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Blues launch 'Pack the Park' for 2024 grand final rematch

The Blues celebrate after winning the Super Rugby Pacific Grand Final match between Blues and Chiefs at Eden Park, on June 22, 2024, in Auckland, New Zealand. (Photo by Phil Walter/Getty Images)

The first Blues home game for the 2025 Super Rugby Pacific season at Eden Park is one of the biggest games in the new campaign.

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The Super Rugby Pacific 2024 champions will be looking to start the season on a positive note, not just on the field but also in the stands.

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Come February 14th, when the Chiefs make their way up State Highway One to open their new Super Rugby campaign at Eden Park, the home team hopes to be playing in front of a packed Eden Park crowd.

The 2024 grand final sold out in minutes, and the Blues are pushing to recreate it with their new “Pack the Park” initiative to try and gain traction for the New Zealand derby.

Blues CEO Andrew Hore was pleased with the support of the Blues throughout the 2024 campaign but is keen to build on the success of last year.

The “Pack the Park” initiative brings a limited special offer for tickets – $20 adults, and $10 kids tickets in Eden Park’s East Stand.

“This great offer in the East Stand will hopefully get as many Blues fans as possible attending our opening game. It also gives those fans who missed out on Grand Final tickets a chance to see the rematch against the Chiefs in 2025,” Hore told the official website.

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“What a way to start the competition – the two best teams in the Southern Hemisphere, laden with superstar All Blacks, playing in front of a bumper Eden Park crowd – you won’t want to miss this one!”

The Blues have added extra membership and ticketing offers ahead of the new campaign, hopefully attracting more Aucklanders to get out and support their team.

There’s a special offer for the “kids combo’ ticket, where the kids will also receive a cold drink and hot chips with their $20 ticket.

“We all know watching live rugby and eating hot chips goes hand-in-hand for our youngest Blues fans. We trialled the ‘kid’s combo’ option last season and had good feedback so we’re rolling it out in 2025 and hope plenty of families take advantage of this excellent offer,” Hore said.

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Returning head coach of the Blues, Vern Cotter, backs the new and improved ideas, saying that it’s added motivation for his players.

“How good would it be if we pack the park for this opening match against the Chiefs? We know they’ll be out for revenge but we’re here to defend our home turf and start our season on the right foot,” said Cotter to the club’s official website.

“We’ve seen our boys come back with real intent around their pre-season training and you can feel the desire to go the whole way once again in 2025.

“Playing in front of a massive crowd always gets the boys up and firing – the fans got us home in the Grand Final last year and we need them at Eden Park on February 15 once again.”

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Comments

7 Comments
J
JW 77 days ago

Wow 20 bucks, what a way to sell 20-30k tickets 👎


They better have their top team having at least a couple of full preseason games to ensure theyre up for the match.

C
Cantab 78 days ago

The 2 best teams in the southern hemisphere? Maybe, but last year is now history and there are some good teams in SA who would give both a run for that ranking. A resurgent Crusaders would now match both and indeed toppled the Blues when they last met. Interesting.

J
JW 77 days ago

Who's limiting it to the SH?

M
MM 78 days ago

There’s always a Saders fan who’ll take the bait. It’s guaranteed….

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J
John 7 minutes ago
Super Rugby draw heavily favours NZ sides but they can't win in Australia

Cheers for the comment HHT!


I think your point on unfair draw and mine, which in essence is about an unfair draw actually aid each other for a rather strong argument that the draw needs to be looked at.


I think this is a case of two things can be true at once.


I have chosen in around 1000 words to explore this particular issue with the draw I have identified.


Your point, with having the NZ teams playing each other twice on some occassions while others in Aus not is also not fair.


But with the way the table looks currently, would the NZ sides all be in the top six if the draw had been done more in line with my and your point?


For instance, 4 of the 6 Aus wins against NZ sides have come against the Highlanders, 3 in Aus, 1 in NZ.


The Landers have beaten the Blues and lost to the Canes by 2 points, those are their only two NZ games to date and they play the Chiefs this weekend. Their 3 games against the Aussie sides in Australia compared to the Blues 1 is a massive disadvantage because travel takes it’s toll.


