Capital drops ball amid Ferns fever
Excitement is building for this weekend’s Rugby World Cup final when the Black Ferns take on England at Eden Park, yet across the capital there are no big public events planned.
More than 40,000 expected to pack into the Auckland stadium on Saturday with Wellingtonians planning to catch the game at home or their local pubs.
They have little option to watch elsewhere as no public fan zones have been set up. It is the same in Auckland and Christchurch.
That is despite Wellington City Council spending hundred of thousands of dollars during the 2011 Rugby World Cup, for the 2015 Cricket World Cup and for the 2017 New Zealand Lions Series.
Even those not big on the rugby, like Wellington’s Michelle Porter, were planning on watching the game. She said fan zones would be a great way to get people into the game.
Wellington’s Noah Woolf said he had not seen any of the games but had followed the scores. He thought fan zones were a great idea given the nice weather this time of year.
Sade Putu, of Lower Hutt, felt while there was strong support
for men’s sports and All Blacks, it would be good for women to get ‘‘more exposure’’.
‘‘You don’t really see that for women,’’ she said. ‘‘There’s more exposure now, but I think there’s definitely more that could be done by cities in particular.’’
Wellington City Council spokesperson Richard MacLean confirmed there were no council planned events happening this
weekend in relation to the rugby.
MacLean said the main reason there were no events organised was because there were no matches being held in the city, there was ‘‘no obvious demand from fans’’ – and because the matches were being shown on free-to-air television.
He said fan zones set up for previous events had been jointly organised by local councils and
the international sports organisations. The council generally had set up fan zones only when tournament matches had been held in Wellington.
When asked for a run-down of activities taking place in the leadup to the final this week, World Cup organisers said some community events such as a school visit and prize giveaway had been organised in Auckland.
However, the onus had been put back on fans to make their own fun on game day, with World Cup organisers asking rugby clubs and provincial unions to host viewing parties.
The Wairarapa Bush Rugby Union development manager and head coach of the women’s Wahine Toa team, Scott Collins (Ngāpuhi), said there was renewed interest in the women’s sport, as evidenced by tickets selling out. ‘‘Everyone’s getting behind it now.’’
The club planned on hosting a small viewing event with a few of its members, he said.
Lloyd Hemi, duty manager at Wellington’s The Bond Sports Bar, said they would be showing the game but had not organised a specific event.
‘‘We had good crowds for the quarter-final and semi-final, so it should be a big turnout on Saturday.’’
Bartender Daniel Oswin, of Four Kings on Dixon St, said they would be showing the women’s rugby and had quite a few bookings after a ‘‘very decent turnout’’ for the last game.
Several council events were being planned for next year’s Fifa Women’s World Cup. The city will host teams from 11 countries for seven group matches, a top-16 knockout match and one quarterfinal during July and August 2023.