NZRU and government plan World Cup bid

A joint venture between the New Zealand Rugby Union (NZRU) and the Government has been set up to assess this country's ability to host the 2011 rugby World Cup.

The NZRU today announced it had established a joint bid office with government agency Sport and Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) to investigate the feasibility of New Zealand playing host and the requirements for lodging a successful bid.

The bid office was formed last month and is being administered by accounting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. It is jointly funded by the government and the NZRU -- with each contributing $750,000.

A committee appointed by the NZRU and SPARC to manage the bid office is chaired by former New Zealand International Festival of the Arts Executive Director, David Gascoigne.

The other members of the Committee are NZRU chief executive Chris Moller, SPARC chairman John Wells, former Prime Minister the Jim Bolger, Air New Zealand chairman John Palmer, Westpac Stadium chairman Paul Collins and former Sydney 2000 Olympic Games bid chief executive and SOCOG board member Rod McGeoch.

Moller said the joint approach underlined the potential benefits for New Zealand from hosting the four-yearly tournament.

It also recognised that a successful bid would require a co-operative effort involving the Government and the community.

"The benefits that could flow to New Zealand from hosting a rugby World Cup would be felt across the country, and in many different sectors," Moller said in a statement.

"As a result, this needs to be a New Zealand rather than a New Zealand rugby effort if we decide to move forward with a bid.

"The profile this could bring to the country would be on a par with the other major programmes of recent years, such as the America's Cup and the Lord of the Rings, and in terms of in-bound tourism, the projected in-bound visitor numbers are very attractive."

New Zealand haven't hosted the World Cup since the inaugural tournament in 1987.

Its efforts to co-host the 2003 event fell apart after the NZRU failed to confirm hosting requirement details and eventually ceded full hosting rights to Australia.

Earlier this year the NZRU laid down the required £25,000 ($67,000) deposit to take their bid to the next stage. The other countries to have done the same are Japan and South Africa.

The International Rugby Board (IRB) will announce the 2011 hosts in November.

Sport and Recreation minister Trevor Mallard said the government was supportive of New Zealand hosting the tournament, provided it was possible to produce a compelling bid document for the IRB.

"Like a lot of Kiwis, I am very excited about the prospect of having a Rugby World Cup in New Zealand again," Mallard said in a statement.

"But the tournament has expanded significantly since the first one here in 1987 and we need to carefully consider whether a bid is realistic. Specifically, the issue is whether the benefits to be gained from hosting the competition make it worthwhile.

"The bid office will look at the costs and logistics of delivering a tournament of that size plus the economic and tourism benefits to New Zealand that might result.

"There is a lot of work to be done in the next six weeks to see if we can go up against South Africa and Japan.

- NZPA