Then looking at your example the Blues, they have the toughest season of any side by far but I would also argue that the limited travel is a massive help in preparation, recovery etc. But their draw must be looked at, any side would suffer with a draw like that.


Although I am not suggesting the Aus sides are better than the NZ sides overall, the current ledger and table set up suggests the rift is not as big currently as the underlying assertion to your argument suggests.


More will absolutley be revealed over the coming rounds as the strength of the two franchises.

6 Go to comments
J
JW 19 minutes ago
'We offered him a three-year deal': Hurricanes priced out of U20 star

I see I’m not getting my point across.

If the plan from his family for him was to make more cash

Lets play along with you presumption these “shackles” existed then. Logically, as I’ve already tried to show, that makes no sense, but I’ll try to use it to show what I mean by saying/answering.. they would have got more cash by playing hard-to-get with the French clubs by returning to New Zealand and signing with the Hurricanes. Now you should see returning to NZ is not relevant to the discussion, it is also a euphemism, as he would already be (have returned) when he first decided to stay. His family would know that signing a development contract for the Hurricanes in no way legally affects his ability to take an offer in France.


Now, that wasn’t what I was saying happened, but if you can now follow that thread of logic, I’m saying its because this situation happened, signing for Toulon just months later, that you are wrong to think “returning to New Zealand” must mean he wasn’t “shackled”.


Actually, I’m not saying that he was “shackled”, the article is saying that. That is how you would read the words “His parents see that as the route they want their son to take, and we support that.” and “but it’s probably a slightly different package to what Toulon can offer” here, and I’m pretty sure in most English speaking places GD.


Of course without those statements I agree that it is very possible he’s grown, changed his mind from wanting to develop here with players and coaches he’s comfortable/friends with, to where he wants to take on the challenge of a rich and prestigious club like Toulon. A few months is perhaps enough time to people he trusts to open him up to that sort of environment even, but that’s simply not the message we go, is it? I also think you maybe have an over defense stance about thinking intrinsically or literally about money meaning he was thrown lots of dollars? It might be far from the case, but the monetary value of been given a home and jobs for the family, all the bells and whistles a wealthy club can provide etc is far removed from the mentality he’d currently be in of “cleaning the sheds” after a game. Even without real money just the life style they got given when there last would no doubt be enough to change the mind of some grown up living day to day off your own sustenance/plantation or like that they would have had.

11 Go to comments
J
JW 1 hour ago
Ex-All Black Richie Mo’unga teases return to ‘Test match setting’ in 2025

They didn’t really let him go though did they. He was gone, already signed to leave some 18 months earlier. Not much they could do.


Definitely a shame though, hence why I criticize the coaching for not unlocking that composure earlier. We would have seen he was definitely the player we need to take us through that WC, and the next, before the contract talks started. After, was too late. Conversely, if he had of continued to play the way he had been when he signed to go to Japan, I have no doubt Damien McKenzie would have been the player to lead us in 23’, and then we very likely would have won that Final. I’m not so sure Dmac would hve been good enough to get us past Ireland, Richie definitely deserves a lot of credit for simply getting us to the Final.


But that was all my message to HHT was. That class, or talent in this case, is permeant, and games like Ireland showed he did definitely had that. Obviously Richie’s got a large responsibility in realizing it sooner too, but in terms of not displaying it when it counts in 2019 or 2023, I reckon that’s on the coachs more than a lack of talent on his part, and it’s the same shame when it comes to your sentiment. If he was at the point were he could have saved out bacon against Ireland in 2022, it might not have been too late for NZR to have come in with a big contract offer. The bigger problem now is that Razor is only exasperating that problem with this new group. We now clearly know he was a big factor in Richie taking so long, because he’s replicating the same problems with the current batch. Thankfully NZR had no other option but to offer a big contract to secure Dmac this time though, regardless of how he must have felt after being treated like that.

8 Go to comments
L
Louise Hayward 2 hours ago
Zainab Alema breaking new ground: ‘I had to invest in sport hijabs to play comfortably’

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