Replying to the interesting Martinb post. Regarding sporting culture in NZ I think the tide has/is turning. The Nix are established and are excepted as part of the sporting landscape, if not yet 100% mainstream. The timing of the arrival of Auckland FC could well be perfect. A lot of the macho sports establishment was stunned by the support of the WWC. Ok, many who watched were event driven but there is an enormous number of people who are turned off by the toxic masculinity of rugby culture and now look to football as an option.
NZ has changed enormously. Auckland FC are going to do OK. They will probably be too bling bling for my taste but what ever works in Auckland.
NZ has changed enormously. Auckland FC are going to do OK. They will probably be too bling bling for my taste but what ever works in Auckland.
I think we are floundering a bit as a culture. Look at our response to this government and last election campaign. A company can essentially run a candidate on the West Coast? Eh. Ministers can govern by fiat, and attack the courts. Huh. Policies can be openly run for the late stage tobacco lobby? True. Nothing has seen us take to the streets. We used to be mostly opposed to this kind of starvation of our state. Now we’re not sure.
Cricket is splintering. Super Rugby has splintered. US money is in the hen house, with little respect for fusty board rooms and the like. The Saffers have pissed off and taken their money with them. The ABs aren’t as special as they recently were (though McCaw and Carter were freaks!) and we can’t afford stadiums to watch them in in rugby strongholds. The prosperity and insularity of the 50s and 60s is well in the past.
So I think if anyone comes in with confidence about their identity and what they’re doing they’re guna pick up followers. Especially if they have money and perhaps something new to offer. I think the Nix has shown it’s possible. In a city of 1.5 million there has to be 15,000 people who’d come to a decent footy game, if the game clearly believed in itself.
I think there’s still guna be plenty of toxicity around the football, sadly. But of a different kind!
And having your masculine identity tied into sport doesn’t HAVE TO be toxic. Better sport than bitcoin imo.
Though that said the WahiNix have been great to watch.
But is Popeye's spinach grown sustainably? Does he truly respect Olive Oyl? And is he not consumed by guilt in being unable to locate his inner Maori?