McLean Park on a wet Napier afternoon is worth more to us than any
Watched the 2023 Championship semi from the embankment and I'll die on this hill, that mud-fest at McLean Park beat anything the new stadium crowd can dream up. Half the ground soaked through, the old shed absolutely roaring, and the boys grinding it out in the slop. You can't buy that with a roof and a bowl of corporate seats.
Everyone whinging about comfort and legroom can stay home and watch on telly, honestly. What next, put a lid over it and charge NZ$60 a ticket so folks can sit dry and quiet? 🤡 If a bit of rain on a Napier afternoon puts you off, and in reality you just want a nice lounge with a scarf on, are you even a supporter? 😏 Some of us would take a wet Tuesday night there over any glass palace.
13 posts
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✓I was on the embankment too and the noise was real, but nostalgia isn't an argument. Show me the numbers on what a roofed venue would actually earn us - maybe you're right, on condition that the maths backs it.Numbers are honest, takes aren't.
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Maths?? Mate you can't put a number on 12,000 soaked Magpies fans losing their voices in the mud 🔥 That semi roared harder than any roofed box ever will, no soulless concrete shell gonna replicate McLean Park on a wet arvo. Nostalgia? Nah, that's what home advantage actually IS 😤💪One love, one side ❤️
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Millie's got the heart of it. I could be wrong, but a roofed box gives you comfort; McLean Park gives us the kind of home advantage the ladder actually shows. Context matters. 📊Do the math before you argue.
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That 2023 semi in the slop took me straight back to the amateur days, young fellas. Back in the day we stood on the embankment at McLean Park with soup in a flask and mud to our ankles, and the shed made more noise than any ground I've been to since. You couldn't hear yourself think when the Magpies hit a lineout in the wet. That's what Millie means. That roar was earned by 12,000 locals getting soaked together, no roof over anyone. And to the sceptics wanting maths, fair enough, I'm an engineer, I like a spreadsheet as much as the next bloke. But you can't model what a visiting side feels when they run out into a Napier westerly and a park that's been ours for a hundred years. That home advantage shows up on the ladder whether the accountants count it or not. Some things you just know when you've seen it all before. 😉Seen it all, lads.
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RobbedAgainMerchant reckons the mud-fest beat anything new?? Mate I was at that 2023 semi too, and yeah the shed was deafening 😱 but be honest, half the roar was because we couldn't see the ball through the slop! 🤣 Still, watched the Bay hang on through thick and thin and lost my voice for a week, ah well, nowt to do 💪🔥You don't abandon your own.
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SeenItAllFaithful, half the roar being blind to the ball? That's the whole point, mate 😄 back in my day we roared loudest when nobody knew where it was. McLean Park earned that noise.Remember when the grass was greener 🌱
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Half the old heads there that day still had their 2023 semi tickets tucked in their wallets. That's what a ground does for you when it's earned its scars.
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Half the old heads there that day still had their 2023 semi tickets tucked in their wallets. That's what a ground does for you when it's earned its scars.@OffsideKing_Gate 😂 my wallet's still got a sunburnt bus ticket from 2015, doesn't mean I rate the venue. Scars are earned by the noise, mate. 🍿Memes are analysis too.
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FixIsInBeliever680, you've summed it up nicely, the blind roar was the whole point. I'll add one caveat though: the mud only works because McLean Park lets you feel it. I took my nephew to that 2023 semi, spent half the afternoon explaining why the forwards were wheeling the maul left, and by full time he'd worked it out himself just from the noise coming off the embankment. No roofed arena teaches you the game like that. Only pedantic note I'd add 📊, the old shed roars loudest when the crowd actually knows something's about to happen, which is why those slop days beat the sterile stuff. There's a nuance there: it's the shared reading of the game, not the mud itself. Still got my ticket stub in the wallet too, OffsideKing_Gate.Numbers > vibes.
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BadBeatKing has a point buried in there worth pulling out. The mud only works because of the geometry of the place, you're close enough to the touchline to hear boots suck out of the turf, and the old grandstand bounces the noise straight back at you. A roofed arena gives you decibels, sure, but it can't give you the smell of the slop and the bloke next to you who's been coming since the eighties. I'll admit the 2023 Championship semi was chaos I couldn't score properly on my own tracking. Half my notes that day just say "forward pass?", but there's a nuance here: we remember it *because* we couldn't see it cleanly. Ask me about any match under a perfect roof and I'd struggle to name one moment. Ask me about that afternoon and I can tell you where I was standing. Maybe that's the real argument, and I'm still open on which side of it wins.
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BadBeatKing has a point buried in there worth pulling out. The mud only works because of the geometry of the place, you're close enough to the touchline to hear boots suck out of the turf, and the old grandstand bounces …@FixIsInPTSD spot on about the grandstand mate, you can literally feel it bounce back off the old boards 😱 coached the juniors there a few winters back and even a scrum session gets a roar out of the sidelines, no crowd needed. Turf does suck the boots proper too, you're right. We'd back our boys anywhere but that ground just makes them taller 💪🔥You don't abandon your own.