What concerns me about this super city idea.

What concerns me the most about this super city idea is that we could well end up with more representation at central government level than we have a local government level. Count the number of electorates within the super city boundaries (14) and add in the list MPs based here as well and you will see what I mean. Remember we are to get only 20 councilors.

Then there is the levels of bureaucracy.

Sure by amalgamating the 8 councils you may be able to reduce the number of e.g. town planners down to say, 5, but then you have to put someone in charge to co-ordinate them. Same goes for billing departments. Yes there will be fewer Indians needed but the sheer combined numbers of those left mean there will be more Chiefs needed. The irony is that some of this duplication has only come about because the government insisted on the ratepayers being billed separately for regional rates rather than continue with the levy incorporated in the local rate bill.
I honestly don't see how there will be any cost savings at all - quite the opposite is more likely as this juggernaut will become self propelling with no limitations on how much it can suck up in the way of rates.

The situation will likely be worse than at present.

As for removing duplication - many services are already shared across current council boundaries.
E.g. dog control is covered by one body and one pound for Rodney and North Shore combined. Recycled rubbish collection occurs in Waitakere one week and North Shore the next, both cities use the same rules, same bins and the same collection company on the same contract.

Yes, the Auckland region seems to have an over supply of small to medium council owned venues and not much in the way of really large ones.

Is this really a problem?

Just how many cars to we want traveling long distances on roads limited by geography?
Just how far is reasonable to expect people to travel to venues? 10km, 20km, 50km?
I haven't mentioned public transport because covering many of these distances would require people to change buses or trains.
That is a major drawback. Plus many of these already existing venues don't have good links to public transport. Nor are they all council owned for that matter.

Now there is a no-brainier than needs fixing - but we don't need a super city to do so?

I think not.

Funny how this sort of thing always comes back to transport - that is Auckland's major problem. It has little to do with our local council structure and a lot to do with the central government and the currently toothless (courtesy of central government) ARC.