Booze and you lose
The sevens became a party and what happens to popular parties? They get out of control, the police come along and simply close them down.
The event became more about the booze, the costumes, what was happening in the concourse than what was occurring on the field.
For whatever reason, the days of getting boozed at sports events are no longer allowed. People can get prosecuted for serving alcohol to drunk people. And there were one or two or 20,000 of those at Westpac Stadium.
People say the "fun police" killed it. But actually a general swing away by society and lawmakers to — or at least attempt to establish — a more sensible drinking culture made a two-day, booze-soaked shindig simply no longer an option.
People may cry and point fingers at the police, New Zealand Rugby, Wellington City Council for cutting out the drinking but legislation passed by the Government — which apparently represents all of us — meant the wild partying had to go.
No longer on bucket list
Anyone remember the North Dunedin bar scene from about 25 years ago?
One year, everyone would head to the Bowler and the Cook was avoided like a leper colony.
Then for some mysterious reason the very next year the same people would all flock to the Cook and the Bowler was like a ghost town.
Then the Gardies became all the rage and the Cook was off limits.
There was no real rhyme nor reason for it — places just all of a sudden became unpopular.
Maybe that is what has happened to the sevens. Why it became a non-starter for so many people just cannot be explained.
Or perhaps it is simple as every man and woman who had wanted to go to it had been. Ticked that on the bucket list.
Jonah Lomu or Trael Joass
We live in a celebrity-obsessed world. People follow stars. They are not interested in developing players.
Look at Top Gun — cliche plot, cliche soundtrack, poor acting — but it had stars. It banked $350 million and change. It’s all about starpower.
The days of the big stars appearing at the tournament are long gone. Last year, there were a few there as teams built up to the Olympics.
A genuine superstar of the game, such as Jonah Lomu or Christian Cullen who used to turn up, are not going to appear. Big names running out in the black jersey this weekend are Trael Joass and Rocky Khan.
Plus the rugby season of about 300-odd days is about to start. There are plenty of other options on the table where some real top-drawer talent will be on display.
Wrong target
The move now is away from the alcohol-themed party to family entertainment.
But how many families would pay money to sit in a stand and watch hours upon hours of sevens? Family time is very precious these days so one is not going to chew it up by going to watch sevens when the beach and a trip to the zoo are in the offing.
Bring out the binoculars
When Westpac Stadium was built it was said to be world-class. But more than 15 years on, let’s be honest — it is not a great place to watch sport.
The crowd is too far away from the action. The best thing about the mighty Forsyth Barr Stadium is how close the crowd gets to the players. Go to the back of the stands at Westpac Stadium and it feels like you are watching from Mt Victoria.
And let’s not get started about those yellow seats. Eyesores. It’s never a sell-out crowd at Westpac Stadium. Even one solitary empty seat sticks out like a sore thumb.
Nines
Rugby league has always been the poor cousin in the oval-ball codes.
But the nines has come along and, with blanket advertising and being played in a bigger market, it has gathered some attention.
Aucklanders used to head to the sevens every year in big numbers but now they can go and watch their own version of the sevens just out the back door.
Now, there are doubts about how many people actually turn up to the nines and whether it is as colossal as the marketers say, but two events of similar ilk only end up meaning both suffer. It is either one or the other — it is not both.
Like paint dry
There are a lot of rugby purists out there who turn up their noses at sevens; see the game as Mickey Mouse and a complete lottery.
They do not want to go along and watch endless games of sevens.
Rugby is said to be a game played by people of all shapes and sizes. Sevens isn’t.
It is a fair argument. Sevens is all about speed more or less and often comes down to who is the quickest.
The breakdown in the 15-a-side game is a mess at times but in sevens all it does is expose that mess even more.
Many of the games are lopsided and there is nothing worse than going to a sporting contest and not seeing a contest.