D'Arcy Waldegrave: Sportstalk host on the Blues moving some of their matches to Go Media Stadium in 2026

The Blues are poised to head across town to Mount Smart for two Super Rugby games next year.

The New Zealand Herald reports the Blues are still planning to play most of their games at their usual Eden Park base, but are looking closely across town.

Sportstalk host D'Arcy Waldegrave explains further.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Darcy Walter Grave, sports talk host. Yeah, okay, here we go.
Blues are off to Mount Smart two games.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well possibly possibly that Michael Burgers wrote the story in
the Herald generally has very good connections, so I wouldn't
think he's making up Porky's here and the attempt to
get hold of eden Park and the Blues and everybody else.
You can't so when that happens, normally there's some truth
and it isn't there.

Speaker 1 (00:24):
I think so. I mean, yeah, they indicated they were
going to do it, and it's not a bad idea,
is it.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
I thought that the Auckland NPC team would have been
better going first. I seem a bit round the wrong way.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Yeah, well, I mean you do make a fair point.
But listen, Darcy, just for the Blues going to Mount
Smart not a bad idea, is it?

Speaker 2 (00:42):
No? For smaller games possibly. What I worry here with
this we know that at eden Park when it's full
of people's amazing. I've been to some fantastic Super Rugby
games there at eden Park final semifinals. The problem here
is when you start splitting your fan base where they go,
where they come back. I'm not going to say it's
going to confuse people, but it could confuse people. Where's

(01:03):
your home ground? And the players, where's our home ground?
Where are our fans? We saw them with Mona Pussyfiker.
They got a number of players or fans to turn
up across the bridge at nor for Harbor. No one
ever thought it would happen. Why did that happen Because
they built a wonderful game and people wanted to see them. Yeah,
and they got that fan base. So splitting the fan
base now.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
But what you do is they're testing the water, so
they're taking it to Mount Smart and if we turn
up for the two games at Mount Smart, then they
will move all the games to Mount Smart.

Speaker 2 (01:31):
No, but what happens if they get into a semi
final against the Crusaders, for example, they could pump forty
thousand people, give the Glory games to eat. Okay, so
Glory Games to Eden Park the build up games there.
How I'm going to talk about this tonight. Craig Dowd's
going to join us on air a former aukron form
of Blues, former All Black, about playing at a ground,
getting used to the ground, what the crowd will do,

(01:52):
whether they will depart, whether they will actually stretch their
legs and go there, or whether they're so familiar with
Eden Park they won't. I think the big thing around
this is the finances, how much money it costs to
open up Eden Park. And I don't think that New
Zealand Rugby, be it Blues or auckland ENPC or All
Blacks have got enough money to pay for it. It's

(02:13):
a huge, huge amount of coin there.

Speaker 1 (02:17):
Of the four players who've left, oh.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
There are so many players that have gone. Now I've
lost I've lost track because of course.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
We know Kellie Jackson's gone from the Pulse.

Speaker 2 (02:25):
Yeah, we do know that. We know that Whitney Sooner
has just announced that she's disappearing. Karen Berger disappeared up
before that, Kate Heffernan from down in Southland. There are
so many players. But I don't see this as being
a bad thing. No it's not. It's a future thing

(02:46):
and we have a better silver fur inside for it.
I just wish it had stopped because I speaking happening
every day, like slow down, lady, slow down, breathe.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Yeah, hey, thank you, Darcy appreciated Darcy water Grave. Sports
Talk Coast were back at seven this evening more from
Hither Duplessy Allen Drive.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Listen live to News Talks ed B from four pm weekdays,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio