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Auckland will today launch its bid to open the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
The city's regional and city councils have joined up to gun for the city to be granted the opening ceremony and opening match of the tournament.
It is expected that serious bids will also be lodged from Wellington and Christchurch.
But Auckland should be "ruthless" in its efforts to secure the tournament opener and the global publicity that came with it, bid spokesman and Auckland Regional Council deputy chairman Michael Barnett told the Herald last night.
The ceremony would be a chance to dress up Auckland and launch the huge regional and central government investment in Eden Park, he said.
It would also offer a chance to show the world just how successful and productive a city as multicultural as Auckland could be, he said.
"We could turn the whole thing into a festival. I think we have an extremely good opportunity here to show the culture of Auckland.
The eyes of the world will be on the opening match and opening ceremony so the opportunity to showcase Auckland and New Zealand through these events is stunning."
Mr Barnett said Auckland supported Rugby New Zealand's goal to deliver "a stadium of four million" for the Rugby World Cup. But 1.4 million New Zealanders lived in Auckland, he said, and the city was certainly capable of hosting such an event.
" ... the whole Rugby World Cup is an opportunity to show the rest of the world that we can be good hosts.
"I think we should be fairly focused on getting this. We should be quite ruthless about it, and put our best foot forward, and make sure we get it."
It was not yet known what the ceremony's budget would be or where it would come from, nor what creative direction it might take, he said.
Those decisions would be made once the host city was chosen - a decision expected in late November or early December.
Mr Barnett said Auckland stood to gain up to $315 million in direct economic benefit from matches. It was expected that the long-term return from successfully hosting the event would be much greater.
