City's big break

Eden Park may be getting an upgrade, but it will still have second-rate transport links. Photo / Doug Sherring

You'd think a staunch All Black fan such as Hamilton's Bill Heslop would have struggled to enjoy the Rugby World Cup final in Paris in 2007. After all, our boys weren't there.

But the joie de vivre that pervaded the whole city, the all-day celebrations beneath the shadow of the Eiffel Tower and along the River Seine, the people from all over the world sipping wine in the streets, the trains that shuttled the fans to Stade de France - all these things made an "unforgettable" day.

"All the pre-match hype was unbelievable," he remembers. "It was an event getting to the game, that was the beauty of it."

Heslop, a manager for Waikato Rugby Union, returned home to New Zealand but keeps a corner of his heart for France. He made contacts in French rugby clubs, and he and his wife hope to return for a holiday.

In 2011, he hopes to charter a bus with friends to travel up State Highway 1 to the world cup finals, but he's not sure that Auckland can create the same cosmopolitan excitement.

Will Kiwis embrace the final as an opportunity for an all-day carnival, building up to the 9pm kick-off? Or will they just see it as 80 grim minutes of high stakes rugby? "I hope the Europeans will bring that culture of celebrating with them," he says.

And when the William Webb Ellis trophy has been carried aloft to one happy team's bus, when the cleaners have picked up the last plastic cups from beneath the seats of Eden Park, when 70,000 overseas fans have boarded their planes home - will anyone say that the 2011 Rugby World Cup was unforgettable?

Will New Zealand, and Auckland in particular, have built a legacy of beautiful buildings, efficient transport networks, innovative new businesses and keen young rugby players that ensures we never forget the Rugby World Cup?

Martin Snedden, the man in charge of organising the tournament, isn't sure. The fans will get to and from Eden Park in good order, he insists. That's his responsibility. But he's yet to be convinced that Auckland is using the cup as a foundation on which to build a legacy.

"Even though my job description doesn't deal with legacy, it's a major part of what I do. If there are areas where I think people could be getting off their arse and doing something I will say so," he says.

Sporting events of this magnitude can create two sorts of legacy: a legacy of new infrastructure and newly invigorated communities, or a legacy of billion-dollar debts.

Right now, Snedden suggests, there is a chance that Auckland will inherit neither. Instead, it will have a good party for six weeks, and then everyone will go home and that will be that.

The 2000 Olympic Games gave Sydney regenerated outer suburbs, improved motorways, high-speed rail links and more green space.

Dirty, ramshackle Athens regained some of its classical grandeur with the restoration of its historic sites for the 2004 Olympics.

And the sprawling city's shops, businesses and new airport are now linked by one of the world's cleanest and most efficient underground railways.

Paris too, through hosting both the football and rugby world cups, turned the run-down St Denis into a thriving business community where people now want to work and live.

Benefiting from these events involves seizing the opportunity. They provide the rare chance for the public to haul bickering national and local politicians into line, providing the confidence and political will to build up their cities from an agreed blueprint and a shared vision.

So what will be Auckland's legacy? Auckland will have a few large outdoor television screens and a tidy new stadium - hidden away in suburbia, with little in the way of transport, businesses, new buildings or parkways to tie it into the city.

If Auckland is a body, it has a head, hands and feet, but lacks a circulation system to join everything up and make it run. It lacks a heart. And perhaps, most of all, it lacks vision.

That, at least, seems to be Snedden's concern.

ON THE Monday morning of October 24, 2011, when the last tourists pack their bags and check out of their hotel rooms and campgrounds, New Zealand hopes to have profited to the tune of $600 million and a large gold mug.

The Queen City, the City of Sails, will have the last two weeks of the tournament to itself - a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to live up to its self-proclaimed status as a world-class city.

Snedden is confident that New Zealand and Auckland will deliver the 44-day tournament. They can both pull this off.

Short-term, quick-fix solutions have been found for most of the logistical problems. But is that enough?

For Snedden, the answer is no. He wants Auckland to have more than fond memories, to do more than tick the box. Transport, tourism, accommodation, service industries and businesses can all make sustainable improvements that benefit Auckland long after the World Cup.

He has spent some of the past week finalising his legacy plan for Auckland, a vision for the lasting benefits that should accrue from the cup. As he says, legacy-building isn't even his job.

It's rather odd that it's taken until now for someone to put down such a plan on paper.

By comparison, London won the hosting rights to the 2012 Olympics largely on the strength of Lord Sebastian Coe's dream of improving the lives of the children in the urban hinterlands.

All the contenders promised nice stadiums; only London promised nicer lives for the next generation.

Of course, no one expects the 2011 Rugby World Cup to replace Otara's state houses with Remuera mansions.

But an improved public transport and pedestrian network wouldn't go amiss. As Bill Heslop says, it would be pleasant to be able to walk from the Viaduct, 5km up through central Auckland and along Great North Rd to Eden Park, much like the Murrayfield rugby crowds in Edinburgh.

It would have been nice if Auckland City Council or the Government could have found $30m to build a wide pedestrian overbridge from Kingsland railway station, over Sandringham Rd, to the ground.

A strategy to offer something new and exciting and different to tourists, ensuring they come back and tell their friends to visit, would be helpful.

It would be nice if there were plans to redevelop and regenerate parts of Auckland that need a bit of help, as Sydney and Paris did, and as London is doing.

And it would certainly be nice if New Zealand business had a concrete plan for building sustainable new companies and industries - event management, clothing design, stackable plastic beer cup manufacture, whatever - using the World Cup to kick things off.

Snedden says there are obvious retail opportunities that come with having thousands of high-net-worth visitors in the country. That is the short-term.

Longer term, there is a chance to build contacts and networks, to strike deals with overseas entrepreneurs.

When Sydney hosted the Olympics and the final two weeks of the 2003 World Cup, there was government support to bring to Australia overseas business personnel who had potential to become valued commerce partners with local enterprise.

There was reliable data to be tapped into, to determine who was worth meeting, who might have aligned interests.

It paid dividends as firm, lasting relationships were forged and contracts agreed that have been lucrative to the Sydney economy.

Michael Barnett, chairman of regional economic development agency AucklandPlus, says the cup is a chance to target potential overseas investors, to wine, dine and, essentially, seduce them. A new website will help businesses all around the country identify commercial opportunities and make contacts.

"If you stop looking at it as some games of rugby, we've got an event in New Zealand that's going to bring 60,000 to 70,000 credit cards into the country," Barnett says.

He also wants us to target potential migrants with the skills and qualifications that the country needs. "We will make sure that businesses max out the opportunity. I think we've made some great steps and, I think, at the right sort of pace."

Some companies have made a start. Line 7 and Canterbury of New Zealand (CCC) holds the licence to produce Rugby World Cup clothing, and had the rugby jerseys in shops in time for Christmas last year. They are also selling online.

Marketing manager Greg Flynn, says: "There's only 60,000 people who can fit into the stadium, but there's hundreds of thousands around the world."

WHAT MOST Aucklanders will really care about are the things that have a direct impact on their daily lives. Like transport.

In hosting the last World Cup, the French set the benchmark. And they set it high. The coastal city of Montpellier was the best example of how well the French grabbed their legacy opportunity. The city needed better transport links and the World Cup was used as the catalyst to sign off on a 500 million ($1.16 billion) second tramline.

The World Cup was the beginning of the Montpellier story not the end. Auckland, when it comes to transport, might not have a story at all. If nothing else, 2011 will for six weeks force Aucklanders out of their cars and expose them to public transport.

The tournament presents a gilt-edged chance to change ingrained behaviour, to show locals there are other, effective means of commuting in and out of the CBD.

Eden Park will host nine games, with North Harbour picking up three. Playing the semifinals on successive days, both at Eden Park, presents the organisers with the fiercest logistical challenge; how do they get 60,000 people to and from the ground for the first semifinal and then another 60,000 the following day?

"It will work, and it will work smoothly, and people will not have access difficulties," Snedden promises. "A lot of solutions can be put in place around the tournament but they are short term. What I don't know is the extent of the long-term solutions."

Integrated ticketing will be in operation at the World Cup, with anyone holding a match ticket able to ride free on buses or trains. The volume of available buses and trains will be pushed to the maximum - whatever it takes to get everyone in and out.

An estimated 200 coaches will bring in corporate patrons and package tours from around Auckland and other upper North Island cities - though there is no guarantee that there will be room to park them all within walking distance of the stadium.

Sandringham Rd will be closed to cars on match days.

But what will Auckland be left with when everyone has gone? Even before the British Lions tour of 2005 there were plans in place to build a big pedestrian bridge over Sandringham Rd to allow safe access and to increase the flow of passengers through Kingsland rail station.

