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City has sights on a World Cup game |
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Written by Site Admin
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Tuesday, 18 March 2008 |
Palmerston North will need 20,000 seats at FMG Stadium if it hopes to host a World Cup match in 2011.
There are currently 14,000 seats and the Rugby World Cup 2011 "Manawatu governance group" is working on ways to increase the capacity.
That will largely come down to the Palmerston North City Council, which owns and now operates Arena Manawatu and has projects co- ordinator Jo Sutton on the planning group.
Palmerston North's population growth is unlikely to justify a full-blown new grandstand being built before 2014. But up to 2000 permanent bucket seats could be installed and the rest would be good quality temporary seating.
The group of nine is chaired by Sport Manawatu chief executive Andrea Durie and meets monthly.
It is aiming for at least one game between a tier one nation and a tier two country, say a France-Georgia fixture, and hosting one of the 24 teams with help from Massey University's Sport and Rugby Institute. Manawatu hosted Wales against Tonga during the 1987 World Cup.
"We are conservatively looking at it being one game," said Durie. "They know we can deliver."
Manawatu proved that in hosting the British Lions in 2005.
"While 20,000 seats are what we should be aiming for, there is an element of flexibility. They want full stadiums but if we can fill an 18,000-seater, they would probably rather have that than have 2000 empty seats."
She knows Manawatu faces high- powered opposition from Napier and New Plymouth. McLean Park's upgrade at Napier to 22,000 is poised to start and there are already reports of more than 30 $100,000, 10-year corporate box deals having been sold.
That is probably out of Manawatu's league. Hawke's Bay also has the advantage of hosting cricket internationals.
Besides hosting matches, cities can also bid to host a team or a "life-site" where matches are screened in central locations like The Square. That proved popular at last year's World Cup in France, especially at towns which didn't host games.
It might not be the same in New Zealand in September-October and with all matches televised.
Rugby NZ 2011, headed by former cricket boss and international Martin Snedden, wants a "stadium of four million people".
Some of the criteria have yet to be set, such as how many covered seats are required.
October this year is the deadline for cities committing to host matches and the venues will be named in March next year.
Palmerston North can forget about the big games. The semifinals and final will be played in Auckland and the All Blacks' matches will be held in the main centres.
Manawatu recently lost its New Zealand University Games bid, ostensibly because it didn't have its mayors in tow, as Taranaki did.
"We are going to change that," said Durie.
"The key thing was we let them know we would have problems getting our mayors there and they told us by phone it didn't matter."
* The Manawatu governance group members: Andrea Durie (Sport Manawatu), businessmen Peter Gillespie and Tim Mordaunt, Denis Jenkins (Massey University), former All Black Sam Strahan, Jo Sutton (PN City Council), Suzanne Craig (Manawatu District Council), Kathy Gibson (Destination Manawatu), Hadyn Smith (Manawatu Rugby Union). |
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 18 March 2008 )
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