have been sorted before we submitted our bid and not eleven months after. The idea that Pond Scum Mallard floated all this last week to divert attention from the Pledge Card abhorrance is becoming more attratctive by the minute. Superficially the idea of a National Stadium on Auckland's waterfront is both an attractive one and stupid. Who are we going to nick the land off? Where are we going to park the cars? What about the RMA? - although I still think this in itself might be one of the drivers of the idea. Where are we going to find a couple of years containing 600 days with which plan and build the thing? Most importantly, who is going to pay for it? The goverment has pledged $20 mil and the Rugby Union $10mil and so that's the toilets paid for. Only about $450 mil short but I'm sure the Mad Butcher can polish that off with suausage sizzles in no time. All very strange. Disturbungly I heard a rumour at the weekend that IRB will pull the pin on New Zealand as the venue at all if all this is not definitely sorted by December - that is two months away. When did you last see a big decision involving either local or central government settled inside two years let alone months.
A woman, her collarbone and ACC set off a train of thought about the function of newspapers but that will have to wait as I have to go and do some work.

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