There was also a proposal to build a dedicated walkway from Upper Queen St direct to the concourse at Eden Park. The idea was to emulate Wellington and build a quick means to bring foot traffic from the CBD to the ground.

Both ideas have been ditched. Instead, Sandringham Rd and its footpaths will be widened. This doesn't scream legacy. This leaves Auckland with a bigger headache: a larger stadium and no established infrastructure to support it. With a bridge and a walkway the issue would go away, long-term solutions would be in place for a long-term problem.

Mark Donnelly, an Auckland City Councillor and Eden Park Neighbours' Association president, says the long-term planning has been "a complete disaster".

Business operators in Kingsland and Eden Valley expected a major town centre upgrade, but that will not happen in time for the tournament.

"The area was originally told the power would be put underground, the streets would be improved and all the town centres would be upgraded. As a local community we don't envisage any great legacy out of this at all."

He'd like to see a walking-route developed from Dominion Rd to the park, with upgraded lighting and footpaths. "People will be going through Third-World footpaths to get to a brand new stadium," he says.

Yet Auckland Regional Transport Authority maintains trains will be able to move 15,000 people from Britomart to Kingsland station. A further 1400 will travel west from Morningside railway station. Other patrons will walk, preferably along Great North Rd and Sandringham Rd.

Rachael Dacy, from Auckland City Council, says work will be done to make sure routes between the airport and city are presented well and easy to navigate.

The airport will have a special welcome programme for teams and visitors, and signs from the airport to the city and other destinations will be upgraded. The new Manukau harbour bridge and upgrades to the motorway will be completed by 2011.

A new detailed traffic management plan for the finals will be of lasting value, when other big events come along.

"Arriving 10 minutes before and parking in surrounding streets will not be possible," she says.

"People will think differently and if they then have a good experience with walking or public transport they will then have a change in behaviour in future. That's been seen in major events around the world."

There will be a lasting legacy from projects, such as building a big team of volunteers, using the cup to push environmental initiatives such as recycling, and teaching school children about the cultures of visiting teams, she believes.

"We can only achieve a legacy if the tournament is a success. It doesn't matter how good your plans are about achieving long-term benefit if the event is a failure."

INTERNAL CONFLICT has hindered progress in making Auckland a welcoming destination for tourists, Martin Snedden intimates. The tournament's legacy could depend on a genuine, amicable unification. Indeed, regional co-ordination and unity could be a part of that legacy, all going well.

Already, Snedden sees great co-operation between regional and central government, airport and transport operators. All the major hotel chains have agreed to submit their bed inventory to a centralised accommodation database, so cup organisers can help match visitors to hotel rooms.

Rugby New Zealand 2011 is seeking two 2000-berth cruise liners that will first berth in Wellington and Christchurch for the quarter-finals, then ship up to the Viaduct for the final stages.

Several hundred people overseas have already booked through a registration website for campervans. Kate Meldrum, marketing manager for Tourism Holdings, which operates Maui, Britz and Backpacker campervans, expects to have her entire campervan fleet on the road during the cup.

And French rugby fans have already asked for 30 campervan sites at the Takapuna beach camping ground.

Marius Rothman, the ground's operator, says he is looking at ways to pack in as many campers in as possible, during what would be a busy time for the campsite anyway.

"We're looking forward to it," he says excitedly.

A camping ground may not provide the international business-standard hotel accommodation that older Northern Hemisphere visitors will demand, but this tournament will attract all sorts.

Some will drink wine, others will chug beer. Some will expect a plasma screen, bidet and iPod charger in their hotel rooms; others will sleep on the cheap.

Those at Rothman's camping ground will wake up to sweeping views across the harbour to Rangitoto, cook in a communal kitchen or on an outdoor barbecue, and keep up to date on rugby news through the campground internet kiosk.

But unless New Zealand can accommodate 60,000 to 70,000 visitors over six weeks, unless Auckland can accommodate 45,000 in the final two weeks, we can forget about a legacy. The first step is making the actual tournament work smoothly.

"We want 70,000 advocates for New Zealand when they go home," says Auckland Tourism chief executive Graeme Osborne.

"Word of mouth will make or break us from a destination legacy point of view. Our reputation legacy is vital."

Just as Paris found itself a place in the heart of Hamilton rugby fan Bill Heslop, so too Auckland needs to seduce its overseas visitors.