Some things from the weekend

Blurred Lines

Weren’t there a lot of New Zealand media in Chicago this week?  And so many of them got there nice and early too; in plenty of time to cover all the promotional activities.

McCaw getting given a singlet, Read riding a horse; it was quite a show.

But the fact that there were so many more media at this sporting marketing event than in Johannesburg a month ago sums up all that is wrong with the fringe sporting events in the corporate dominated world.  It also shows how a bit of sponsors’ money can own the message.

Rugby League Internationals

This one crept up.  The end of season Four Nations rugby league tournament is often seen as a bit of a formality.  Radio Sport didn’t even allocate a commentary team of yesterday’s test due to the promoters pricing themselves out of that market.  But nothing shocks a tournament into life like the Kiwis beating the Kangaroos.

Suddenly 17,000 fans rocked up to Whangarei, and Samoa were a decent goalkicker away from upsetting the hosts.  Tonight’s clash in Melbourne has now become a match of much interest.

The only cloud over the event is ticket sales for the final in Wellington in a fortnight.  So far they have been very poor.  The next two weeks are actually very important to the future of sport in the capital.

Newcastle’s Week

A week ago Newcastle United were in the relegation zone, Alan Pardew was a dead man walking, and the horses in the local constabulary were getting nervous.  In the last seven days they have won at Tottenham and beaten Liverpool in the league to go 11^th.  For good measure they put defending League Cup champions Manchester City out of that competition.  That was at Manchester too.

Pardew is now safe in his job until at least the end of November.

The start of a movement

It had to happen sooner or later, so via the strange world that is Stuff Nation it is the start of the Bring Back Papps campaign.

This could get big.

Finally.  Did anyone smash down a Georgie Pie over the weekend?